Artist Debi Shapiro creates dreamy imagery inspired by her two passions-photography and flowers. Her painterly floral portraits of single blooms to lavish bouquets captivate with their depth and luminosity. Debi's work will blow your mind away in ways you cannot even imagine.
Debi Shapiro - Capturing the Exquisite Brilliance in Flowers
After studying photography and fabric design at Syracuse University, Shapiro started working with a close friend doing fashion and beauty photography in New York City. It was at this moment she was introduced to flowers, picking them at a wholesale market for a massive table arrangement for a client for special lunches. Debi is a Long Island, New York-based botanical photographer whose dreamlike images are influenced by her two life loves — photography and flowers. Her richly colored, opulent bouquets and single-bloom paintings of flowers are reminiscent of oil paintings.
The photographer is drawn to the intimacy of shooting botanicals, a more personal process than her time capturing fashion in film. It’s just her and the flower — there are no makeup artists, wind machines, or hair to worry about, just petals. Every flower is transformed into a starring lady by Debi's efforts. Truly, her ability to photograph such detailed portraits of flowers makes her one of the most talented many have seen so far.
Through her Instagram account @debishapirophotography, she shares thousands of flower portraits that'll make you want to have all of them in that instant. There is no beauty more beautiful and stunning than that of flowers.
The Starting Point of a Devotion to Flower Photography
Every flower is unique and its beauty fleeting; Debi Shapiro's vision as an artist is to capture its exquisite brilliance and preserve that moment in time forever. Debi remembers her love affair with flowers and photography started at an early age.
After studying fabric design and photography at Syracuse University, she immediately began work with a fabulous fashion and beauty photographer. She remembers collaborating with them for over three decades on photo shoots around the world where Debi developed a very keen eye for attention to the smallest detail.
Inspired and fascinated by the 17th-century floral still life paintings of the Dutch Masters to the oversized flowers of Georgia O’Keeffe, the photographer has completely immersed herself in the art of floral photography. With every floral portrait she creates, the artist has come to realize that life is a journey of transformation and fleeting moments from bud to delicate decay.
Debi Shapiro’s Flower Passion Portrayed Through a Lens
Debi Shapiro's favorite moment every day is grabbing her camera, going to her studio, and letting hours pass and pass as she photographs her favorite shape in the world: the ones of flowers. When Shapiro is focused on her work, the process is a period of adoration. She sits in her studio and watches the changes that happen to the flowers. She looks at it from every angle, moving her body or the flower to take in every inch of the blooms, the stems, and the branches. This intense process allows the flower petals to open as she shoots — from frame to frame, the flower evolves and has the possibility of looking completely different from one image to the next.
At the end of each shoot, she thanks every flower for letting her take its picture and for its beauty and shares with her followers:
“I always say, ‘You are going to live on forever, thank you so much. Sometimes at the end is when they are the most beautiful.”
For Debi, even when stomped and trampled on, flowers grow, trusting their inner beauty and resilience, which is why their appearance in her pictures is so incredibly spectacular and even hard to believe they're real flowers. One of the most determining factors in her photography work is the meaning of detail. Debi takes the details in every flower and shot as one of the most important features which all end up expressing and portraying her passion for both photography and flowers. These two make the ultimate artistic duo. The photographer likes to think we can all be both fragile and fortified. Her images are tenuous but detailed and show the complexity as well as the beauty of nature.
Video: Chairish
'Beauty in Bloom' - Her Newest Book
Debi Shapiro's debut collection of work, Beauty in Bloom, features beautiful imagery inspired by her two passions: flowers and photography. This exquisite book contains over 200 floral portraits that capture the depth and luminosity of a single bloom as well as lush bouquets with intimacy and vibrancy. Every petal, tender green stem, and grain of pollen shines with detail reminiscent of the great botanical artists and engravers of the eighteenth century. From the bold crimson beauty of an Oriental poppy to the seductive lure of a pink Protea peeking out from behind thick foliage to the classic charm of a garden rose, it's a flower lover's paradise. Debi's work truly transforms every flower into a blooming lady. Her book was released in October 2023 and is available to shop through Debi Shapiro's website.
Debi says:
"The book isn’t there to teach you how to take pictures, it’s more there to teach your eye how to look at nature and see the beauty that surrounds you."
Debi's photos are designed to restore relationships through flowers and have affections and love rebloom. Ready to go crazy for flowers even more?
