Botanical Photography: The Basics and Moving Beyond the Basics: Jennifer Latour

Botanical Photography: The Basics and Moving Beyond the Basics: Jennifer Latour by Emily LauxOctober 1, 2026

©Jennifer Latour

Jennifer Latour’s Bound Species project is an arresting series of otherworldly minimalist floral assemblages. Each floral stem contains multiple species of floral blooms, each a different shape and color. Made entirely by hand, they are sculptures that both delight and confound the viewer.

I found myself seduced by the playful weirdness of these inter-species blooms, and how they made me think about the much more serious question of the human role in the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

Jennifer started the series in 2020 during the pandemic lockdown inspired by a recurring dream of an enormous flower stem with multiple blooms. She sourced the flowers from the local market and began creating arrangements. Experimenting with various ways to have her dream-flowers stand on their own, Jennfer tried sticking them in bases made of various materials including bread and, at one point, gummy bears. Her early Bound Species images were made at home, using studio-style backdrops, but when the lockdown restrictions were lifted, Jennifer began working outdoors. Her newest work is site-specific, and includes short videos of the creations in their locations, often swaying in the wind.

Jennifer grew up as an only child in Sept-Iles, Quebec, a shipping town. Jennifer says her childhood there gave her an active and fertile imagination, and also “an innate resourcefulness” that underpins her creative process in both her photography and her career as a special effects makeup artist.

©Jennifer Latour

Bound Species was created during the pandemic lockdown in 2020, inspired by a recurring dream of a giant flower that had multiple different blooms growing out of each stem. Drawn equally to minimalism and rich color, I began to play with individual flowers, photographing them in different settings. Eventually I landed on what I call this “freakebana” still life, with the multiple species bound to one stem. Each piece is made by hand, often using techniques I learned as a special effects artist. This series represents the interconnectedness found in nature and serves as a reminder that all creatures are bound simultaneously by both their similarities and their differences.

©Jennifer Latour

A native of Quebec, Jennifer Latour lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is trained in special effects make-up for film and television, and continues to work in this field, working on productions, most recently The Last of Us. Jennifer is a self-taught photographer who began taking photos twenty years ago. During the pandemic, she spent most of her time on photography, creating her now well-known series of botanical images, Species. Her love of cinema, sculpture, and character design permeates all of her photography work.

Instagram: @bonjourlatour