I was not sure about making a calendar for 2026. It is something I have been doing for almost ten years and each time I have seen it as an act of faith for the future – a promise for what will come. I imagine the calendar hung upon people’s walls filled with parties, holidays, dentist appointments, and visits from the plumber, representing the highs and lows of owner’s life throughout the coming year – the exciting and the day-to-day. It is these highs and lows of the future that I have always had faith in.
Right now though my faith in the future is less certain. Everything feels more shaky so I spent a long time thinking about whether I would produce a calendar or not for 2026.
I did come up with a few ideas: The skyline of London seen from its distant edges; the city at night; more seaside resorts. I took a few photographs for some of these and maybe one day you will see them. In the event, though, I could not plan any of them; I could not get past the present. The future, as I said, felt shaky.
So I didn’t do anything.
Until I was asked to do a short workshop on flower photography. As a result I began to look at flowers in more detail, and I recognised in them their brief but defiant moment of glory. I had found my subject for 2026. More practically I also discovered that I already had a back catalogue of flower photographs so most of the work was done!
The thing about flowers is that they live for now, only having a brief moment in the spotlight: all the subjects in the photographs for this calendar are long gone. But they also offer their own hope for the future: in their own time they will very likely reappear from the earth they grew in. And, when they do come back, they offer a defiant act of beauty, sometimes in the most inhospitable of environments.
In the end I turned to the humble flower in these uncertain times and I present to you my calendar for 2026.
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