JG Bryce took these incredible photographs at the 20th World Orchid Conference, aka “The Orchid Olympics” that took place in Singapore last November. Bryce’s photos illustrate a feature at Smithsonian about the competition. From Smithsonian:
Members of a South African orchid society, disappointed that international trade regulations had denied them permission to bring real animal parts or live birds, huffily constructed a jungle display with fake leopards, rhino horns and elephant tusks.
Justin Tkatchenko, from the Orchid Society of Papua New Guinea, was adding finishing touches to a display that included gigantic carved masks and a bird made of orchids. “We are aiming to be the best in the world. This will be the most photographed display in the whole show,” he said.
Orchids may be the most diverse flower family in the world, with more than 25,000 species. (Their only competition comes from daisies.) The orchid family maintains such diversity in the wild in part because individual orchid species summon only specific pollinators; the flowers thus avoid mingling their genes with those of other nearby orchids that are visited by their own pollinators. But most of the 50,000 orchids from 5,000 varieties on display at the conference do not occur in the wild; they are hybrids, created by people who have cross-fertilized orchid species, often from far-flung lands.
“The Orchid Olympics” (Smithsonian)
More about Bryce’s approach to the assignment in “Objects of Desire” (Smithosnian)