To immerse oneself in a century of photography and gather heroic snapshots in which the flower becomes an object of power and self-assertion—what better way to celebrate a double anniversary (the centenary of the perfumery of Grasse and the bicentenary of photography) while honoring both women and flowers? Carried forward, elevated, and developed by the great-granddaughters of its founder, the house of Fragonard has embraced a distinctly feminine identity for over 30 years, with discretion and humility. We know it, and current events remind us daily: gender equality and respect for the so-called “weaker” sex remain fragile. Let us take this double anniversary as an opportunity to cast a floral light on photographic icons and question their symbolic value.
In his 1961 essay The Photographic Message, Roland Barthes discusses the paradox of this medium. At first glance, photography seems to deliver an objective message, akin to tangible reality; yet, upon closer analysis, it reveals numerous secondary meanings and interpretive biases. The semiologist refers to this as the “photographic paradox,” pointing to coded messages and hidden meanings within an image, even a documentary one. Floral decoration carries within it a similar paradox. From the innocence and aesthetic typically associated with it, we can extract an alternative interpretation. The flower produces a message that, in turn, codes the photograph itself. Who’s Afraid of Flowers? offers a joyful and colorful journey, as we cherish at Fragonard, yet one that is also engaged and militant. It is an unusual reinterpretation of the floral attribute. What if the flowers worn by women were in fact their “weapons”—tools that allow them to assert themselves, convey messages, and oppose gentleness and fragility to brutality and violence?
