SINCE the 1960s the great American photographer Joel Meyerowitz has been cultivating a garden in his pictures. He has walked the streets of New York, Paris, Venice, ventured to England and Spain and further afield, in search of images that in time could be tied together by his eye for “wild flowers”; a garden, a nosegay, a buttonhole, yes, but also a bouquet in the window of a caravan, a pattern on a dress or on a curtain or in a tattoo. A pursuit, in short, for a floral expression in a world of steel, brick and glass.

In doing so, he is reflecting the colour and perfume of our lives. Through his lens Meyerowitz wants to capture life’s moments; moments, he says, that, like flowers, “bloom and fade”.

Joel Meyerowitz'sWild Flowers, with an introduction by Maggie Barrett, is published by Damiani in hardback at £45. Visit damianieditore.com for details. Photograph © Joel Meyerowitz