Celine Marchbank, Tulip: My Mother’s Favourite Flower, book review

My Mother's favourite flower

In September 2009 Celine Marchbank’s mother, Sue Miles, was diagnosed with lung cancer and a brain tumour.

Says Marchbank: “While I was trying to come to terms with the fact she was dying, I decided I wanted, or maybe needed, to document the time she had left.

"I didn’t want to create a graphic portrayal of her death, it would have been impossible and wrong to focus only on the dying part, but rather I wanted to photograph our last months together.” Tulip is the result.

“I looked at the things that made her uniquely her, the details in her house I thought I knew so well, the things that would also be gone when she was.

“Her love of flowers was a beautiful part of her personality; the house was always full of them, and as I photographed them I realised they were symbolic of what was happening – they represented happiness, love, kindness and generosity, but also isolation, decay, and finally death.”

Marchbank is a documentary photographer specialising in British based stories, fascinated by the everyday details of life.

Tulip is her first book. Based in London, she spends her time between personal documentary projects, exhibiting work regularly, and undertaking commercial and editorial work. She has exhibited widely throughout the UK.

Tulip: My Mother’s Favourite Flower, by Celine Marchbank. Dewi Lewis Publishing £35