How Wael Abed's 'Botanica Magica' Captures the Secret Lives of Plants

Just outside the hustle of Cairo, Mazhar Botanic Garden sits quietly on the outskirts of Giza. Originally established in the 1950s by Abdel Wahab Mazhar, it has since become a carefully preserved garden and sanctuary of native and rare plants, drawing landscape designers, researchers, and conservationists committed to preserving Egypt’s flora.

It’s also where photographer Wael Abed returned again and again for eight months, camera in hand, to capture the garden. But rather than focus on the garden as a backdrop, he turned the garden's inhabitants into his subjects.

“As a photographer, my lifetime work has been to inspire people and to generate interest in preserving nature and heritage,” Abed tells CairoScene. "I fell in love with Mazhar Botanic Garden and wanted to show my appreciation for the work done there by documenting the beauty that exists."

With Botanica Magica, he does exactly that. Shot in tight macro, the photographs are reframed. Rather than move into romanticism, Abed allowed nature to tell its story. Leaves curl. Petals split. Surfaces decay or surprise.

With Botanica Magica, he does exactly that. Shot in tight macro, the photographs are reframed. Rather than move into romanticism, Abed allowed nature to tell its story. Leaves curl. Petals split. Surfaces decay or surprise.

“I witnessed the whole lifecycle of flowers and leaves, and found beauty in every stage, even in decay,” Abed says. That approach reminded him of wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy that embraces the serenity of imperfection and impermanence.

The images aren’t arranged by species or colour. They follow nature's instinct. “I didn’t want a typical or staged presentation,” he says. “I wanted to arrange the photos in a way that replicates the organic disarray of a real garden, where each flower, leaf or shrub has its own unique place and identity."

Originally exhibited in the garden itself, Botanica Magica now travels to the North Coast, on view at Villa Agiba from July 24th through September 7th.

Abed’s photographs suggest that plants, like us, have their secret lives. And if we take the time to study them, like Abed, we might find aspects of our own hidden lives within them. With an anthropomorphic touch, his latest exhibit humanises nature by tuning into its unheard conversations of nature - conversations that you may just be able to hear if you lean closely enough.