With Mother’s Day right around the corner, the timing seems perfect to launch our new stationery collection in collaboration with Claiborne Swanson Frank. What a privilege it has been working with Claiborne, a celebrated photographer and author of three beautiful books that feature collections of her portraits. In the Spring of 2021, she released her first fine art series of modern botanicals that were captured during the quiet of quarantine. Bathed in natural light, the ethereal botanical portraits featured in Claiborne’s Flowers series take center stage in our new collection of stationery.

Connecticut-based Claiborne began her career working under Anna Wintour at Vogue and then went on to pursue portrait photography on her own, which led to her debut book, American Beauty in 2012, followed by Young Hollywood in 2014, and Mother and Child in 2018. When the pandemic’s isolating times hit, Claiborne had to look to nature for her camera’s subject matter, which was the catalyst for her Flowers series released in 2021. This series featured stills of various flower geniuses all shot in the afternoon light of her breakfast nook or dining room.

We have included below a Q&A with Claiborne about our collaboration as well as a peek at some of the notecards from the collection. You can shop the entire Collection here.

What was the process like in narrowing down the images from your Flower Series for this collaboration?

It was easy! I picked my very favorites from my “Flower Series.” I wanted my notecard collection to be a mix of floral portraits in a kaleidoscope of colors with pink as the core color (which felt fitting as the collection launch is for Mothers Day.)

You shot some new flower stills for Dogwood Hill to be able to use for this project…which images are the new ones and how did you choose which new flowers you wanted to shoot for the collaboration?

I decided to add a few new floral portraits that I created specifically for this collaboration. The new portraits I included are the pale pink poppy, the deep pink sweet pea, and the white and red anemone. I always wanted to shoot a pale pink poppy and a brighter sweet pea. The selection of the flowers always happens organically and depends on what is in season and what I am gravitating to … which for this collection seems to be pink!

With the new stationery now added to the line of products featuring your photography, what value or sentiment do you find in handwritten notes during an age of digital communication?

To be honest I love it all. I love digital notes like HiNOTE, and I also love a handwritten note …

As an artist, I always wanted to share my flower series with a larger audience and envisioned the series one day being available to buy as a set of notecards alongside the fine art prints. These sweet notecards bring my flower series to life in a personal way. I love that you can buy the collection blank or personalize it with your name or monogram. I have loved collaborating with Dogwood Hill and their amazing team. It was such a wonderful experience and dream to see this all come to life.

Do you have a favorite shot from your flowers series?

Not really …  I have favorites for sure, but not one favorite. I love them all in unique ways.

Do you have any new projects brewing at the moment?

Yes!! I am starting to work on my 4th book to be released by Assouline in Spring 2025.