About us I laid down the basis of today’s archive in the early 80s. At that time I was photographing plants and flowers and at the same time teaching photography at the adult university in Hamburg. The annual work supporting a friend during the lavender harvest in the fields of Provence in the South of France brought both inspiration and a sensuous desire for a more profound occupation with the natural and the botanical world. The present name of the archive dates from those days and has been retained for nostalgic reasons. My private macro experiments, nature and biotope studies soon found
a broad acceptance so I decided in the 90s, after a first success in
a variety of publications, to open the archive and to make my fund of
pictorial material from private research and botanical excursions accessible
to a broader public. With my entry in the BVPA (Federal association of
press agencies and picture libraries in Germany) in 1995 Lavendelfoto
launched into a further phase of internal and external growth. The authors of Lavendelfoto today hold a wide variety of qualifications. We have specialists in the area of botanical mapping or in the field of nature and environmental protection; therapists with Bach Flowers, perfume- and aroma plants; gardeners and garden-architects; scientists from the botanical institutes of various universities and scouts and leaders of nature excursions and safaris and many other botanical activities. We are thankful that all their activities have contributed in a certain way to the high scientific standard of the pictorial material in our archive and data-base as it presents itself today.
In December 2001 our data-base was first published as an online-catalogue
linked with various search engines. Ever since then we have been working
on the improvement of our digital offer which enables you to pursue your
own research on our website. Whatever the reason for your research on our website may be, we are happy to welcome you to our online data-base. Cordially yours Gerhard Höfer
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