Odd-looking elephants indeed! This clumsy lumpish silhouette is part of a surprising photographic bestiary put together by an equally astonishing artist: professional botanist and amateur photographer Muriel Hazan. Her scientific curiosity has led her to a series of fabulous encounters in landscapes ranging from semi-desert to tropical rainforest. Her scientific goal is to gain a better understanding of the different strategies that allow plants to live and reproduce. Yes, these “elephants” are really plants. More precisely, they are capsules on a Hamamelis shrub, sometimes known as “witch-hazel” because its branches were often used to make divining rods to find water. But there’s no witchcraft in Muriel Hazan’s photography, just a desire “to show the plant world in a different light” in a bid to make people more aware of its diversity, fragility and grace.