On an unseasonably warm October day in the Hudson Valley, Ariel Dearie—a florist whose arrangements and installations have graced campaigns for Loewe, Michael Kors, and Bvlgari, as well as the halls of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and a Sofia Coppola movie—trooped with photographer Stephen Shore around Rhinebeck, New York, where the two happen to live some 10 minutes apart. (Another neighbor is Annie Leibovitz, with whom Dearie has worked more than once—including on an elaborate, flora-inspired sword for Leibovitz’s induction into the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris last March. After wandering through Leibovitz’s sprawling property, collecting branches and mushrooms from its trails, Dearie transformed her gatherings into the exquisite copper heirloom, inspired by the work of French sculptor Claude Lalanne.)
The goal for Dearie and Shore’s…
