Harold A. Taylor, an English-born photographer who moved to California in 1896 at the age of eighteen, was known for documenting Yosemite, Spanish missions and early aerial views. Flowers were his particular passion. He worked with autochromes, an early colour photographic process, and often photographed cut flowers indoors against dark backgrounds, lit like formal portraits. The result is painterly and solemn, with deep indigo and vermilion tones that appear more intense than in nature. Taylor also founded the Coronado Floral Association with his wife Maud, which helped start the Coronado Flower Show in 1922. That event, held in the small San Diego Bay resort town, later grew into one of the largest tented flower shows in the United States. The images show how colour photography was used to argue that flowers deserve serious artistic attention.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.