Perhaps as a diversion from photographing people, de Meyer, in about 1906, took a series of flower studies. Kasebier and Steichen, struck by their beauty, collected some prints for themselves, and these were also admired by Stieglitz. Soon a de Meyer exhibition was mounted at the Photo-Secession Galleries that included several of the flower pieces; among them was Water Lilies, a composition that with its off-center bowl focuses attention on the reflected petals and other refracted shapes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Spring 1978