Weekend confessionals - raw imagery

Lockdown diaries / keeping sane in the time of COVID


OK so believe me when I say THESE ARE NOT the finished article, they are a work in progress and proof of a ‘breakthrough’ (small gains)


I’m not the kind of person to share something until the journey is complete and you can look back and reflect, order the highs and lows and make sense of the process but here I find myself sharing this work in its raw form for the reason that I am relieved to ACTUALLY SEE SOMETHING


It’s been weird and strange not photographing clients and so to keep my sanity I started photographing my daily walk. I dug out my Hasselblad and loaded it with film, I made a photo diary of developing + re acquainting myself with a process I hadn’t touched in years and then I hit a wall. My scanner didn’t scan 120 negs, I couldn’t ‘see’ what I was shooting, I felt blind. Unsure my light meter, camera, self was working. I’m a problem solver but I was stumped. I sat on the problem searching for a solution wanting desperately to see.
Tonight after trying, frustratedly giving up, talking to one of my oldest friends and then trying again I FINALLY SAW SOMETHING!


My film negs taped to my window shot on my phone, twisted in some weird app I see the community I have been capturing, the souls who have tirelessly worked to keep life going.
The teachers at the local primary school preparing for two year groups to return
Wendy from Porters who has worked relentlessly throughout
Judith a student of mine who has made scrubs for the local hospital
Simon who turned a tea room into a general store for his village + many more + One day I’ll see them all

Friday Afternoon Confessionals.....

Two weeks ago I landed in Boston, One week ago I landed back in London, when things move rapidly, all we can do is hang on and try our best to navigate the ride!

This afternoon as I write this, looking out at the sunshine, blue sky and peacefulness, I am 100% sure everyone everywhere is still feeling the surreal-ness of the situations we are adjusting to - I’m not going to harness that, instead I’m sharing my trip back to Maine, the walks I took in nature + the portraits at a distance I created + a couple of shots from my phone of the amazing colours I’m seeing on my daily walks x

So Maine, my spiritual haven, hmmm perhaps better to say my photographic haven where the photo magic first happened. A workshop back at my old school with my fabulous professor learning carbon transfer printing.

All the info I had read ahead of class told me just how tricky it was - AND IT IS!! BUT it was also really wonderful to be connecting with the photographic process and craft back in the dark room after quite a long time away. I used one of my images of one of my brides + for a first attempt it has encouraged me to experiment further when the time is right and to take this process and see where it takes me…….

This trip also enabled me to get back in to deep nature and embrace the sea air and sunsets!!! The light has always been magical in Maine and now home on my evening walks I am also seeing slithers of it here too :-)

I also had EVERY INTENTION of continuing my International Women’s Day project photographing friends and I people I knew with the theme ‘friendship’ . With lock down swift in America I respectfully kept my distance from the two ladies I had the opportunity to photograph and above is ‘Pam’ my airbnb host. When I return I’ll photograph the others I didn’t catch on this trip :-) but it was great to even capture these!!

And so to home. Just on my iphone but maybe I’m being more vigilant, a bit more aware of my surroundings but I am loving the colours that are appearing in the evenings, soft tones and hues, pastels and patches of light highlighting the landscape that would in the past not necessarily caught my attention…..maybe I brought a bit of the magic back with me…stay safe + healthy everyone!! xx

International Women's Day 2020

Celebrating ‘Friendship’

March 2020

I couldn’t let this year pass without celebrating - every year I capture portraits of women which then become an exhibition with the idea of inspiring younger generations.

This year the arts project in Croydon is taking a break + I thought it would be great to do something a little more casual with the end results being shared online during the day of International Women’s Day. I set about thinking of friends who work in central London so I could be in one spot and it wouldn’t be too tricky for them to come to me with the theme ‘friendship’ + ask them for their own interpretation, feeling, word, colour - whatever it was that resonates with them.

  • so Friday 6th these gorgeous ladies below swung by for chatter, tea, pictures + let me take their photo.

I also had in my mind that I’m trying something new….challenging myself + stepping out of my comfort zone to shoot in a different way, to step back slightly, to allow the images to sit together, to continue for the month of March, to include portraits where the sitter isn’t smiling - I CANNOT even BEGIN to tell you HOW HARD that was!!! + produce a lovely project + as it turned out, was a very poignant theme.

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Above a screen shot of my final selection of images, Below the final cut (or so I thought!)

I loved how everyone’s response was very different.

I wanted to bring people together with this project, to share their individual interpretation of “friendship” + to create portraits where I challenged myself in the image making. I am really good at getting right up close to people and in to their space to capture their essence + to be honest this has turned in to a process of challenging normality for me, for sitting on my own hands when I wanted to move in closer or select the happiest photo in the selection + publish on socials only my finely curated selection of happy.

What transpired was me forcing myself to choose images I loved but were perhaps a little more sullen than my usual work. Not soley to challenge myself but to look at the images with a different perspective, a different vantage point. That in itself challenged me to let go and reconnect to being happy with the images myself, whichever ones I chose + trusting the ‘process’.

It’s also been about a conversation Tanya and I had about the viewers experience and ‘seeing’ as the artist or photographer was at the precise moment in time and layering on top of that what we bring in the form of our own interpretation/feelings/emotions/life events to any art at any given moment.

My normal way of working is interacting, observing, creating ease between me, my camera and my sitter, recording just the right representation that I see in any given moment that I feel is an accurate representation of them - on Friday, I stepped back, I deliberately created space to see if it impacted the images I created, if it brought something else forward. So a project based on friendship and exploring how we see.

It’s interesting that looking through the selected images of each of my friends , the versatility of their emotions and our conversation serves as a great mixture to capture slightly different feelings in each picture + the selections below are to appease my controlling mind and show the fun we had!! :-) They also work really nicely as a set of images.

I’m continuing this project and excited to capture more friends through March - over on instagram you can also hear everyone’s interpretation of ‘friendship’ . Have a fab March + enjoy x

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Friday night confessional - Wedding Vibes!!

A lovely Hampshire Wedding…..

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This morning I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding ceremony of a lovely friend of mine + his gorgeous bride in Hampshire! Such a treat + such a gorgeous blast of colour!! I’m super excited to go through and edit all the images but just wanted to share these two that jumped out at me immediately :-)

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Also this week I wandered on down to The Goring Hotel in London (the most amazing corner of peaceful London) + caught up with an awesome friend just in town for a few days. The service and vibe here is amazing + I’ll definitely be popping back!!!

It’s been a great week of variety as yesterday I also captured the moment PPF in Croydon presented MIND Croydon with a cheque for £10,000 + this was so special to hear about all the fundraising and hard work that had gone in to raising the money and where it will be utilised.

PPF presenting MIND Croydon

PPF presenting MIND Croydon

Phew well as Friday draws to a close, I’m loving these Friday Night Confessionals and am gearing up for the weekend, have a great one! xx

Before I was a photographer.....I was.......

Lisbon, October 2018

This video just popped into my life yesterday - I work with an awesome vacation photography company called ‘Flytographer’ + during our ‘meet up’ in October last year we made this wonderful video about what we did before we were photographers + what it means to be a photographer! So neat! Enjoy xx

YES! Mother & Daughter time!

Becomes even more important when you live at other ends of the country!

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This image pretty much SUMS UP our photo session - SO MUCH FUN & SO MUCH Laughter!!!

These ladies were so great to photograph and we got to wander around Kensington Gardens (which is one of my favourite places in London). So fantastic to create memories and so much laughter and fun

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Thank you so much xx "Just had my first look at our photographs. Love them. So very pleased with them. You are a great photographer xxxxxxx" Kathy Tallentire

For working on those frosty, sunny, gorgeous days

 DJ ALEX CUDEYO

DJ Alex Cudeyo has been my fav DJ for a while now and there are some of his sessions on YouTube I play over + over + over and today I have this one on (link above) + it's totally making me smile whilst I catch up, get ready for next week (+ do a few chores) so I suddenly thought it would be fun to share! 
Crank it up HIGH + boogie about :-)  ** Have a FAB Saturday xx