Friday Friday FRIYAY

The Face exhibition at the Natuonal Portrait gallery

A spicey margarita at a roof top bar in London, a walk along the strand, pina colada in hand, ART at the NPG…perfect Friday!

Of the 5 of us who did art this evening, 3 of us work in the creative industries and 2 of us worked at Exmouth House on the corner of Exmouth Market, home of The Face Magazine, Arena and Arena Homme +.

Nostalgia bubbled to the surface as we soaked up the exhibition - the vibrant page layouts, typography, photography and remembered what felt like a ‘golden era’. The 1990s - wasn’t 1950 a golden era? Well, seems like we all feel a bit nostalgic for the ‘90s - the culture, fashion, music, lived experience and fun!!! The excitement, individual style, feeling of something new about to blossom.

I’ll be going back to see the exhibition again and sit amongst the coloured walls of the exhibition each FULL of rich creativity and soak up that feeling of inspiration - i’m also going back to buy this book ⏬️

Island time....WFH

Working from a HOT destination x

view looking out over a pool with a pontoon in the distance

Sipping coffee, blue sky, warm air…….writing emails, pondering

3 movies watched on the flight

‘Lee’ The story of Lee Miller’ ***** absolutely incredible, I studied her work at photo school and recently visited Farley House ahead of seeing the film. For me it’s a fantastic portrayal of her life and incredibly moving too

‘Wolfs’ LOL Brad Pitt & George Clooney ***** a tonic!

‘Conclave’ ***** WOW!

Flight time yesterday was a movie catch up and I am OKAY with that! I also started watching ‘Anora’ and look forward to finishing it on the return journey :-)

Phew…okay….what am I doing here….all will be revealed…

Monday morning confessionals..

Magical morning walks….

For the last few days I’ve been hiking for a couple of hours as the day begins and the birds are singing their hearts out.

It’s so joyful.

It’s nearly 5 years since I read ‘The Nature Fix’ by Florence Williams. Little did I know when I picked this out at Boston Airport March 18th, 2020 - just how much it would shape and frame the months that followed.

It’s a wonderful book if you haven’t read it, detailing studies around the world on the benefit of time in nature - I recommend it to everyone!

It’s easy to get into something and then step away for a moment only for that moment to become much longer than one intended. I’ve missed walking every day and starting my day walking 5 or 6 miles before the world wakes up.

I’d replaced it with hot yoga or swimming but increasingly I’ve really missed the fresh air you just don’t get in a chlorinated pool lol and so, bundling up against the morning chill i’ve been stepping out. Ordering the day + my thoughts.

Wherever you might be this week, I hope you take a moment to tune in to the dawn chorus, the crisp air or the sun on your cheeks x

Discovering old gems

That twilight time, reorganising work or boxes or offices when there's no real rush and you can enjoy finding pictures you took 20 years ago…..in film…..printed in a darkroom…on photo paper…..lol utter bliss creating and curating this project…I mean it was stressful at the time lol BUT I had that feeling in my abdomen that it was just so Or just right and kept being hit by fizzes of inspiration on how the images could sit together - or not - + doing every single part of this process was magical and it enabled meticulous crafting of the materials.

Loading the film, actually choosing which camera aesthetic would suit, which film to load, all the locations, all the elements of the ‘story’ or narrative. The decisions on processing times, paper to print on, chemicals used in printing, size and scale. Mounting, cutting the windows in the board, carefully attaching archival tape to secure them, sequencing the set, framing and displaying….photography is always a series of decisions. It’s always a process and that’s where the magic lies…..

A pre Xmas treat

I've had my eye on this place for ages and finally after my last photo session before Xmas this morning (+a last minute grab of festive gifts)…I landed here.

I'm in heaven. Not quite ready to reflect upon the year but ready to hibernate for family time, peace + fresh air.

I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a beautiful Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Friday Night Confessionals.....it's been a while...

Soooo, I did a thing,

Writing this from a hotel in Brighton, the night before a wedding I’m photographing, I’m on catch up and wanted to share the week, I’ve missed doing this and I hope it continues, fingers x’d!

So, the masters, it’s been going on for a while and aged me more than anything else I’ve ever done!

For the last 2 years I’ve been working on a MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Photography, it’s a qualification I have wanted to work towards since I completed formal photography training on the certificate programme in America and as we came out of lockdowns in 2021 I became a little more serious about achieving it. Fast forward 2 years and here we are, my foiled certificate arrived this week and it became ‘real’.

Around a month before we finished I FINALLY felt I was drawing all my threads of research together and so the plan now, after the summer, is to dig in, continue the project and fine tune the prototypes and iterations I have started!!

Photograph certificate

Wednesday evening

Highgate Pergola - Emily & Stuart rocked their engagement pictures!!!

I’ve been missing my morning walks and Tuesday showered me with a gift of a walk - it was so joyful, out the door by 7am, 2 hours of bird song and fresh air was THE BEST start to the day!!

Here we are in Brighton, urban art everywhere + I’m snapping like crazy the ever changing landscape of the graphic art in the Lanes!!!

Sunday morning confessionals

I can’t believe this time last week I was a bag of nerves preparing to hang my photo show at The Allen Gallery.

I’d been to a hot yoga class to help find some calm/grounding/balance + it worked but I was also a mixture of excitement to be displaying images in a different way (tacked to the walls) + nervous as to how it would look and be received.

A week on and its been pretty intense. The volunteers at the gallery, Mick and Josie were soooo helpful and encouraging and Tony gave the seal of approval when it was all in place and between them they were such a tonic :-).

International Women’s Day 2023

Celebrating International Women’s Day, 2023

 What’s your ‘Wish or Hope’ for the future? 

This photography project began with Ivy, then 5, in 2021. I was curious at that time to understand what people were thinking and I loved the idea of using audio and visual references to record each sitter's response. The project lay dormant until last year when I picked it up again as part of my masters programme and began asking girls and women in our community if they’d like to participate. 

Photographing in the garden at The Allen Gallery (which is beautiful) and around Alton, it was my vision to create a variety of images, at differing distances from each sitter with a mixture of quiet moments, reflections and laughter in order to begin building a collective visual.

 

I am incredibly grateful to all the sitters who shared their time and stories with me, it has highlighted just how much of a rich tapestry of inspiring, creative, generous and kind women we are surrounded by here in Alton.



Friday night confessionals…..

So happy to share this cute surprise proposal! Soft tones of beach time in late August/early September in Dorset

There were SO many special, thoughtful touches in the lead up to this moment - I've known Danni and Mark for a couple years, and so when March asked me to photograph this moment I was smiling from ear to ear and so excited! Although keeping it a secret from our friendship group was tough!!!

Danni has special childhood memories of Dorset and her favourite place to be is right here on Portland so it was Marks first choice when deciding where to pop the question and get down on one knee.

The weather was perfect, it was also Dannis birthday and I was hiding behind rocks to avoid being seen!

Tuesday morning reflections

The joy in the morning walk, time spent in nature and new magical discoveries

Gosh what a few sunny autumn days it’s been, back at luscious long morning walks, research visits to Wisley + 3 exhibitions at The Victoria & Albert Museum!!

This summer…….

September has rolled around and autumn is nipping slightly at the days beginnings and ends, whilst the glow of August lingers a little.

I gleefully always seem to be on catch up, on the back foot when it comes to sharing and posting photo work and jobs and berating myself for not posting in a timely manner or at all.

Its not that i dont want to, often i am caught between waiting for clients to post first then i share OR another reality which happened last night. I got home from a fabulous full days shoot, downloaded my images, checked them over, imported them to Lightroom and fell into bed. Knowing I had to drive 3 hours to a glorious destination today for a photo session tomorrow.

I'd love to pretend I have all these people, all these teams doing all the things that ensure smooth sailing of a small business but it's not, it's all me and if I'm knackered and dribbling then it's best I step away from a screen, put myself to bed and gear up for the next day. I'm certain you understand and it really helps saying it out loud.

So a snippet, shared from the gram of a recent epic 2.5 hour session in London with wonderful Lisa Berkovitz. Finding the light, the joy and the moments, laughter, positivity and connection….more on the gram, or here or both. Here's to a happy September x

Still....here!!! :-)

I finally discovered that my Mac operating system isn’t supporting square space anymore and that’s the reason I haven’t been able to see my images and so post anything…..I have circumnavigated the problem and things will change!! More images incoming :-)

When film processing…..

goes wrong, get’s caught BUT produces some interesting effects.

As an interim measure I’m sharing this fail of film photography which I actually feel is quite beautiful despite being chewed up through the processing machine!!

So as I leave you with this………know they’ll be more posts and updates coming sooN! HURRAH

Happy Summer Solstice everyone xx

October.......whizzed through....

Blinked…missed it lol October that is, nothing else!!

Thrilled to share here a few snippets from client work this month!!