I am a London-based writer and process-led visual artist practicing photography, printmaking, bookmaking, filmmaking and collage. I am particularly interested in the intersection between photography and printmaking, focusing on experimental analogue and alternative photographic processes, exploring how hand printing and materiality enhance the narratives I strive to tell about the relationship between people and their natural environment. Identity, memory, interiority, and the role place plays in forming all three are themes that run through all of my work.
I studied English, completing a BA in Santa Barbara, California, and an MA in Sydney, Australia. I taught creative writing and modern British literature at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, and later served as a contributing editor to Surface magazine, covering art, design and fashion. My first novel, Not the Only Sky, a coming-of-age story about a photographer, was published by Black and White in 2017.
My photography has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art London and the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair and published in Art Maze Mag, Aeonian Magazine, Another Earth’s What Makes a Lake? Tracing Movement and Fresh Eyes, an anthology of emerging artists published by GUP magazine. My recently released handmade artist book, The Lake, was stocked by The Photographer’s Gallery, Setanta Books, Le Plac’Art Photo and Tipi Bookshop. The prototype for my upcoming artist book, Hosta, was exhibited at Le Plac’Art Photo, Paris (October 9 - November 10, 2024).
STUDIO
I live and work in East London.
PRINTMAKING
Printmaking has been a core part of my practice for 25 years. I practice etching, drypoint, collagraph, monotype, screen printing and litho transfer.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography has grown into my primary practice. While digital processes are integral to realising my images, the majority of my work is created using analogue means. I shoot both black and white and colour film in every format, from 35 mm to large format (8 x 10). I use a selection of handmade pinhole cameras as well as pinholes fitted into the body caps of old cameras. Recently I’ve started experimenting with 16 mm, 35 mm and Super 8 filmmaking.
I’m an avid darkroom printer, and when possible, develop my own film. In addition to making traditional silver gelatin prints, I experiment with a variety of alternative photographic techniques such as toning, salt printing, bleaching, cyanotype and hand-applied photographic emulsion.
I’m interested in the intersection between photography and printmaking and exploring how hand printing and materiality imbue images with additional layers of meaning. I see a piece of film much as I would the surface of a plate in a printmaking context, as something to physically manipulate, to etch into or paint onto, as one would with steel or copper while creating an etching or monotype. I make many test prints — in both the darkroom and print room — before settling on an image’s final medium.
BOOKMAKING
Making a book, and answering the many questions one requires, is an ideal way to contextualise a body of work. From editing and sequencing to choosing scale, materials and form, I enjoy the process of prototyping, and for each series I’m working on, have multiple dummies in progress.
