Nudes nominee

Began in late summer 2015, The Forest is a conscious departure from masculinity and modern life. The subjects are nude, but it is an unselfconscious, primordial nudity, reclaimed from the male gaze and with a softness and intimacy rarely captured in a male lens. They are in nature and a part of it; they aren’t conquerors of the natural world, they are skyclad witches and exultant earth goddesses in communion with nature, vulnerable yet unafraid. And yet the models remain people, as unique and individual as the environments they are a part of, not anonymous figures bereft of identity. They are willing collaborators and active participants, captured with the ritual alchemy of analogue photography.
Shot entirely on film and processed and printed by hand by the artist, the series makes use of now antiquated processes to draw attention to the tactile and physical qualities of the images and the subjects within, in an age where photography is everywhere yet mostly incorporeal and ephemeral. The texture of the film grain echoes the unairbrushed skin textures; the irregularities of analogue processes reflect the unaltered natural imperfections of the models and the environment.

I am a British LGBTQ+ visual artist working primarily with analogue photography, specialising in nude portraiture. I studied Fine Art at Central St Martins and continue to live and work in London whilst exhibiting internationally.
In 2020 I was awarded a grant by Groundwork London to deliver a new project for the Join the Docks Festival. I also received a Gold Award in the San Francisco Bay International Photo Award, and Honourable Mentions in Photos Des Femmes’ seeingWOMEN Awards, the Monovisions Photography Awards, the Vienna International Photography Awards, the 15th Pollux Awards and in the 15th Julia Margaret Cameron Award. In 2019 I was awarded an Artist Residency prize and a Special Mention of the Jury Award in photography from the Mediterranean Contemporary Art Prize. Also in 2019 I was a semi-finalist in the Head On Portrait Prize, obtained 3rd place in Nudes from the Monochrome Photography Awards, received an Honourable Mention at the Tokyo International Foto Awards, and was an official selection for the Imago Lisboa Meeting Point portfolio reviews. In 2018 & 2019 I was a nominee for the PhotogrAphy Grant. In 2014 I received the Silverprint/Photofusion Black and White Photography Award.