Welcome to the first episode in the new series entitled START.
The topic is Start Your Own Projects and our guest is the incredibly talented still life photographer, Kate Friend.
It seems to me that it is very easy to become focused entirely on commission based work, bringing a client’s vision and expectations to life. Working on your own passion projects, side hustles, ideas and vision is crucial to keeping your creativity at its best. It also gives the greatest opportunity for progression, development, stretch, growth.
I discovered Kate’s work at her recent exhibition at The Garden Museum entitled ‘Botanical Portraits: as chosen by’. Her work is original and beautiful, vivid yet restrained, bold and yet considered.
Kate’s story is one of adventurous reinvention. It all began with Kate the teenager, transfixed by the sights and smells of the darkroom at school. The subsequent chapters of her memoir would be varied and fascinating - Mongolia, China, brilliant brands such as Comme de Garcon and Dover Street Market, a magazine entitled ‘Mother’, a single onion from the local grocer and the restrictions and joy of working with film. Kate then found herself photographing flowers with a minimal aesthetic but with abundant stories to tell.
After two exhibitions at The Garden Museum, Kate’s work was picked up by The New York Times and then by the Lyndsay Ingram Gallery. The exhibition is on from 19th November - 23rd December and shows her works on a new scale and with some new pieces.