Sorry for the somewhat overdue blog post, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in interesting projects over the last couple of months, and only just settled down to stop and think.

I just thought I’d share with you a new set of portraits of BBC Radio & Gardening expert Will Giles, as he needed some up to date portraits. Plant & cat obsessive, as anyone that knows him will testify! Photographed in his new & massive poly tunnel, the background is genuinely the huge leaves of the exotic plants in situ, nothing added here – in the heart of Norwich!

If you’re interested in getting your own portrait taken, please get in contact.

A set of incredible and emotional photographs stood out for me in this months British Journal of Photography. I had not seen the work of Laura Stevens before, a 35 year old photographer from the UK currently living in Paris.

Her body of work ‘Us Alone’ came from her recent move to Paris where upon she suddenly found herself depending on her partner and feeling that she had gone from being an “independent person to being a dependent one” living in a totally unfamiliar place. Starting in early 2010, Laura would visit other couples in Paris and question them about their relationships, then “I would construct the scene and the situation I wanted to portray”. The photographs are all long exposure, lit using a continuous lighting source to create tension and emotion in each scene.

“the things that you don’t always see, or want to see”

This collection of striking photographs are a result of looking more deeply into the ‘behind closed doors’ of relationships of couples, to show other emotional parts of relationships and highlighting “the things that you don’t always see, or want to see”. “I wanted to create a sort of suspended dramatised moment; to make it quite theatrical. I wanted to take this ordinary moment and enhance it” The photographs look incredible natural, each couple perfectly showing a vague hint of emotion, combined with the partner creates a feeling of tension, and almost sadness.

The lighting on the image above almost makes me think of being underwater, like the scene has been lit with reflective light from the surface of moving water.

I love the added detail in this photograph, the dying flowers in the background together with the pronounced saxophone really help to create the back story in your mind.

I thoroughly recommend spending the time having a good look through the entire series, as well as the other collections on Laura’s website, I love it.

More information

Laura Stevens website: www.laurastevens.co.uk
Laura on twitter: @laurastevens_uk
British Journal of Photography www.bjp-online.com
British Journal of Photography on Twitter @1854