Portrait of an artist

Posted on March 18, 2022 by carlotta

Portrait of an artist

I apologise for my long period of silence. A lot has happened in my life since my last photo of the week in December. The most significant of these is that my mother, Ellen Sinclair Junger, died on Christmas Day, after suffering from dementia for many years.

Ellen was a very talented painter. This is my portrait of her taken in her studio in the early 1980s. Ellen always had a large mirror in her studio. It was an integral part of her painting process as she used it to analyse her compositions in reverse.

This was part of a series of portraits of artists in the Boston area that I took for my high school photography class. That project was the beginning of my interest in photographing people in their work environments, a subject that I continue to focus on 40 years later. You can find a selection of them here and here.

I’ve been busy framing my cyanotype landscapes recently. They will be shown at Tigermoth Coffee Roasters in Lewes in a few weeks. It has been a lovely little project to focus on during this strange limbo time I’ve been in. The show runs from 4-25 April. If you are in the area, please do stop by, and be sure to get a coffee while you are there. It is definitely the best coffee in town.

I have finally set up a shop page on my website. You can check it out here. You will find my books and cards here, as well as a few cyanotypes. I have a large collection of cyanotypes at my studio, many more then are on my website, so get in touch if you would like more information.

Please contact me if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

Dulverton Laundry, Somerset, 1992

Posted on April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 by carlotta

Dulverton Laundry, Somerset, 1992

Here is a change of pace for you, after those monumental Brighton buildings. This photograph is from a documentary series shot in Somerset in the early 1990s.

Dulverton Laundry was, at the time, the main employer in a remote town on the edge of Exmoor National Park, and provided the surrounding area with laundry and dry cleaning services.

The laundry was housed in an interesting structure that represented an early example of industrial building, and was originally water-powered by the leat that ran beneath it.

By far the most interesting aspect of my several trips to the laundry were the employees. Alongside an obvious pride in their work, I remember a sense of people having worked together for years, and the banter and camaraderie that this engendered.

The building has been preserved because of its Grade II listing, but the business closed three years ago, with the loss of 22 jobs. The closure of a local business like this hurts the community on so many levels.

Photographs of the laundry can be found here and more photos of other work environments are here.

Cape Cod lobster boat

Posted on December 17, 2020December 18, 2020 by carlotta

Cape Cod lobster boat

To give you a complete break from all things Christmassy (apart from my special offer, of course), here is a little taste of the New England coastline. This was taken from the cabin of the lobster boat Angela and Mary, looking across the harbour to Provincetown, the little town that sits at the very tip of Cape Cod. It was a perfect autumn day of sparkling sun and deep blue sky and water. There was a fierce wind and rough seas outside the shelter of the harbour, which is why she was docked instead of out hauling traps.

I am always interested in the places where people work, so exploring the Angela and Mary was a treat.

Best of all was the opportunity to look through a cabin window and see the world from the captain’s point of view. You’ll find the rest of the photos here.

Please get in touch if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

300 years of history in one blacksmith shop

Posted on November 23, 2018July 12, 2019 by carlotta

300 years of history in one blacksmith shop

12.07.2019: I am very sad to report that Ben Autie passed away about six months after this photo was taken. It is too soon to know what will happen to his forge.

23.11.2018: I have been itching to photograph the Lewes Forge for years now, ever since I spotted it tucked away in a hidden corner off one of the most traffic-filled streets in town. By the time I got around to it, Ben Autie, the blacksmith, was ill and unable to work. Two years later and Ben is back and the forge is up and running full time again so I arranged a visit.

It was extraordinary to walk through a quiet courtyard and into a building that has been a blacksmithing site for 300 years. The main room has high ceilings and old whitewashed walls and is filled with equipment.

Three huge bellows, now redundant, hang high up above the two forges. A large manual drill dating from the 18th century sits at the back of the room.Two walls are covered with horseshoes, from when Lewes was a town with a racecourse and horses would line up on the road outside, waiting to be shod. Photographs of the former blacksmiths who worked here line one wall. And many dozens of pliers and hammers of varying shapes and sizes hang in convenient places around the room.

The amazing thing is that, although this space is filled with history, it is a living, working forge. Ben is here five days a week, busy with sculptures, weathervanes, furniture and anything else he is commissioned to make out of iron. It is definitely not a museum, it is just a business with a lot of history. You can see the rest of the photos here. You can find more of my photographs of people at work here.

A team effort is required to install windows

Posted on June 8, 2018June 20, 2018 by carlotta

A team effort is required to install windows

Another section of my new website is a gallery of working portraits. This week’s photograph shows a group of builders installing plate glass windows onto the exterior of an office block. This is a skilled and complicated manoeuvre taking place high above the ground.

What interests me particularly in photographing workers in any line of business is the fact of documenting and honouring processes that often go unnoticed or become invisible once a project is complete.

Where buildings are concerned, we live, shop, work and relax in them, usually with little thought of the human endeavour responsible for making them possible. I like being able to show glimpses into this world that many people know little about.

More galleries of work environments can be found here, including local food producers and the RNLI on an air-to-sea rescue mission.

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Tag: work environments