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.

28-year-old photos come into their own

Posted on December 5, 2019December 5, 2019 by carlotta

28-year-old photos come into their own

Photographs that I took almost 30 years ago of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry have been published recently in several articles about the proposed future of this historic site.

A battle has been raging about planning permission for the building that housed this famous foundry from 1738 until 2017. This is Britain’s oldest manufacturing company, around since the 1570s, and has cast some of the most famous bells in the world, including the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and London’s Big Ben. A planning application was approved last month to turn the building into a bell-themed boutique hotel, despite a strong campaign against it.

Yesterday an unexpected temporary intervention came through from the Secretary of State, so there is a chance the building will be saved.

The foundry was an incredible place to photograph. I remember wandering wherever I liked and photographing whatever I liked. No one seemed to mind, or even pay me much attention. The place felt full of history – even the casting methods were ancient and included sand, dung, hair and bone. You can find more 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.

Painting orchids

Posted on August 23, 2019August 23, 2019 by carlotta

Painting orchids

I am guessing you know by now that I am exhibiting a series of portraits as part of the Lewes Artwave Festival. The show will be open for another two weekends. I am showing photographs commissioned by the Lewes District Council highlighting the people who make the area so special. One of these is Kelly Hall, a talented artist and designer who’s artwork celebrates the great Sussex landscape and beyond. I photographed her in the famous McBean’s Nursery near Lewes where they have been growing orchids for the past 140 years.

You can find my show at 2 Fisher Street, Lewes, BN7 2DG. The gallery will be open Saturdays 10-4 and Sundays 10-2 until 1 September. More information about the exhibit can be found on the Artwave website here.

More of my portraits can be found here, and working portraits here.

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

The Glyndebourne prop maker

Posted on August 9, 2019 by carlotta

The Glyndebourne prop maker

A few weeks ago I told you about a new series of portraits I have been working on for the Lewes District Council, highlighting the diverse people who live and work in the district. An exhibit of this project will be on display during the Lewes Artwave Festival (details below).

This portrait of Rose Beale is my latest in the series. As well as being a talented sculptor, Rose has been working as a prop maker at the world-famous Glyndebourne Opera House for over 30 years. She wanted to be photographed with one of her favourite props, a mask from a recent production of The Barber of Seville.

I was lucky with the soft light falling across Rose’s face, the simple palette of nearly only beiges and blues, and that beautiful bull with his curved black horns. More of my portraits can be found here, and working portraits here.

My exhibit can be found at Artwave venue 97, 7 Fisher Street, Lewes, BN7 2DG. The gallery will be open Saturdays 10-4 and Sundays 10-2, 18 August to 1 September.

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

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.

Tag: working portraits