“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett
Last year I had the most incredible opportunity presented to me. SmugMug, a company that I’m a huge fan of and one that I’ve been supported by since almost the beginning of my journey asked me if they could make a film about me where I give an insight into my craft, from inspiration to approaching and executing a shoot.
This is something I’ve never really done. Sure I’ve made some behind the scenes videos but I’ve never really shared where the art comes from and what drives it still. So of course I said yes!
For those of you who may not know who SmugMug are, they’re website developers specifically for photographers. I use them for my own website and honestly couldn’t speak highly enough of how much I value their service.
Well, after months of waiting here is the film we created together last year in the summer sun -
Day 1: The Secret Garden shoot…
Anton and I in Oxford in the morning picking up some flowers from the Covered Market
Photo by Alastair Jolly
I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to capture for this shoot and it began with a little bit of crafting…
A week before, while sitting at my desk amidst the flurry of organising, brainstorming ideas, and frantic emails pulling together the various teams for the shoots coming up, I looked around and took in the state of my incredibly messy office. I couldn’t help but notice the growing pile of the brown paper that came with my Amazon parcels as well as a box full of overflowing newspaper.
In that moment it made perfect sense that my attention needed to go into creating something from all this recyclable material rather than getting back to emails… of course, perfect sense ! And this is how it starts, usually from a place of procrastination and messing around. I’ve long since abandoned the notion that there’s particular ways of doing things. After years of creating, i've come to accept that this is just how I work. I look around, see what I have and make something of it.
In this case, I was genuinely surprised that what my hands were creating was a butterfly. I didn’t have a particular intention of what to make going into it, just a curiosity to see what was possible and somehow a butterfly shape emerged.
In a few days when I share with you the last shoot of this magical week and the concept of that which was born literally the night before… well, I hope you will share the chills that I felt when I made the connection days after that. The power of intuition is really something else !
To create the butterfly, I simply tightly rolled the paper and made long strips. After that I simply bent them to my will and used masking tape to secure the shape. The next step was going over it with loo roll and PVA glue to strengthen it further. I had some thin strips of bamboo from my architecture model-making days and I used that to add a little bit more shape and detail. Once I was happy with the overall result, out came the gold spray paint and voila! It was done.
I didn’t know how it would be used but I did know that something compelled me to create it and that I was drawn to the charm of having something that I’d made by hand be in a photo that I knew I was going to capture. Sounds very vague I know, however we all have our ways of doing things and I create by intuition. I follow the feeling and a lot of the fun of it is just seeing where it leads!
For this first shoot I wanted to show how most of my shoots go down which is usually just the model and myself. I love it when it’s intimate like this, where there’s space for connection, creativity, flexibility to switch it up and most importantly, the freedom to play!
My model for this shoot is my muse, Scarlett. A dear friend that I’ve made through photography and who is always up for an adventure. As is often the case, I did her hair and makeup and for the styling I reached out to British designer, Joanne Fleming, who is an artist in her own right and who kindly loaded me a few dresses for the week.
I didn’t really know where the butterfly would end up but I remember seeing a butterfly headpiece on a fashion show once upon a time and when I placed it on Scarlett’s head it felt so right. In her dress she was the perfect balance of gentility and whimsy. A story was coming together.
The location we shot in, and I say this with every ounce of sincerity, is truly the garden of my dreams! It’s designed by acclaimed British landscape designers Julian and Isabel Bannerman whose work I have been a long admirer of and in this venue, their artistry blew me away. Romantic, playful, storytelling, delicate, and bold, it’s everything that I dream of and once day hope to accomplish in my life… to create my very own garden of dreams and wonder!
The magical garden belongs to Euridge Manor, a place that I’d discovered a couple of years ago and I’m so incredibly thankful to the owners for allowing me the honour and freedom to create my art in it!
While walking through the gardens I fell in love with the architecture of the tall shapes, half nature, half manmade. I found myself drawn to this juxtaposition of something wild held back tame but only barely, always growing to escape the confines placed upon it and one day perhaps who knows, it just might.
I call Scarlett my muse because she always seems to be able to channel what I want to capture. I placed her in the scene, and in this moment she is no longer Scarlett but a character from another world engaging with the peeking roses, a shallow basket on her arm overflowing with collected flowers. I direct her gently with what I wanted her to do or express. I light the smoke behind her for atmosphere and for a moment everything felt so incredibly aligned. We were all exactly where we were meant to be.
As I click and watch her, a memory of filling baskets with flowers with my father in our garden in Kenya floods into my mind. It stops me for a moment as the connections click. We’d pick roses together every morning and after dropping me to school he would go to the temple and donate them there for the ladies to make the day’s garlands. Something so simple, and yet so precious enough to remember and emerge in this way. A memory reminding me to value this time and moments with my parents and loved ones.
I always let the picture come to me, sometimes I chase it but as time goes by I acknowledge that there is also an art in letting go and seeing what comes together. I pick things up and put them together following instinct and intuition. I trust in myself that I can pull it off and that something magical is just waiting to be discovered. I am exactly where I’m meant to be and this is exactly what was meant to happen… why?
Because it happened.
C R E D I T S
Team
Photography: Bella Kotak
Model: Scarlett
Dress: Jo Fleming Design
Assistance: Alastair Jolly
Videography: Anton Lorimer
Retouching: Bella & Pratik Naik
Location: Euridge Manor
Gear Used
Camera: Phase One IQ3 100MP Trichromatic
Lighting: 1 x Profoto A1
Programs used: Capture One & Photoshop CC
A closer look…
Click on each image to view it bigger!
““And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed
and every morning revealed new miracles.””
