Image of the week is a portrait of Hair Stylist Flamingo Amy for a shoot with jewellery designer Lou Clarke. Both are epic creatives. I’ve linked to their names so you can check them out.
My ‘Image of the week’ entires are always weekly I know… it is the plan to try and get in to a routine and indeed make them a weekly thing. 2022 goals…
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Rosa from Creative Lives got in touch with me about a photography project they were creating involving the people of East Anglia. ANYONE can submit. You don’t need to be a photographer. The result will be a digital exhibition launched with an in person event in Norwich. (Hopefully in person depending on restrictions etc… let’s keep out fingers crossed for 2022…)
Details are in this link. The deadline is FEB 6 2022. - https://www.creative-lives.org/newbeginnings-eastanglia
From the website
“An open-call photography exhibition to mark the New Year
We are delighted you have chosen to take part in the New Beginnings Open Call. Please fill in the feedback form below and upload your image(s).
The call
To mark the turning of a new year, Creative Lives, BBC Radio Suffolk and BBC Radio Norfolk are creating a collective vision of hope by and for the members of our community. For this, we invite every person in East Anglia to send in up to two photographs based on the theme ‘New Beginnings’.
You do not need to have experience with photography to be involved. Using whatever device you have available, all ages, abilities and backgrounds are encouraged to get involved. The submission window is available from 1 January - 6 February 2022. Every image we receive is guaranteed to be included in an online photography exhibition that will run throughout February and March. The exhibition will be launched by an in-person event hosted by the BBC in late February.”
The theme New Beginnings. This is so broad and really open for you to take it where you want it to go. On the Creative Lives website you’ll also see a link to some hints and tips and Rosa kindly asked me to join them on Radio Norfolk where I had a chat with Sophie Little about ways to approach the theme and things you could think about exploring. Slide in at the 45 minute mark to hear us chat about the project. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bb4jls I’m really excited to see the images people have submitted.
Backstage at Ana Ljubinkovic Belgrade Fashion Week 2016.
I’m mainly sharing this A) I can’t believe it’s so long a go and B) I can’t believe I haven’t been back to Belgrade yet. I absolutely loved it my time there.
I photographed these for The Glass Pineapple. It was a great trip. Exhausting because it was really busy but a brilliant time.
Memories.
Backstage at Fashion Scout, London Fashion Week Sept 2019.
My last fashion week before (and since) Covid times). I don’t know which designer this model was for, the venue had a few shows that day and the space meant that models from different designers were intermingling in the same areas.
I’ve realised much of the recent image of the week journal entries are black and white so next week I’ll try and start adding some colour work.
I do have some new work to share too, so I’ll attempt to have a big journal update asap. There’s also new work planned for this month but like most of us I’m wondering how this new variant of concern will play out so I’m still feeling like everything involving photographing people is still very much subject to change…
Amy Ollett. 2021.
I was really lucky to be able to get Movement Artist Amy Ollett to work with me on a new multimedia commission earlier this year for The Norwich Fringe Festival.
I’ve written up the project, The Disco: Room 2021 here
I’ll be adding more projects to my website over the next couple of months so please do keep checking back for updates.
Image of the week
Amy Woodman. Autumn 2020.
Photographed in my studio, which sadly I had to leave in October 2021 as the buildings owners wanted to repurpose the building for a use other than art studios. A month on an I’m really missing not having a space to call ‘my studio’. I’d been in the space since 2018, it wasn’t a flashy state of the art photography studio, it was the backroom of an old shop. Before I took it on it was the studio of a movement artist and before that a designer. So much creativity in that old backroom.
The search for another Norwich studio is on…
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Eto 2017.
This image of Eto is a product of revisiting my earlier work during the period(s) of lockdown. Whilst many creatives found sanity and distraction in making new work, I personally found those much needed things came to me through looking back.
I have come to understand that I am a reflective person by nature.I’m also okay with that.
For me I also feel that no image is ever final, it’s simply in the place where it’s got to or has been left.
I think this is why my approach to instagram is about sharing what I feel I want to on any given day. The need for something to be new, fresh, not previously seen speaks less to me than ‘this is what I’d like to show today’. So images, get repeated and for me that’s not a big deal. Of course some prefer to follow the rules (made up by whoever) and treat social media like a military operation. To this I would conclude that I am a lover not a fighter.
I digress.
To the image. Eto in my studio in 2017. I may have written about this shoot some where in this journal previously (…repetition…as mentioned earlier in this post) I’d been asked to create a shoot for Disorder Magazine and I knew Eto would be perfect for it. I’d met Eto whilst working on Norwich Fashion Week and had a feeling a project would come up that we could work on together…
As a way to start the ball rolling and to chat Eto through my concept for the Disorder project, we got together to make some work and see that worked out. It was super relaxed (V much my vibe) Just me and Eto. I sourced the items and styled this shoot. All of it secondhand and vintage. If you’ve followed my work for a while you will know that for years I’ve been making ‘fashion’ imagery using preloved garms and whilst reading this in 2021 that might not seem radical, even a few years ago it truly was. Industry was pretty much not intersted. Magazines were pretty much not interested. An industry professional said ‘It’s vintage on vintage on vintage’ - to me that was a good thing. To them less so…
But still I persisted and pursued this because I just knew. I just knew. There was something in it. There had to be because consumption couldn’t go on like it was… I was wearing loads of secondhand, I had been for years, I wasn’t special, lots of people were shopping this way but where was it in the magazines back then? Why wasn’t this choice being represented? I repeat we are talking just a few years ago.
All that said, working with preloved clothing during this period has been extra intersting as I’ve been able to work whilst watching the world (I say world, by this I mainly mean the fashion world and the gate keepers who I think probably don’t care about fashion that much but do the care about the dollar. Green back is now literally ‘green back’… so about this they care right?..)
On this shoot I cut my hand and there was more blood than seemed suitable for a cut that size, the fuse blew. I highly recommend to everyone when you move in to a studio find out where the fuse box lives. I had not done this… We figured it out. Eto figured it out. Still we only got the lights on and not the plug sockets so no heater, no kettle. Have I mentioned this was in Dec…
It worked though and we created some great looks, brilliant images and from this shoot one of the images was selected to be exhibited in the Photographers United Pro exhibition at Print Space London and so far three have been accepted in to Vogue Italia’s Photo Vogue. If I manage to get these shown anywhere else, I will certainly let you know.
Big thanks to Wake up Little Susie for the loan of the shirt and the waistcoat - you can visit Susie’s online store here - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/WakeUpLittleSusies
You can find Eto here http://www.crumbagency.com/humans/men/463-eto/
In a break from the title of this journal entry of ‘image’ of the week… here’s a couple more because sometimes you just have to decide on the spot what you want to share at that very moment…
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me hello@kerrycurl.com
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Fran 2017, Norfolk.
Image of the week is a good way to go back and share images from earlier years.
We were blessed with glorious sunshine this day. This was a mix of colour and black and white work, photographed just to try out a location, make some new work for us both and just generally have a catch up. Super relaxed, no pressure on the results just ‘what will we make’.
Graduate Fashion Week, 2017. ‘The Best of’ Show
Not very often my work doesn’t include a human being but every now and again I’ll be drawn to scene where humans once were. Not sure if 2019 will have been the last year I make work at Graduate Fashion Week but it’s been a great four years so if that’s it then I can’t complain.
A first look at some new work for Morwenna Farrell’s latest collection ‘Dead Beats’
Morwenna has a pop up in Norwich this month and will also launch the new pieces on her Etsy shop the same weekend.
As part of the pop up Morwenna will also have a selection of images created during this shoot on display so please do visit her pop up if you can, follow her IG and I’ll share via my IG too.
Morwenna recently shared this image with her instagram followers and said that I’d “captured everything I could of hoped for and more, what I love about Kerry is that she keeps that natural look to her photos by not over editing and she just knows what I want! She manages to capture the whole vibe of the deadbeat vision I had and she gave it a Kerry Curl kick and here we have the end result”
More images to follow so stay tuned.
Morwenna Farrell is a creative based in Norwich, U.K. She is the heart and the founder of her own business which fuses illustration and fashion. Sourcing vintage pieces, the designer adds her illustrations via screen printing and each garment is printed by hand, by Morwenna herself.
It’s an upcycling approach, however her aim is not to completely rework the pieces, the desire isn’t to remake a whole new garment which begins a new life unrecognisable to what it once was. It’s more about celebrating what the item already is. It’s almost like she finds something she loves, a jacket or a blouse and shows it some Morwenna love.
Her ethos is not about disguising the garments for example it is an 80s blouse or a 70s dress, it’s about embracing it for what it is – hand sourced second hand fashion with an art twist. It’s something that’s been sealed with a loving Morwenna Farrell shaped kiss.
I’m really happy to have been invited to show some of my work at the Norwich Science Festival’s Hello Future Fashion exhibition 23-30th October. The exhibition takes place in what was an old toy shop in Norwich (Langleys). A beautiful shop in the Royal Arcade, Norwich, it’s really brilliant to be able to help bring this empty shop unit to life again even if just for one week. I really hope these many empty spaces will be able to be put to uses like this more and more…
With a firm focus on creating imagery and video art in my own work which uses vintage and second hand fashion i.e clothes which already exist in the fashion & style system this exhibition gives me the perfect opportunity to share work from my ‘This is Not Nostaglia?’ project, which I began in 2016 and was started with work which was created for my final project at university.
This is Not Nostalgia?
2016 - ongoing
This project is a constantly evolving work in progress. The world of fashion and style has always changed fast. Now even “slow fashion” has picked up the pace. The way I borrow from the past has little to do with nostalgia; it’s about looking to the future. Perhaps this is because my first experience, in the 80s and 90s, of what was then called “old” and “second-hand” was very different from what we now call “vintage” and “retro”.
On my council estate, a hand-me-down was a thing of shame. At my school, if your clothes weren’t new, you risked a kicking. If you were seen in a charity shop, you would be ostracised. “Did your mum get that from Oxfam?” was not a request for shopping advice. This may seem odd to read in 2021 but it has taken a long time for second-hand and vintage to enter the realms of the mainstream in a way that doesn’t have negative or cliched connotations.
Those with an off-beat approach to style find themselves less and less likely to be ghettoised as “alternative” than before. There’s a tolerance in the mainstream for different approaches in a way that would be unimaginable in the 80s or 90s.
The digital age has democratized access to images and ideas that would once have been obscure or inaccessible. You are not restricted to the grubby dog-eared stock in your under-resourced local library, or on what happens to be flavour of the month in The Face or NME. Today an image maker can be a self-curating cultural magpie in a way their predecessor in 1987 could not have imagined.
The work was initially created to question how we observe and consume yesterday’s fashion. I ask the viewer to consider: does having a vintage influence mean that the imagery is not contemporary; does curating influences from the past mean that the images themselves are “retro”? If these style influences are all around us in the here and now, can this mean the garments of “future fashion” already exist?
From the very beginning the project embraced a genderless approach to styling. At first this was through the influence of the fashion, music and pop culture of the 1970s. Now though as we think more and more about a garment’s length of life, it’s clear that through removing the “label” of what is menswear or womenswear, we can give clothing an extra roll of the dice at staying in the system. In this way, we maximise the life and wear of a garment. We do not need to wait for fashion houses to create genderless ranges for consumers nor to set the “trend”. We can re-wear, re-use and refuse the gender label of items such as a woman’s blouse or a man’s suit etc, right now, today.
As shopping second-hand becomes ever more mainstream and the glossy fashion media declare accessible-to-the-masses pre-loved items as an acceptable and indeed coveted buying choice (not just vintage dresses worn to red carpet events), this project grows and gives me more questions than answers.
This is Not Nostalgia?
To be continued…
The work featured in the Science Festival exhibition includes commissions received from The Norwich Fringe Festival and Norwich University of the Arts.
People featured in these works with links to their instagram accounts:
More details about the exhibition here https://norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/hello-future-fashion-2021
Graduate Fashion Week 2017. The Gala.
I’m curating these images of the week quite randomly so lets go back to 2017 today. A year I quite liked photography wise, I just feel a lot of good work and things happened that year.
Photographed backstage, I really loved documenting this yearly event.
Graduate Fashion Week 2019. East London Uni.
This was the year I wanted to start making more experimental work and develop this idea of documenting the shows further. Of course thanks to the pandemic I haven’t been able to revisit the event to make new work, but there’s definitely some interesting work created from 2019 which has helped me research and develop other ideas and thoughts.
We are having to leave our St.Augustines Street Studios and we are sad about it, so please come and cheer us up by coming to see our work in an impromptu open studio/ pop up show. Myself and Visual Artist Brian Korteling have decided that as it’s our last weekend we should make the most of it and open the doors up and show some work and says some goodbyes. Starts Fri 15th October 5-9 pm and everyone is welcome.
23 & 25 St Augustines St, Norwich NR3 3BE
Please share with anyone who might like to come along.
Follow along via my IG https://www.instagram.com/kerrycurl/
Visit Brian Kortelings website https://briankorteling.co.uk/
Graduate Fashion Week 2019. East London Uni.
Of all the ‘fashion’ events Graduate Fashion Week (GFW) is by far my favourite. I think I may have written this before (I certainly say it a lot) it’s like when a band releases their first album and it’s so good, and it’s the start of their sound and fresh and raw. A brilliant event, I wonder how it will develop in this ‘new world’? Above all else I’m glad it’s managed to pivot and keep going to support the wave of grads finishing uni in a pandemic filled world…
Graduate Fashion Week 2019. East London Uni.
This was photographed at Truman Brewery, a place I absolutely love. The light is epic and I’ve been to so many events in it (including my own degree show) and it never ceases to amaze me how different one building can look from one event to the next. As I write this in 2021 I’m regretting not photographing more of the building itself as a stand alone ‘j’adore’ declaration.
Maybe next time. Fingers crossed. It’s been tough times for buildings like this.
Matt Hales. May 2021.
I photographed Matt during my residency at the Norwich Shoe Factory in May. I’m yet to write the week up and still have images to work through. It was by far a more productive week than I expected. I just felt so inspired to make and try out ideas there was just no stopping me. The result though is A LOT of work to get through, reflect on and just sit back and look at to be honest. Take a big breath and dive back in to it.
I do think that in hindsight I will be glad I left a period of time to go back to it with fresh eyes. I’d like to write up the experience for a section on my website and I think that process will absolutely benefit from not diving straight in.
To be able to come out of lockdown and have this factory to work in was incredible. The residency was originally planned for May 2020 but obviously that couldn’t happen, then we hoped for later in the year. Again, no. So I was almost prepared for it not to happen at all. There were still some restrictions so we couldn’t have the public exhibition at the end but my goodness did this week make me so so happy.
So many many images and pieces of video art to come from my week in this old shoe factory.
Matt Hales is a model and you can find him here - https://www.instagram.com/mattthales/?hl=en
Huge thanks to The Norwich Shoe Factory. When this factory eventually gets bought and redeveloped I will cry as will many creatives in Norwich. We are though SUPER grateful the owners have opened their doors up to to the arts scene in Norwich in the interim. It’s been a game changer for so many of us.
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me hello@kerrycurl.com
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Jordan Wake. May 2019.
2019 feels so old world now.
Jordan’s a writer and podcaster. I’ll link to his podcast at the end of this journal entry, but here’s a link to the episode I had a chat with him in June 2020 - and I listened to it back the other day and we talk about creativity in confinement and it occurred to me that all these podcasts created during this time will be the sound documentaries and the voice archives of this pandemic…
I did the set design for this shoot, provided Jordan with a rail of secondhand and vintage and let him create his own outfits. Some of the clothes we used were mine (and I’m always thinking people wearing my clothes is somehow going to naturally evolve in to it’s own project somewhere down the line.)
This shoot was followed my a big group dinner and so with what followed in 2020 this shoot will always be extra special to me.
Not just because of the fact the images from this were just beyond but because of the memories of finishing the shoot and getting to the restaurant. People being early, people being late. That group discussion of what people are going to order, who is drinking what. Who’s having a starter? Who’s got room for pudding? Plus all the moments in-between where one person holds court as the table listens intertwined with an absolute rabble of multiple conversations around the table. It was a great shoot and a great evening. I’m looking forward to times again.
Jordan’s podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/queer-and-the-city/id1515563258
Jordan’s website - https://www.jordan-wake.com/
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me hello@kerrycurl.com
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Fran 2017.
Another shoot using secondhand and vintage in the styling. I never made any black and white versions at the time but during one of the lockdowns as I was revisiting earlier work I decided to create some new edits.
Makeup by Anna
Dress from the Fabulous Miss K Store
New work for Kathy aka Norwich based hairdresser The Hair and Wellbeing Stylist.
Kathy needed some new portraits/headshots to move forward with some press opportunities to share news of the next stage in her creative career. Kathy is a woman of many talents including being a clinical aromatherapist, videographer, photographer plus the organiser of events aimed at women over 40.
The events, some of which I’ve photographed, creating a series of portraits of the women attending the workshops, aim to bring women together to discuss and learn from each other. To look at what and how life over 40 can feel like as a woman today. Everything from body changes, to career goals, what holds us back, wellbeing and the menopause have all been discussed in a forum designed to help women grow and develop.
Kathy is an example of walking the walk of personal development and not just talking the talk. She has recently pushed through to another chapter of learning and self development by successfully qualifying as a hairdresser. To share her new world Kathy commissioned some new portrait work so when talking about this next stage she could accompany it with images of herself which made her feel empowered and confident.
I’ve photographed Kathy before, like me she is VERY inspired by music and a chat about what she wanted from the photo session helped me know how to create a ‘Kathy vibe’ and so followed what I always refer to as an ‘image library’ of portraits both black and white and colour for Kathy to use when talking about her new life step. Absolute pleasure to photograph and a reminder to us to all keep learning whatever age we are.
Kathy’s been interviewed for Folk Features , a platform created during lockdown which aims to share stories about people in Norfolk and Suffolk. Hence the ‘folk’ in the name. Kathy’s interview titled ‘Style without age limits’ sees Kathy talking about pre-pandemic life working the gig economy and the overnight impact Covid-19 had on that, her hairdresser training and plans to keep herself moving forward.
I personally can say that adult education and constantly being open to learning has been a game changer…in fact a life changer for me.
The quote below is from Kathy’s interview and it really resonates with me and I think it will with a lot of other people too.
You can read the full interview here
Follow Kathy on instagram
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me
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Movement Artist Amy Ollett photographed as she responded to a visit to Norwich Shoe Factory with some improv. I was working from the factory in May as part of a research and development arts residency. It was THE most amazing time and I’m still working my way through the work, the research and the ideas. There are many more images to come but in the mean time you can have a scroll through my instagram where I’ve shared some of the work. https://www.instagram.com/kerrycurl/
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me
Image of the Week
Backstage at Graduate Fashion Week, the international Show 2017 at Truman Brewery, one of my favourite places to photograph.
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me
A portrait of Jordan Wake got accepted in to my Photo Vogue by Vogue Italia portfolio yesterday.
The image was take in May 2019, such different times. Jordan is self styled, wearing my clothes. Always brilliant to see how people style themselves in clothes which don’t belong to them.
I’m hoping times will settle soon and I can photograph Jordan again followed by dinner and wine and all the chats. In the mean time if you want to hear a chat we had on Jordans podcast Queer and The City last year then here’s a previous journal entry with a link to listen.
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me - hello@kerrycurl.com
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A look back to April 2017.
Photographed and styled by me.
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me
It’s been roughly a year ago since I did this podcast on Queer and The City. (You can read a journal entry from June 2020 here )
I just wanted to revisit it because as I sit and write this a year on some of the things we discuss are still so relevant to right now. Questioning creative life, what’s going to happen, reflecting on the times. With so many people considering their future and being displaced from home and work I thought it would be good to re-share this chat.
I also talk about going to uni later in life, my reasons for this and how I found the experience. I also talk about what influences my work, how lockdown 1 was going (not that we knew we would have to go through a further 2 lockdowns when we chatted!) and thoughts (and questions) on the future.
You can listen to our chat here
To discuss commissions or general enquires feel free to email me - hello@kerrycurl.com
Say hi on instagram