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Season’s Greetings!

Posted on by carlotta

Season’s greetings!

I was looking through boxes of old photographs that I had not seen for many years, in preparation for a talk I was giving to the Brighton and Hove camera club. I came across this shot that I took in 1990, exactly 10 days after I moved to England.

This is a Boxing Day Hunt in the town of Dulverton in rural Somerset where I was staying. I knew very little about England when I moved here, had never heard of Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) or seen a hunt. Putting aside the thorny issue of the ethics of hunting, I wanted to share this photo for other reasons.

My camera was a way for me to interpret my new life in England. Thirty-one years later, I still remember being surprised by the pageantry and spectacle of the day. When I took this shot, I was looking at my new home through the eyes of a foreigner, still in travel mode. The overcast day and glistening wet road are familiar now as typical English December weather.

I enjoy the symmetry of the shot and the man placed between the two horses’ heads – a man who is nearly the same shape and size as those heads. Photographs of a summer fete in the same part of Somerset, six months later, can be found here, and my photographs of people and events are here.

If you are still looking for Christmas presents, I can help you out. Sunday the 19th December will be the last day for UK Christmas orders from my website. I also have gift certificates that can be arranged up until the 24th December. Get in touch to find out more. I have three new sets of cyanotype greeting cards (you can see them here) and of course my books sea shore and Lewes Bonfire Portraits are available as well.

All my hand-printed cyanotypes are available to buy, although delivery will not be until after Christmas now. I have many more than are on my website so get in touch if you would like to know more. Information about purchasing my prints and all of my photography books can be found here.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year ahead.

Carlotta

super-sized seaweed cyanotype

Posted on by carlotta

super-sized seaweed cyanotype

I have been experimenting with how large I can go with my cyanotype prints in preparation for an exhibit in September. I am limited by my set-up, which includes four uv lights, two heavy pieces of toughened glass in which to sandwich the paper and negative during exposure, and a modestly sized bath tub that I wash the prints in. The largest single print I can make is approximately 60cm (24″).

This photograph of bladderwrack seaweed, taken on the west coast of Wales last summer, has so much detail and texture in it that I knew it could work at a large scale. I hit upon the idea of printing 24 separate squares that fit together to create a larger whole. The complete print is 115 x 75cm/ 45 x 30″ (see my toes for scale!).

Because this is a hand-printing process, the colour and exposure of each square varies slightly and the joins between them do not align perfectly, giving a more painterly effect. I am enjoying taking yet another step away from the perfection of digital printing.

I will be hard at work on more large and small prints for my Artwave show in September, more details to follow soon. I am also pushing on with the design of my hand-bound book of cyanotype landscapes of the sea and shoreline.

If you would like information about pre-ordering my book  please get in touch. All my hand-printed cyanotypes are available to buy. Information about purchasing my prints and books can be found here.

Love me some verdigris

Posted on by carlotta

Love me some verdigris

This jaunty roof is part of the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, where I have been documenting an extensive redevelopment project. Apart from the simple joy of this view, I would like to point out the two vertical panels of a slightly different colour. These panels are new and were made specially to match as closely as possible the centuries-old verdigris of the existing roof. A section of the roof had to be removed, necessitating replacements. The thing is, these panels are not visible from the street. In fact, they are only visible from up on the roof itself, and yet still the effort was made to keep it as authentic as possible.

I point this out because they represent an attention to detail that exists throughout the build. This is just one example of the lengths that the Brighton Dome are going to repair and rejuvenate this unique 200-year-old building, inside and out, with the help of a further £1 million in Lottery Heritage funding announced last month. You can read the latest news about the project on the Dome website here and find more of my photographs of the project 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.

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on by carlotta

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Twenty-nine years of celebrating Thanksgiving in the UK and it is still my favourite holiday. I have even managed to bring my English family and friends round to my way of thinking. So here’s to appreciating our loved ones and whatever it is that we have to be thankful for – there is always something.

For those of you not in the US, eat something nice today with someone you love and you too will have entered into the spirit of the holiday. For my American subscribers, you already know exactly what to do.

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

A photographer in her element

Posted on by carlotta

A photographer in her element

My exhibit of portraits is up for one last weekend as part of the Lewes Artwave Festival. The photographs I am showing were commissioned by the Lewes District Council to celebrate the interesting people who live and work in the area.

Fellow Lewes photographer Katie Vandyck, who also runs a successful web design company, has a passion for photographing nature. She documents the changing of the seasons in intimate and nuanced detail.

This portrait came about because I had previously seen Katie in just such a pose, photographing while lying flat in the grass. So here she is, in her element, camera in hand.

You can find my show at 2 Fisher Street, Lewes, BN7 2DG. The gallery will be open on Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 10-2. I will be in the gallery all day on Saturday so do pop in to say hello. 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.

Painting orchids

Posted on 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.

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