People and Place

2018-2019

 

Conducted as a collaborative project, Holly Houlton and fashion photographer Jasmine Smith, came together to explore the nostalgia and emotion they feel in the local environments they grew up in. Smith was raised in Cambridgeshire and Houlton in the nearby town of Bury St Edmunds. With themes of identity and culture, the work attempts to explore their connections with the places and how their own interests have derived from the environments. Flowers were a vital substance for the project as both areas are known to be florally picturesque; hence both photographers have always had a fondness of using flowers and natural resources in their work, such as intense sunlight. Using a 50mm portrait lens to retrieve sharp focus on the subject’s face and their immediate surroundings, it has the intention of creating an immersive effect for the viewer, by hopefully allowing them to hone in on the targeted areas. Consequently, this may cause the viewer to feel and empathise with the subject’s emotions which are connected to their surroundings and lead them to consider their own childhood environments. (2018-19). This project was conducted as a continuation of Smiths project Beyond These Hidden  Walls after getting to know Houlton after using her as a model for the project.