josephrspence-interview-project:

I arrived at the studio of East London based photographer Sarah Ainslie at 14:00 on a very wet December afternoon in Shoreditch. We discussed many of her previous projects including ‘Wardrobes’ which she describes the wardrobe being a private place and its role in concealing objects. Sarah is also resident photographer at Complicite since 1997 and is a contributing photographer to Spitalfields life blog.

This is interview was facilitated and transcribed by Joseph Spence and is apart of his conversation project ‘…’ where he talks with creatives to understand their inventive process and to share this through an edited blog format.

J.S. How did photography start for you? Did you search for photography or did it find you?

S.A. I wanted to go to art school but actually, I wasn’t very good at drawing and painting so I think then I decided to try and do photography. There as obviously something there because I was always taking pictures.

J.S. Is the ‘Wardrobe’ project (2002) still ongoing?

S.A. Yes, it is. It’s still ongoing but I do it intimately.

[Pause]

S.A. It’s like if I meet somebody and something comes up at that particular time. Over those years (2002) I was doing it as much as I could. What I think for me was really interesting, was in a way there are quite a lot of groups in there. It started more with family and then theres quite a lot of trannys in there which interestingly didn’t dress up for their photos and I found that completely fascinating.

J.S. Im not to sure what the dates were between them but moving onto ‘Indian Photographers’.

S.A. That was 2012.

J.S. I’m really interested in how you mentioned the old and the new along with time and place through the use of composites which I found at the bottom of the ‘Indian photographers’ page on your website. I’m just wondering about the process and how you made them?

S.A. The composites that you’re talking about came about because I’ve always been really interested about layering images and the way images really come through each other. There is some amazingly beautiful temples and being able to combine those temples with street scenes from Delhi I found really, really interesting because its like the present and the past are all kind of intertwined. So thats really what its about, does that answer your question?

J.S. Yes, it definitely does. It’s really interesting to me, they have so much depth when you view them.

J.S. What is your favourite piece or body of work that you’ve done?

S.A. They’re all really different and they’ve all had different impacts on my life.

S.A. I don’t know, I suppose maybe, It is the wardrobe one actually. It has a lot of meaning for me. I always remember someone asking why are wardrobes so interesting and I remembered saying that I always felt like there was secrets inside my parents wardrobe.

J.S. What have you got planned for the future?

S.A. I’ve been doing these walks around the M25, something called the ‘London Loop’ with a group of friends and I’ve been doing a lot of pictures and I want to try and put something together with that.

http://www.sarahainslie.com

19 in 19 days where has time gone

claryfightwood:

no offence but let yourself be ugly!! you don’t have to fix your hair if you’re not going anywhere you don’t have to cover up ur spots or change out of your lounge pants to go buy milk like damn we really gotta let ourselves be comfortable without constantly apologising for just looking normal and it’s hard but i think we need to practice looking in the mirror and saying i look ugly af today and that’s okay!! tru self care is letting urself be ugly tbh

(via loveserum)