My first roll of film

It’s not quite starting at the beginning, but these images are from the first roll of film I ever shot - which was of my sister Grace, circa 1994 (she was 14 and I was 15). The photos were reference for a painting I was making of her for my art class.

When I decided to make this archive I was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of work and time it will take to do well. The amount of decisions, archive rummaging, gathering and writing immediately made me feel a bit panicky. All those feelings though, were counteracted by being excited to revisit some of my favourite work, people and places. This seemed like a good place to start.

Not only is this set of images significant to me because it’s my first roll of film, but it’s the first time I conceived an idea and set out to make images to represent that idea. It’s also the first time I combined photography and art. But more importantly, Grace is one of the most talented creative people I know and has always been a great inspiration to me. She started taking photos before I did and inspired me to pick up the camera. She became a painter and inspired me to paint again. The same goes for printmaking and design. Grace usually got to these things first and even now constantly shows me things I’m interested in.

More recently she has been making the most amazing kids clothes under the name Lark, and it was amazing to shoot some photos for her - something I’ll share later in this archive. A true artist and creative megaforce!

My sister, Grace, Devon 1995