Images and words by Phoebe Kelly
Interview by Ece Yavuz

Photo edited by Ece Yavuz

Describe your creative process in one word.

Intuitive

Do you have any new works coming up in 2023 you are excited to share with Musee Magazine?

I’m currently in the process of sorting through my archive and pulling together a body of work from the last few years to hopefully have an exhibition and put together a small publication by the end of the year. I’m planning on hand printing the work which will be a great opportunity to spend some time in the darkroom and develop those skills a bit more.

I noticed you follow a diaristic approach with your work, how did you develop that point of view?

I think because I’m self-taught I naturally begun by photographing what I was seeing and experiencing in a moment, which has developed into a diaristic, personal approach – I’m pretty much constantly photographing my home and those close to me. However, I would like to experiment with different modes of working and how a more structured or planned approach to photographing might feel and result in different kinds of work.

How do you decide when to combine different mediums, whether it be black and white with color or combining various formats?

I shoot a lot of 35mm day to day as the cameras can be easier to carry around and capture something in the spur of a moment, but I am enjoying trying to shift into shooting more medium format as I enjoy the depth of detail, as well as being forced to slow down – I think both formats lend themselves to different kinds of images, and so enjoy combining them for various effects. I would also like to shoot more black and white film this year, as it takes a totally different way of looking at a moment or scene.

There seems to be a softness to your photography, what elements or moments do you look for when you are photographing?

I’m always looking for subtle shifts in light and fleeting gestures, expressions or movement that speak to the temporality of a moment. I often find myself photographing light moving across a space or people turning towards or away from the camera as I find these moments quite beautiful.

If you could teach a one-hour class on anything, what would it be?

Maybe something on the observation of light across a day, or a photo walk around a local area would be fun too.

What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?

I saw the documentary Fire of Love by Sara Dosa a few months ago and still haven’t stopped thinking about it –the colours and framing of the 16mm footage is incredible and makes me want to shoot moving image.