kathryn joseph — Blog

I met Kathryn Jospeh to take pictures for Oh Comely late last year when the winter season had begun its stern grip.

Suggesting the feature to lovely Frances at Oh Comely was made on a whim after I shared a bottle of red wine with my friends Nemone and Fleur - both of whom nudged me to do it. I’m a fan of Kathryn’s and thought she’d be perfect for the magazine. Luckily, they all agreed and I found myself collaborating with writer Jessica Furseth ( you can read her feature here). I’ve known Jessica for a few years and I thoroughly enjoyed reading her piece and found parts of it relatable. “At 43, you could call Joseph a late bloomer, except that she’s always been making music – just, you know, for herself”. I feel this way sometimes about my own work. It also reminds me of a recent comment by a man who said all of his favourite photographers were women in the 40s plus who were mothers. He couldn’t understand why they were overlooked in the bid to find the next hot young thing. Parental status aside, age affords plenty of stories.

As for the photographs of Kathryn, I prefer to shoot in natural light but I knew ahead of time that we’d be doing these pictures at night. The only option I had was to shoot on cinestill 800 and find whatever light was available. Lit stairways, light bouncing through windows and a bright bathroom.

Kathryn is currently on tour in the UK.

**Kathryn Joseph for Oh Comely, issue 47**

I’ve come to look forward to my annual year in review. I’m not much of a blogger but the odd scraps I write up here are getting a bit better. My website has had a little face-lift too with the addition of a ‘places’ section and a general tidy up.

Last year I wrote that I’d be scaling things back in 2018 which is funny now that I think about it. I’ve packed in more this year than I ever have before. I knew I had to focus on other things, but the universe didn’t really agree with those plans.

Some of the things I’ve been up to, in no particular order…

I exhibited six times. Four times with Shutter Hub (The Shutter Hub Open at 5&33 in Amsterdam and Truman Brewey in London, Because We Can at Festival Pil’ours in France and Girl Town Tel Aviv, at Alfred Gallery in Tel Aviv), a co-headline exhibition called Dino Island and The Lake with Nik Strangelove and at the British Museum Staff Art Show. I was also featured at FIX Photo Festival at Menier Gallery
I moved house and couldn’t stop photographing it
The super hard-working power house Karen Harvey of Shutter Hub asked me to curate an exhibition called Out of the Ordinary which is on until the end of January
I was 2nd in the judges vote for Women of the Year at FIX Photo Festival
I went to Italy to do a little photography work, and onto Zurich after that to photograph a party
Lomography gave me a Diana 120 to test
I pitched an idea to a magazine, they said yes, and it’ll be published in February 2019.
I’ve just finished working on something with Stylus Boy
I was fortunate to be on the long list of nomations for the Hundred Heroines

One of the non-photography projects I’ve worked on this year has been a pre-requisite for getting to the next stage of something really huge. I’ve gone back chronologically and written, in great detail, about every significant moment in my life and how it made me feel. Doing this kind of work would feel really self-indulgent if not for the fact that someone, in a very professional capacity, needed me to do it. This coincided with winning a place on a cross-boundary leadership programme. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I can assure you that I didn’t think it would be mine either. Both of these non-photography related things have been really magical in ways that I hadn’t expected. 2017 closed a few doors for me, but this year they swung back open again.

There are a couple of things in my notebook for 2019. Let’s see what happens.

These photographs are some of my favourites taken with Olympus Pen EE2, Canon AE-1 and Diana 120. Go here for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009.