Victoria and Albert Museum – Spinning and Weaving!

The latest commission has been rather exciting – there is a lovely lady who has dedicated her life to spinning wool and flax and weaving them into incredible woollen and linen pieces. She uses only the very traditional techniques and materials, and her work is now to be photographed and archived by the V&A.  It has been a great commission to have, but photographing wool and linen is a very tricky thing to do – not only to get the detail (intricate detail!) in a way that shows it’s beauty, but also to get the colour representation absolutely correct for a museum archive.

Getting to know Ann has been truly inspiring.  She is an incredibly thoughtful and gentle lady whose dedication to her craft is breathtaking.  A real and genuine life-affirming few days.

The 15 woollen pieces we photographed were done in natural light outside to reflect the natural nature of the process.  The linens were done inside using window light and a little boost from 2 “daylight flash” Yongnuo strobes in the background, bounced off the white ceiling and wall.

The portraits of Ann were taken using a single daylight-balanced Elinchrom Quadra with a 60cm shoot through umbrella – in the words of Gregory Heisler… “Motivating the Practical”….