I'm delighted to have won the People & Lifestyle category of the 2021 Spotlight Awards! The winning image was "Dre and Tom, 2019", shot in Brighton, UK.
This is part of a series where I’ve blended models into their backgrounds by working with a knitting friend, Nina Dodd, to create custom knitwear that matches the location.
The models blend in to a greater or lesser degree, and their faces are the main jarring element. It was important to me to work with a slow, analogue medium rather than to create these images with CGI. There are multiple layers to be discovered, hidden details to spot. Above all I wanted to make people smile.
Often when looking for models I wander the streets for hours or days, searching for inspiration. I’d wanted to step away from the stereotypes of people who fish so I went to a skatepark. Tom and Dre were surprised to be asked to model but agreed.
This is one of my favourite images from the project - you can see more here: https://josephford.net/project/knitted-camouflage/
A big thank you to the judges:
Natasscha Girelli, Tiffany Huang Ou-Yang, Kevin Lennox and Clara Ho.