Isabel MacCarthy's work showcases how grief reshapes one's creative vision. After losing her mother while graduating, she found renewed purpose in photography. Growing up on a Norfolk farm, her artistic journey blossomed with a vintage camera gift, leading to a profound relationship with fellow artist Cristiano Di Martino. Their bond encouraged MacCarthy to embrace her artistic identity, allowing her to transform everyday moments into extraordinary visuals. Her recent collection combines documentary photography with stylized portraiture, infusing light and shadow that evoke emotion and depth, reflecting her personal experiences and insights gained through loss.
"I was suddenly really aware of how short life is, and I just wanted to do the thing that I love doing," the artist says over video call from a small, dimly-lit cupboard in her photography studio.
"Since I was a teenager, I've always shot my friends, but photography became a way to hold on to everything and not let it go."
"I feel like he shielded me from all the darkness that was to come. He's a sculptor, I guess that's one of the reasons I fell in love with him. He saw me as the artist I wanted to be, but didn't quite have the courage to be yet."
Casting an otherworldly gaze upon things we overlook every day - a special kind of attention, no doubt, sharpened by grief - her work blends documentary shots of people close to her, cinematic staged portraiture, and abstracted experiments in still life.
Collection
[
|
...
]