Karen Arthur: South London and Proud

  • Kid Circus

I recently connected with clothing designer Karen via Instagram, and was instantly taken with her incredible character and sense of style. I approached her with the idea of us doing a shoot together to capture her in her South London home (I seem to have made some incredible connections since becoming a South Londoner). She loved the fact that I shoot on film and we spent a lovely afternoon, chatting, laughing and putting the world to rights. It was a real pleasure to meet and shoot with her. The black and white pictures are the result of me learning to develop film for the first time, and for that I have Dan Fontanelli @ the Brightrooms, the darkroom, studio & lab in Peckham to thank. He very patiently gave me an incredible lesson in how to develop film.

This suitcase belonged to Karen's late Aunt Monica, who carried it here from Barbados in the early '60s. It contains letters from her dad and a dress pattern she cut out but never sewed together.