The Earth Issue / Part One
An earth conscious series of stories created by Mollie Rose and Sam Carder, we strip our creativity back to its roots and tell the tale of borrowing: to take and use something belonging to somebody else with the intention of returning it. All clothing in this series was borrowed from friends and friends of friends. As a photographer and stylist respectively working within the creative industry, we have first hand experience of seeing the detrimental impact of ‘newness’. With this series we wanted to address the stigma and negative connotations surrounding the idea of ‘borrowed’ or ‘second hand’ clothes. The beauty of borrowing clothes holds stories from others and can lead to the mystery of the unknown. This is how our story came to life; not knowing and not planning too heavily made space for creative freedom and expression with each individuals personal wardrobe. We were delighted, but not too surprised, to discover this freedom became the dictating factor for our time spent creating and in turn; room to tell a truthful story. The freedom we found was amplified due to the nature of 2020 and the familiar feeling of staying inside. It was liberating to not have a directive or constrained idea of what we wanted to create. The chains were off, creating a feeling of freedom and joy, and in the editing days that followed the shoot days, surprised us with a sense of nostalgia. We believe this time, as important as the shoot days itself, was nurtured and curated with love. Essential to our story, is our understanding of the dichotomy of the natural world and our place as artists in it. Amongst our stories we were gifted a plethora of weathers, from 36 degree heat, to spontaneous rain and bitter cold, to a multicoloured lollipop sunset. This impacted the way our images looked in a literal sense; the colour palettes, warm light, shadows and greys. Yet what seemed like the forever changing mood of nature also influenced our spirit. That is beauty of working with the unpredictability of nature. The landscape appears to take centre stage in our imagery; people second. We are guests.
