Lettuce, legs and leaping for photographer Nicola Bensley
Lettuce, legs and long-distance travel weave a narrative that looks to reveal the beauty of everyday life in the work of photographer Nicola Bensley.
Her new London retrospective exhibition, features images from her travels in countries including Budapest and Vietnam.
The show is entitled Capriole – which the Oxford English Dictionary informs us is a horse-riding movement in which a horse ‘leaps from the ground and kicks out with its hind legs’- perhaps a reference to the joie de vivre of Bensley’s practice.
‘I am always seeking to record the beauty in the everyday and the truth behind the bizarre’, says Bensley.
‘Throughout my career I have been inspired by many photographers, from Julia Margaret Cameron’s spectral fantasies to Sally Mann’s feral family; from the genius of Cartier Bresson to the sensual beauty of early Lartigue.’
As well as images of her travels, the show will also feature Bensley’s portrait work, including Fabienne:
The images are all captured using black and white film, and are presented as silver gelatin handprints on fibre-based paper.
Bensley deliberately shuns digitally reworking of her pictures, instead feeling that her analogue approach is more suited to the way she wishes to portray ‘human expression and emotion’.
Capriole runs from 1 – 15 May at Pearlfisher Gallery, 50 Brook Green, London, W6 7BJ
I went to the opening night. Nicola’s work is absolutely stunning. Every image tells a story. Well worth a visit!
Such a beautiful collection of photographs. Looking forward to viewing the complete exhibition at Pearlfisher Gallery.
Nicola’s photographs are sublime, and so beautifully printed. It’s a wonderful exhibition.