ISSUE FIVE
Stories
Discover more about the creatives featured inside FAIRE : Issue 5
Valeria Necchio, Italy
Valeria Necchio is a food and travel writer, photographer and author who specialises in Italian culture, particularly that of the Veneto – her region of origin – and of Venice, the city in which she lives and works.
Photography by Francesca Manera
For more information, follow Valeria Necchio on Instagram and on her website
Sophia Mann, France
British artist Sophia Mann first delved into the art world through sculpture, studying art and design at the University of Hertfordshire, before joining the family business as a jewellery designer. In 2009, wanting to explore the symbolism, heritage and history of jewellery, she completed a master’s in jewellery design at Central Saint Martins in London. Sophia now creates sculptural, organic, bespoke jewellery from a studio within her old farmhouse home on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau outside of Paris. She describes the essence of her work as a means ‘to reinstate the sacred link between the object and the individual who wears it’.
Photography by Vanessa Lewis
For more information, find Sophie on her website.
Sarah Rennison Gwynne-Harris for Reclaim Mallorca
Welsh designer Sarah Rennison Gwynne-Harris is creative director and founder of Reclaim Mallorca, a handcrafted luxury brand that produces one-of-a-kind, luxury, sustainable bags and accessories. Her bags are crafted with the principles of recover, repair, restore, reuse and recycle. Since launching in 2019, Sarah has opened a dedicated workshop in a late 19th-century shoe factory in the village of Lloseta, Mallorca with a female-led team of local creatives at her side.
Photography by Ruth Ribeaucourt
For more information, follow Shannon on her website or Instagram
Ruth Steadman
Ruth Steadman is a writer and storyteller. She authors the column for ‘Stories of Salt and Starlight’ for Faire Magazine. Ruth has also been published in Oh Magazine, while her poetry can be found in the anthology Poems For The NHS, and Popshot Magazine, as well as in a variety of poetry journals. She is currently working on her first non-fiction book, and building a performance storytelling practice.
Photograph by @gary.eason
For more information, follow Ruth on Instagram and on her website
Luciano Zarotti, Italy
Solitary, silent, superb, Luciano Zarotti turned his technical experience and thorough knowledge of materials into the unshakeable foundations of his art. Just like Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese did in the 16th century, he works with earth and other natural pigments, uses tempera grassa, mixes animal glue, flour paste, egg and oil, and prepares his paper in the manner of Cennino Cennini and Leonardo da Vinci. As the inheritor of a sophisticated legacy of ancient mores and Venetian pictorial traditions, which he learned as the pupil of Luigi Tito, Zarotti set off for Paris at the age of 20 armed with little more than a piece of advice from his Venetian father: ‘Watch out for cars.’ He did, but he mostly sought out the artistic ferment of the Ville Lumière, eventually bringing a host of new ideas back to his studio. In the subsequent 45 years, his path as an artist has been inextricably linked to his teaching at the Venetian Accademia di Belle Arti.
Photography by Zaira Zarotti
Lora Avedian, U.K.
Lora Avedian is a textile artist and designer from London specialising in embroidery and embellishment. Lora has made couture textiles for interiors, arts and fashion and has worked for Tracey Emin, Alexander McQueen and J.W. Anderson. She sells her textiles through The New Craftsmen and launched a range of scarves recently at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She has run workshops at the Barbican Centre, Royal Academy of Arts and Leighton House Museum to name a few.
Photography by Aloha Bonsar-Shaw
For more information, find Lora on Instagram or visit her website
Laines Paysannes, France
As the wool industry in France gradually disappears in the face of global competition and the rise of artificial and synthetic fibres, Olivia Bertrand, her partner, Paul de Latours, and the small team behind Laines Paysannes are starting a revolution in the small rural village of Ariège in south-western France. Together they are transforming wool from their family’s flock of Tarasconnaise sheep, setting an exemplary model for sustainability, transparency and accountability.
Photography by Corinne Schanté-Angelé
For more information, follow Laines Paysannes on Instagram or visit their website
Fiona Pickles, U.K.
Fiona Pickles is an artist working with botanicals, organic elements and flowers grown without chemicals in her steep south-facing hillside garden. Focusing on movement, colour and texture, she is guided by the landscape, seasons and place to create still life designs, painterly images and site-specific installations. After transforming the ordinary and overlooked into something magical, photographing her creations is a further extension of her craft. Fiona lives in West Yorkshire, UK, with her husband, Brian, and rescue whippets, Ruby and Flo.
Photography by Fiona Pickles
For more information, follow Fiona Pickles on Instagram or visit their website
Colleen Southwell, Australia
Australian artist Colleen Southwell, aka the Garden Curator, is a full-time artist, former landscape designer and passionate garden maker. Her paper sculptures are reminiscent of herbarium and entomology specimens and they speak to Colleen’s role in making and nurturing her own garden, her connection to the land and her background in horticulture.
Photography by Em Woollen and Angela Schaffer. Story curated by Liz Schaffer.
For more information, follow Colleen Southwell on Instagram or visit their website
Catherine Willis, France
French artist Catherine Willis describes herself as a ‘sculptor-painter, an amateur botanist, a perfumista, a gardener and an ecologist’. She draws on barks, resins, spices, lichens, essences and found natural objects to create work that celebrates our belonging to the here and now of perfume and mystery.
Photography by Ruth Ribeaucourt
For more information, follow Catherine Willis on Instagram or on her website.
Carolina Breur, Netherlands
Carolina Breur is a Dutch interior designer and avid antique textile collector who shares her home and atelier with her artist husband, Wim Gerbscheid, in Amsterdam. Carolina transforms her treasured collection of antique and vintage textiles, Japanese kimonos and obi, Central Asian suzanis and rare silks into one-of-a-kind lamps and soft furnishings.
Photography by Anne Kruit
For more information, follow Carolina on Instagram or visit their website
Alison Crowther, U.K.
Alison Crowther is a British sculptor and furniture maker who works exclusively with English oak that is sustainably sourced from within the South Downs National Park in the UK. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1989, Alison has received a number of substantial commissions, including Winchester Cathedral (1996), Chatsworth Park, Derbyshire (1999) and the Cass Sculpture Foundation, West Sussex (2006). Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at a wide range of institutions, including New Art Centre, Contemporary Applied Arts (CAA) and Flow Gallery, London.
Photography by Sarah Sheldrake
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Our Contributors
Aloha Bonser-Shaw, U.K.
Photography for Lora Avedian
Aloha Bonser-Shaw is a UK- based photographer whose work predominantly explores themes of nature, life cycles and grief. Aloha loves collaborating with artists from other disciplines and backgrounds and gaining insight into their practices.
Anne Kruit, Netherlands
Photography for Carolina Breuer
Anne Kruit is a Dutch photographer living in Rotterdam, between the North Sea coast and the ‘green heart of the Netherlands’, with its lush meadows, colourful flower fields, and old farmhouses. She studied photography in Rotterdam and art history in Leiden. Inspired by the old Dutch Masters, she uses only natural light in her work, which consists of portraits, and still lifes of food and flowers. Recently she also discovered the joys of photographing craftsmen and designers and their inspiring worlds of handmade arts and treasures.
Isolde Lehrmann, Bavaria
Photography for Stories
Isolde Lehrmann was born in Freising, Bavaria. She is a professional violinist and has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra since 2001. In 2016 she spontaneously bought a camera in Napoli, Italy on her travels. In the years since she has honed her craft under the tutelage of photographers such as Zaira Zarott and Signe Bay. Isolde specialises in still life compositions and portraiture and her true passion is scenic photography.
Vanessa Lewis, U.K.
Photography for Sophia Mann
Vanessa has been photographing lifestyle and food for the last 20 years. She has lived in South Africa and , New Zealand and currently lives in France with her family. Her camera has taken her from Shinjuku to Oaxaca to Paul Bocuse’s kitchen. Things that make her smile: -coffee and brioche, sunny weather, cold champagne and bubble baths.
Ann Madden, U.S.A.
Photography for Adrienne Brown David
Ann Dinwiddie Madden’s photographs and mixed media pieces have been shown at galleries and museums all over the US. Born and raised in New Orleans, Ann has lived and worked in Washington, DC and New York City. She now splits her time behind the camera between New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Ann is perpetually on the hunt for potential collaborators, unexpected beauty and new adventures.
Angela Schaffer, Australia
Photography for Colleen Southwell
Angela Schaffer is a Sydney-based photographer who has loved photography since childhood, her experimentation only limited by the cost of film and development at the time. Documenting everything from life’s nuances to landscapes shaped by time, her work frequently explores the idea of 'home' and has been published in magazines including Lodestars Anthology and In The Moment. She is currently working on her first book about the fascinating women of New South Wales.
Liz Schaffer, Australia
Curator for Colleen Southwell
Liz Schaffer is the founder and creative director of Lodestars Anthology, an independent magazine-meets-journal that, has explored a single country in every issue since 2014. Australian raised and (normally) London based, she's also a freelance writer, editor and photographer specialising in travel, food and the arts –- it's all about chasing the sublime and losing track of time in artists’ studios. She has also edited, Pathways and volume 1 of the Unyoked Writer's Anthology.
Corinne Schanté-Angelé, France
Photography for Laines Paysannes
Corinne Schanté-Angelé is a photographer and journalist who lives on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau in France. For over 20 years, she has been photographing features for interiors, travel, and lifestyle magazines. She especially enjoys photographing craftsmen and designers and discovering their manufacturing secrets.
Sarah Sheldrake, U.K.
Photography for Alison Crowther
Receiving commissions from within the UK and overseas, Sarah is a commercial and editorial photographer working often but not exclusively on portraiture projects. Her clients include both textile and garden designers, artists, restaurants and schools, for whom she endeavours to authentically capture their essence and visually narrate their story with empathy.
Em Wollen, Australia
Photography for Colleen Southwell
Em Wollen is an Australian photographer living in remote Western NSW, specialising in weddings, lifestyle and branding. She’s best known for her timeless imagery and — storytelling through light. Capturing the imperfect, real and raw details is her passion –- the true, beautiful essence of people and objects. A caffeine and connection addict, Em thrives on energetic collaboration — and the beauty in the everyday.
Zaira Zarotti, Italy
Photography for Luciano Zarotti
Born to two artists, native Venetian Zaira Zarotti is a fine art photographer, visual storyteller, writer, and ceramicist living and working in the Venetian countryside. Inspired by strong connections to her cultural heritage and her family’s artistic history, she creates photographic tableaux — that she shares through her blog and Instagram, both titled ‘The Freaky Table’. Zaira shares her life and studio with her partner Francesco, with whom she also co-created The Freaky Raku ceramics studio.