Kirsty Mitchell is an English photographer/fashion designer who has been inspired to pick up the camera as her mother fell ill to brain tumor. Growing up, art has always been a big part of her life. She studied art up until she was twenty five and eventually decided to pursue a career in fashion design.
“Growing up, art became my sole passion. I studied until I was 25, taking courses in the history of art, photography, fine art, and then on to train in ‘costume for film and theatre’ at the London College of Fashion. Having graduated and worked for a short time in the industry, I decided to further my education, and returned to university, completing a first class degree with honours in fashion design, in the summer of 2001. “
Tragically on March 2008 her mother fell ill to a brain tumor and that is when Kirtsy started finding her self in photography. “Photography became my only escape when I could no longer talk about how I felt. I lost myself in street portraiture, focusing on those who reflected my own sadness and loss. I later turned the camera inwards, and began photographing myself throughout the hardest year of my life. It became an utter fantasy that blocked out the real world, and a place where I could return to my memories of her, far away from those hospitals walls.”
As her mother passed on November of 2008, by that time Kirsty was completely engulfed in photography. She found her self producing pieces that echoed of the stories her mother used to tell her as child. “By combining my various backgrounds, I now create images where everything has been designed and produced by myself, and a small team. The costumes, the props, the sets and accessories, are all part of the process that is finally recorded in the finished product of the photograph. It is driven by the need to produce tangible pieces of my dreams, and make it possible to step into the scenes for real.”
“Life has become a different place, ‘a second chance’ is maybe the only way to describe it, and for that I am so grateful. I have had my eyes opened, and no matter how sad the origin of it all was….. I will always cherish the fact this small and precious awakening has happened.”
