'Quints' won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Award 2008.
My thanks to all those who contributed to making this image, especially Carolyne, Tim, Alicia, Marla, Emma, Annabel, Lauren and Marianne.
The exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London from 6/11/08 until 15/2/09, and admission is free.
click here for more details

My ongoing project 'Memories and Nightmares' is concerned with making portraits of people via early childhood memories or nightmares. At the beginning of 2008 I asked several of my friends to send me written accounts of either an early childhood memory or a nightmare. I have been using the resulting stories as inspiration for a series of images.

We all have our own tales and myths which we use to tell our lives. In many ways, memories are an essentially human experience, and over the years they can often change. For instance, an early childhood memory will be retold and re-remembered, and the way one person describes an event may be different to others' memory of it. In recounting nightmares, some people remember a clear narrative, others only a particular feeling or location. And of course the surreal or impossible elements of the dream, which at the time of dreaming seem entirely logical, are often the most fascinating. Our memories are part of the collection of human stories, and by using them as inspiration for these images I hope to celebrate them and encourage us to tell us more about ourselves.

                                                           

The images you see here are just the beginning - there are more to come, I've been given so many fantastic, crazy and brilliant stories to work with. If you would like to add your memory or nightmare to the project, please do, I'd love to hear from you.

email Lottie about the project

For print sales and fine art enquiries, please contact Eric Franck Fine Art on +44 (0)20 7394 9743 or eric@ericfranck.com