Featured Photographer, Kate Isherwood

Recent Work by Kate Isherwood

I grew up in an old house within a small hamlet reached by way of a winding Devon lane. Many would find it too solitary a location, but my childhood-self inhabited a world of day-dreams and although I was often afflicted by a sense of boredom synonymous with never-ending Sunday afternoons, I recognized early-on the depth of my attachment to this place…’

Kate Isherwood was born in 1966 and grew up in South Devon. Although she originally trained as an Illustrator, her abiding passion for photography was re-invigorated after seeing the work made by James Ravilious in North Devon.

Kate’s photographic practice explores deeply personal narratives often combining image and text. In Voices in the Dark Water she revisits the dream-like quality of childhood memories; and the significance of her formative rural experience led to Shadows of the Past in which she visually explored the nature of her abiding attachment to a particular landscape. Kate also instigates photographic projects concerned with examining the experience of contemporary rural life, as can be seen in her work Pictures of Rural Childhood.

Kate Isherwood graduated from the University of Plymouth in 2008 with a first class BA (hons) in Photography, where she was also awarded the Greg O’Shea Memorial Prize given to one student in recognition of their outstanding photographic practice throughout the degree. She has recently embarked on a two year, part-time MRes at Plymouth, where she will be researching the work of landscape photographers in Britain during the 19th Century, with particular emphasis on notions of Place and Identity.