Carolyn Lefley United Kingdom
Carolyn Lefley is a photographer, artist and educator. Her work uses photography and moving image to explore belonging, folklore, deep time and the natural world. She makes work in the rural landscape and in the studio using playful dioramas. Carolyn works with digital photography to create manipulated realities as well as using traditional techniques such as cyanotypes and liquid emulsion.
‘Tide’ is a long-term project which explores the rhythm of the tide and the waxing and waning of the Moon. Using photography, moving image and cameraless techniques, ‘Tide’ looks down into the microscopic world of the tide pool and gazes up at the lunar surface. This project is an immersive odyssey into tidal rhythms, submerging into underwater forests, as surreal moons float in inky blue waters. ‘Tide’ reflects on how the moon influences the sea and how we are all bodies of water. Images have been made above and below the water, revealing the hidden, liminal world beneath the surface of the waves. Photographs of the phases of the Moon merge with seascapes to create layered images. Using moving image, the spiralling, circular form of the ammonite echoes the moon’s disc and movement, referencing links between deep time, the ocean, and celestial forces. ‘Tide’ is a visual paean to the ebb and flow of the tide.
"Relocating to Somerset in 2015 from London, and with a sudden ability to see the clear night sky, I started noticing the lunar cycle. In turn I became more aware of cyclic rhythms in my own life and in my own body. I began to photograph the full Moon each lunar cycle, researching folklore behind the ancient seasonal naming of each full Moon. I discovered all year-round sea swimming, drawn to the cathartic sensation of immersion and floating in cold saltwater. Memories of childhood rock pooling were rekindled hunting for seaweed specimens to create cameraless cyanotype prints. I started noticing traces of an ancient sea, finding ammonites in the fields by my home near the Somerset levels."
‘Tide’ has been developed and supported by:
Somerset Art Works Project Development Bursary (2019 – 2020)
A funded studio residency at East Quay, with supporting bursary from the Onion Collective (2021)
a-n Artist Newsletter Artist Bursary (2023 – 2024)
