Kate Friend

Lyndsey Ingram is pleased to present our upcoming exhibition, As Chosen By … Part II. This is Kate Friend’s second solo show at the gallery and is the final instalment of this series of work.

In these portraits, her ‘sitters’ are flowers or plants, each one selected by a recognisable public figure or creative who is then recast through their botanical alter ego. Friend’s approach to making this series is rigorous: a single flower and vessel, chosen by the sitter, is shot in natural light at their home, studio or garden on medium format film. Each photograph is as much a portrait of a place and time as it is a portrait of a person and a flower. The coloured background for each image is selected by Friend, with the choice driven both by the aesthetic of the chosen flower and by a deeper intuitive sense of her sitter’s character. Although the methodology is concise and consistent, the resulting variety of images is testament to the array of unique personalities included in the project.

The show also includes a selection of items, specially commissioned by Kate, that relate to the making of her works. This includes handmade white porcelain vases by Karen Downing (Norfolk, UK) artisan free-blown glass vases by Yoko Yamano (Stockholm, Sweden) and black-forged carbon steel scissors by Ikenami Hamano (Tanegashima Island, Japan).

Sitters include: Anjelica Huston, Sir Paul Smith, Kulapat Yantrasast, Piet Oudolf, Luciano Giubbilei, Ai Weiwei, Claudia Schiffer, Tom Stuart-Smith, Yinka Ilori, Simone Rocha, Tania Compton, Georgie Hopton, Olivia Laing, Sue Stuart-Smith, Jamie Compton, Fernando Caruncho, Amanda Feilding, Ron Finley, Maggi Hambling, Polly Nicholson, Olivia Harrison, Dan Pearson, Penny Rimbaud, Margot Henderson, Duncan Grant, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Bethan Wood, Isabella Tree, Juergen Teller, Charlie McCormick, Molly Goddard, Jeremy Lee, Margaret Howell, Alys Fowler, John Pawson, Amanda Harlech.

Kate Friend was born in the UK. An early desire to explore set in motion a pattern of perpetual solo travel. She lived in Beijing and studied Chinese, before returning to London to begin a career in photography. Over the next decade Kate pursued photography commissions in New York, Iceland, Indonesia and Tokyo. During this time she published her own limited edition arts publication titled Mother. Originally sold in boutiques, galleries and independent art bookstores worldwide, such as Dover Street Market, Colette and the Tate, the printed volumes are now collectors’ items. This led to commissions and collaborations with Commes des Garçons, Issey Miyake and Maison Margiela.

Kate’s current botanical still life work has been recognised by The New York Times, Wallpaper*, World of Interiors, The Observer and The Financial Times. Her Botanical Portraits series first exhibited at the Garden Museum in 2018. Kate’s recent botanical series, As Chosen By, first showed at Lyndsey Ingram Gallery in 2021.

Kate shoots exclusively on film, both medium and large format. The final prints are fine art C-types, made using a unique museumgrade printing process, exposing light onto colour paper. The print is then developed and hand-washed using traditional photographic techniques.

Kate’s first monograph, As Chosen By, was published by Ridinghouse and Lyndsey Ingram in September 2023. Kate currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal, with her partner and their son.