Interview with Laura Banfield for CCP x Hahnemühle Summer Salon 2023

Photography by Laura Banfield

We interviewed Laura Banfield, a multi-disciplinary artist inspired by movement, currently exhibiting at the CCP x Hahnemühle Summer Salon 2023. In her practice, Laura merges her background in dance and fashion with image-making, performance, and design. Laura talks to the origins of her artistic journey, which began with early experimentation in Photoshop; these initial experiences have significantly influenced her present work, where she actively challenges societal norms and pushes the boundaries of fashion photography.

Laura Banfield (2021)
*Frame Within Frame* (series)
archival pigment print

Hey Laura tell us about yourself, your background and how you ended up in photography.

My art practice sits at the intersection of image-making, performance, and design. I explore relationships between bodies, material, and images through photography, video, choreographed performance, installation, wearable artefacts, and collaboration. My work often questions consumer culture, depicts speculative devices, and aims to expand beyond the conventions of pose in fashion imagery.

My background is in dance and fashion design; however, my interest in image-making began at a young age. I used Photoshop to edit found images and create collaged compositions from around 12 years old. More recently, I wanted to learn how to document my work and taught myself how to shoot. Since then, I have found that both creating images and thinking about how we engage with images have become important aspects of my practice. After all, images play a significant role in how we access and engage with the world today.

What is the story behind your submitted works?

The photograph is from a series called Frame Within Frame. A body-suspending apparatus is depicted, facilitating the model's exploration of their body's ability to twist, bend, and extend. The series is captured with a roving camera, offering a variety of viewpoints to expand our understanding of a single knitted suit. (The suit was created by local knitwear designer Laura Galati.) The work calls for deeper consideration of bodies, clothing, and the intersection of the two.

What ideas or themes do you want to explore next?

I keep returning to Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle (1967), a text that remains ever-relevant. Beyond this, I am interested in ideas around embodiment. I think the notion that our bodies remember our historical experiences is very powerful.