Local East Sheen photographer, Jocelyn Horsfall, has just won the world-renowned Chelsea Physic Garden’s Spring Flower Photography Competition. Here, she tells Pippa Duncan how getting the perfect picture is more than just pointing the camera
Photography is in Jocelyn Horsfall’s genes. Both her grandfather and mother were photographers, but it was only after years of working in the advertising world that she followed heart and became a professional photographer herself more than 20 years ago, specialising in atmospheric and evocative images inspired by flowers, foliage and the natural world.
In that time she has won numerous awards for her work – including International Garden Photographer of the Year in 2018 and four awards in 2017 – and holding exhibitions at the Nash Conservatory in Kew Gardens, Blenheim Palace and Cambridge Botanical Gardens. And she has just been named as Grand Prize Winner by the Chelsea Physic Garden in their Spring Flower Photography Competition with her work, Magnolia Light, pictured above.
‘I am so honoured and thrilled to win this competition. Magnolias have always symbolised Spring to me and are such beautiful, sensuous flowers.’ While Jocelyn uses many techniques to create the images she wants, this particular image needed very little editing: ‘The light on the main flower in my winning photograph was magical and I emphasised this by keeping everything else out of focus.’
Jocelyn’s style is painterly and impressionistic – as well as the examples on these pages, our beautiful front covers are her work – combining a strong sense of colour and form with an interest in textural effects and abstraction and she is drawn to the natural beauty of flowers, with their wonderful colours and curves and delicate beauty.
She uses a range of cameras and techniques to produce the look she wants: ‘I use soft focus, multiple exposure and camera movement to create images with a fluid, organic feel and am often drawn to the intimate details found in nature that are revealed beyond the normal viewpoint.’
For instance, her Flowers In Water series (No 1) was done in the studio. ‘I wanted to take some shots of forget-me-nots underwater because they breathe below the surface and you get tiny bubbles on the flowers. I love that you can see above and below the water line.’
For Glassworks (No 2), Jocelyn would arrive in the early mornings at the water lily glasshouse in Kew Gardens, setting up her tripod outside and photographing the inside foliage and condensation through the windows, producing a beautiful, ethereal, almost ghostly effect. ‘You’ve got foliage leaning against the window, trying to get out, you’ve got moss and sometimes dirt, but that just adds to the texture.’
Her most recent work is much more abstract (No 3), using an effect called cynotypes, or sun prints, which uses chemicals on watercolour paper to make it sensitive to light. ‘You arrange foliage on the paper, put it under glass and leave it in the sun or under a UV lamp and then take the image as you wash off the leaves. You can add colours and textures, so it’s a really fun process.’
Lockdown gave Jocelyn more time to explore nature in Richmond Park and Kew Gardens as well as hone different techniques.
Her work is sought after by companies for their wall spaces as well as by private buyers. She is at the Sussex West Art Fair at Goodwood, 2-4 July, and will be the Landmark Arts Centre’s Autumn Art Fair, 16-17 October. You can see more of Jocelyn’s work at jocelynhorsfall.com.
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