A natural frame
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Words by Hannah Tapping
Guided by instinct, photographer Imogen Rosemary has built a practice rooted in human connection.
Photography has always been about people for Imogen Rosemary. For her, the shutter does not simply capture the person, it embodies a trust and collaboration that happens before a single frame is taken. Largely self-taught, Imogen came to photography through instinct rather than formal training. She studied creative advertising at Falmouth University, but it was a grandmother’s old film camera, brought back to student lodgings on a whim, that changed everything. “It was the first time that something had clicked,” she tells me. “I was like, this is what I want to do!” That first roll of film led to three years working alongside Cornwall-based fashion brand Naked Generation, where the company’s founder encouraged her to bring her camera on set.
From behind-the-scenes to centre stage, Imogen never looked back. After more than a decade living and working in Cornwall, she is now based in London, though she returns regularly as the county, and the people in it, including family, remain a constant thread through her work. Her commercial practice spans portraits, interiors and lifestyle with work published in national press, and an ever-growing client base built largely through personal recommendation. However, it is portraiture that sits closest to her heart.
Imogen’s approach is deliberate in its gentleness. Shooting primarily in natural light, Imogen directs with conversation rather than instruction. “We’ll often have a chat over a cup of tea first, before taking any shots. Nothing’s deliberately posed,” she explains, “behind the photograph is literally me and the subject having a chat. We might then pause, while I take some shots.”
For someone who spent several years refusing to be photographed herself, she understands intimately what it means to sit in front of a lens. That empathy extends to her editorial principles too. There is no retouching of wrinkles or altering bodies. She photographs real people and does so with a palette informed by film photography. Her portraiture has a visual warmth that resists the clinical and holds an instinct for the extraordinary moment hiding in an ordinary room.
Top Left: I Cut So You Can Grow | Top Right: The Seasons Live On Above Left: The Secret Garden | Above Right: Take Flight
