The mystical underworld of Fe
We invited singer-songwriter Fe to share with us her process and passion for photography. Her work gives voice to her inner self, reflecting mystery and wonder throughout her practice. Fe creates lumen and cyanotype prints using sunlight and full moonlight, developed directly onto photographic paper.
Photography Fe
Bleeding Bluebell. Lumen print
The Process –
I create both my lumen prints and cyanotype botanical work using alternative developing processes’ originating from the 16th century. I wanted to immortalise flowers so they could outlive their seasonal destiny and have an everlasting life.
It began as a series of small experiments during the summer. Whenever I was able to, I would utilise both sunlight and full moonlight to develop onto photographic paper and use the blooming flowers around me. I would develop the prints on expired, rotting photographic papers from the 1980s that I have collected over the years. This process brought an unpredictable and unique beauty to the finished piece that is hard to replicate.
The more I was experimenting, the more curious I became. I didn’t necessarily want a typically clean image, especially for my cyanotypes. I wanted to disturb them, erode them, and corrupt their delicate original composition, as nature would.
Cyanotype
I also disrupt my lumens. They have a glowing, ethereal heartbeat of their own without having to touch them. However, I wanted to push them further. I would add certain chemicals and leave them for a few days, sometimes weeks at a time. However long it took for me to feel satisfied. The colours begin to create their own symphony on paper, and each day a new note is revealed.
I began preserving tiny moments that were precious to me in this way, adapting to the possibilities that each season brought me. During the summer, I explore process-based photography techniques, using both the rays of the sun and the full moonlight to print. And when Winter comes, I tend switch back to traditional photography and work more in the darkroom.
Soft Threads, lumen print
“The more I was experimenting, the more curious I became. I didn’t necessarily want a typically clean image, especially for my cyanotypes. I wanted to disturb them, erode them, and corrupt their delicate original composition.”
Intricacies Of The Heart, lumen print
Alone Together, lumen print
“This process brought an unpredictable and unique beauty to the finished piece that is hard to replicate.”
Cyanotype
Cyanotype
Portrait of Fe
About Fe
Fe is a London born singer-songwriter & photographer.
Her work, emphasised by her private persona, evokes a sense of mystery, wonder & often darkness. Different motives carry the same delicacy, and always leaves an intriguing layer to be revealed.
She has been photographing from the age of 16, studying the work of Brassai, Bill Brandt, Anne Bridgman & Francesca Woodman to name a few, then worked as a photographer for the BBC in her early 20s before venturing into music.
Her independent music releases have been championed by the likes of MTV, Complex Magazine & Harper’s Bazaar. She has worked alongside Mario Testino to soundtrack a film for Vogue’s anniversary issue and opens French Montana’s ‘Jungle Rules’ Platinum certified album with her song ‘Whiskey Eyes’.
She paired her photography and music by directing and filming her song ‘Daffodils of Paris’. Which Zane Lowe premiered on Apple Music.
More recently she has delved back into her first love of photography and is exploring both alternative photography processing and traditional darkroom developing.
To see more of her work follow her on Instagram
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