Photographer Laura Bailey captures models Florence and Martina on a sunny day in her local park; a reflection upon the current confusing climate we find ourselves now living in and embracing our new normal
Photography and text by Laura Bailey
Styling by Cathy Kasterine
Modelled by Florence @ Tess Management and Martina @ Viva Models
To the Scrubs, the West London park that always reminds me of a different London, some boys, other heatwaves. But also somewhere that has been a safe haven throughout the Lockdown, a dog or a child on each arm. Precious conversations with friends as we wander through a tangle of bracken into a shock of snow white hawthorn blossom. Or kick a ball around the wonky goals. May trees in sunburnt shadows, a solo skater napping on a park bench, head on his board. A deafening silence as I loop the loop seeking comfort in ritual and nature.
Yesterday, as London tentatively started to come back to life, I packed up my Mini with an incongruous mixture of flapjacks and fruit, cameras and PPE. A blanket, SPF 50 and my kids’ cartoon water bottles.
The adrenaline of just seeing what happens, stripped down, back to basics. No crew, no brief. The thrill of simply being able to work, and connect.
Florence arrived on her motorbike, a Sunset Boulevard film noir screenshot. Somehow both Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando. And then Martina strolled into the car park grinning, all Bambi limbs and seventies languid angles. A Tarantino sweetheart.
No touching allowed , but a gang in an instant.
I wanted to shoot them in their own style, raw and in control. Just hanging out. My friend and collaborator super-stylist Cathy Kasterine brought a suitcase of clothes which we laid out on the grass verge as sirens screeched by and dogwalkers circled two by two. Florence and Martina tried a few pieces over their jeans. And we went for a walk.
A circle of trust.
New work.
Park life.