Emma Summerton

Words – Emma Summerton, Fine Art Photography, Color, B/W, Hand-Embellished

2023

Emma Summerton graduated from the National Art School in Sydney, where she studied fine arts, majoring in Photography. Summerton moved to London in 1998, where she worked as an assistant to artist Fiona Banner while starting her career as a photographer. Her breakthrough as a professional photographer came with the collaboration with Terry de Havilland in 2004/2005, after which she held her first solo exhibition, titled Landed, at the Christophe Guye Galerie from August 29 to November 23, 2019, exhibiting a large selection of her most important works. Since then, Summerton has established herself as one of the most talented photographers to emerge in the mid-2000s. Her in-depth technical knowledge, coupled with her eye for detail and love for fashion, has made her images not unique but very distinctive, setting her apart from other photographers working in the industry today. Summerton's work revolves around the themes of fashion, love, desire and intimacy. Her polaroid works are part of a project Summerton started in 1999 as a series of self-portraits, firstly as visual love letters to her then partner and also in an attempt to re-find her voice with photography.