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When a celebrated interiors stylist and much respected lifestyle photographer come together to work on a personal project, you know the results are going to be special.
Vanessa Colyer Tay has been an interiors and prop stylist for ten years, was the former Style Editor at Inside Out magazine, and is current Interiors Contributor to Sunday Style magazine. Sam McAdam Cooper is a much respected Sydney based photographer, known for her beautiful interiors and decorating stories for titles including Inside Out and Country Style. The pair first met on a shoot for Inside Out magazine around 8 years ago.
‘It was the very first shoot for Inside Out for both of us, we were shooting a collection of egg cups in a nest, in an old photographic studio that resembled a shed!’ recalls Vanessa. The pair quickly developed a brilliant working relationship, and in the years that have passed since then, have worked on countless shoots together for various editorial publications and brands.
But it wasn’t until this year that Vanessa and Sam decided to work on a personal project together. ‘Each time we work together we chat about how nice it would be to shoot something, just for us’ says Vanessa. ‘We are masters at delivering the needs of a client’s brief, but in having our client’s best interest as our number one priority for all of our commissioned work, we both craved a little soul magic for ourselves’.
And so the ‘Folia’ series was born. This collection of stunning photographic prints was inspired, in part, by a desire to uncover the beauty of fleeting moments. ‘Both Sam and I are in very busy points of life, juggling young children, career and passions’ Vanessa explains. ‘Time moves really fast if we let it, so pausing to appreciate moments is absolutely essential.’
Whilst the pair are used to featuring new design pieces and on-trend products in many of their commercial shoots, for this project they relished the opportunity to source a more eclectic array of props, from charity store vases to a vibrant mix of beautiful blooms, many of which were salvaged from the throw-out pile at their local florist!
Sam and Vanessa have just released their series online, but are also harbouring grand plans to tour their photographs to some of their favourite cities over the coming year. We have our fingers crossed for a Melbourne exhibition, ladies!
Sam and Vanessa’s Folia series is limited to an edition of 20 photographic prints on archival paper per image, available online here, starting from AU$440.
