Lottie Davies born in Guildford, UK, in 1971. She had a conventional childhood with her parents and her siblings in Surrey and studied in Alton and Godalming. After a degree in philosophy at St Andrews University in Scotland, she moved back to England to learn to be photographer in London, where she has since been based.
Davies’ unique style has been employed in a variety of contexts, including newspapers, magazines, books and advertising. She has won recognition in numerous awards, including the Association of Photographers’ Awards, the International Color Awards, and the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Awards. Her work has garnered international acclaim with the image Quints, which won First Prize at the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Awards 2008 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
As documental photographer, she is focused on little known communities with political and ethnical problems, keeping her critical eye on the contemporary western culture, with the desire to show lifestyles of people who go unseen.
Her travels and editorial work touch many different subjects, from numbered productions of high quality pieces to documental images. The ability to discuss different topics enriches her pieces of artwork, which has made her becoming known rapidly.
Davies’ work is concerned with stories and personal histories, the tales and myths we use to structure our lives: memories, life-stories, and beliefs. She takes inspiration from classical and modern painting, cinema and theatre as well as the imaginary worlds of literature. She employs a deliberate reworking of our visual vocabulary, playing on our notions of nostalgia, visual conventions and subconscious ‘looking habits’, with the intention of evoking a sense of recognition, narrative and movement. Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, has described Davies’ work as “brilliantly imaginative”.
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