Velvet Black – Notes is Fleur Olby’s first solo show combining her series ‘Velvet Black’ and ‘Notes’.

Velvet Black is a present-day ode to Victorian plant shows, with black velvet backdrops and their cultivation of indoor-outdoor window theatres. The series started as a photographic notebook of planting a garden, and is resonant of a flower press, portraying the transience of daylight and blooms.

Velvet Black is in the photobook collections of The V&A’S National Art Library, The Aperture Library and The Martin Parr Foundation Library. It launched at Impressions Photobook Fair in October 2018.

The book series, “Velvet Black” was the start of the wider series, “Notes,” from both childhood places and the garden. An abstraction of the historic and impressions of the past and present.

Limited editions and books will be available from the Shop.

Printed by Genesis Imaging.

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Fleur Olby is based in a rural area of North Yorkshire, her photographic work is inspired by the environment, the transformative spirit of nature – the experience or sensation of ‘beauty’. Olby established her studio practice in London (1993) after graduating from St Martin’s School of Art with an MA Photography show of environmental details and flowers. Since then her work has been published, commissioned and exhibited internationally.

From 1995 – 2002 amongst commissioned work she was a contributor to, The Observer Life Magazine, working on Monty Don’s weekly garden articles. In 2005 her first monograph, Fleur, Plant Portraits, was published by Fuel Publishing, distributed by DAP and Thames and Hudson – beginning the transition of her work into archival collaborations: Colour from White, and a long term body of work about Nature, Colour from Black.