Isobel, 2019

These are limited edition archival pigment photographs printed on Canson Baryta Prestige 340gsm paper. Joseph signs and numbers each piece on the front. 

Edition sizes



60x45cm (23.6" × 17.7") including white border - edition of 15 prints + 2 artist’s proofs.

120x90cm (47.2" × 35.4") including white border - edition of 5 prints + 2 artist’s proofs.

When the edition is sold out, no more prints will be made at that size.

About this picture

This was one of those ideas that seem great to start with and then take over your life. A year before shooting it I saw a cherry tree in blossom and thought ‘That would make a great knitting picture’.

Every time I’ve asked Nina Dodd to knit anything approaching camouflage she’s groaned - the random patterns make it very complicated to knit. She almost refused this concept but we settled on a child’s sleeveless dress to minimise the amount of needle time required. Even so it almost finished her off. At one point she had 24 balls of yarn on the go. 

Once her work was finished I waited anxiously for the cherries to start blooming. I’d found what seemed to be the perfect tree, with a backdrop of other trees, but while all the other local cherries were overloaded with blossom, these ones were bare. I visited them every 3 or 4 days for a month and finally, as I was about to go on holiday, they started flowering. It was a lovely shoot, ably assisted by my model’s siblings and friends, all jealous of the dress and desperate for a go on the swing I’d put up.

Information about Invisible Jumpers

With this series I have matched people to their landscapes through custom knitwear, hand-made by Nina Dodd. Their individuality is expressed through their face, their hair, their body language. I enjoy exploring the contradictory notion of individuals blending into their background with custom-made, individual garments, made slowly by hand in a traditional way. Knitting is the ultimate analogue medium, complete with imperfections and replete with detail.

At a time when it is often assumed that anything out of the ordinary in photography is AI or CGI, it is satisfying to work with a deliberately slow, hand-crafted medium. The results aren’t perfect, there are bits that don’t match up. This is done for real. 

This project has been exhibited in galleries and museums in France, England, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Andorra and China, and is featured in the permanent collections of the Photography Museum of Lishui, China, and the Musée d’Art Urbain & Street Art Vauban, France. It has won a broad range of prizes and been featured on TV, influential blogs and mainstream newspapers.

It is also published as a book by Hoxton Mini Press.

Picture of print on wall is for illustration - size varies according to which print you purchase.

Only the prints are for sale, no knitting included! Photographs and videos are to illustrate the process behind the photographs.