Island Life: Photographs from the Martin Parr Foundation
Elaine Constantine
Born 1965, Bury
‘You see, at the time, I was into the idea of photographing myself and my friends looking cool in our latest charity shop finds.’
Constantine came to prominence in the 1990s in style bible The Face and fashion magazines including Vogue. Her photography has an energy, a naturalism and strong sense of style that comes from being part of the culture she photographs, often using amateurs in place of models.
An encounter with the work of Chris Killip inspired her and she worked as British fashion photographer Nick Knight’s assistant. In 2002 she did a series on older members of afternoon ballroom tea dances in the north. She has graduated to cinema with Northern Soul, her 2014 feature film set in Lancashire but continues to make fashion and style photography.
