A must read for fans of California photographer Leslie Williamson: Still Lives In the Homes of Artists, Great and Unsung. Leslie’s new book was inspired by her “love of visiting artists’ homes and studios and witnessing the creative through line that invariably runs from their artwork to the spaces they inhabit and create in,” as she says.
When our book arrived, we immediately gravitated toward the house of Derek Jarman, the celebrated (and gone too soon) filmmaker, painter, Tilda Swinton collaborator, and gay rights activist. The cottage is located in Dungeness, on the southern tip of Kent, England. We were familiar with Jarman’s famous garden (see Garden Visit: Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage at Dungeness), but not the interiors, which were never formally photographed.
“The fact that I was even allowed inside Jarman’s home took me by surprise,” Leslie says. “A friend had told me about his famous garden, and I sought it out online. Whereas images of the garden were plentiful, images of the interior were few and left me curious. Luckily, a friend connected me with Jarman’s great friend Keith Collins, the inheritor of the cottage, and I was in,” Leslie says.
N.B.: Leslie recently launched a Still Lives Portal, an online accompaniment to the book that features a “Lost Chapter,” new photo essays, musings, archival images, and a limited edition print shop.
Join us for a tour:
N.B.: After 20 years of maintaining Prospect Cottage, Keith Collins died in 2018; the Art Fund in the UK successfully raised funds to endow a “permanently funded program to conserve and maintain the building, its contents, and its garden for the future.”
For more Leslie Williamson works:
Required Reading: Handcrafted Modern
Required Reading: Modern Originals: At Home with Midcentury European Designers
Required Reading: Interior Portraits