The Sitter in Clay

A portrait sculptors' studio in the last month before an exhibition, the busts larger than the people making them.

Client: Northside Arts Trust
Discipline: Stories
Year: 2025
Made at: On location
Licensed use: Exhibition, catalogue and press · unlimited · 5 years
Delivered: 18 images for the exhibition catalogue

Credits

Photographer Ines Halloran
Curator Halima Oduya, Northside Arts Trust
Sculptors Weller–Ansel Studio

The Trust commissioned the catalogue before the work was finished, so the photographs are of the work in progress: two sculptors, a high white room, and a dozen heads in wet clay.

We photographed for three mornings in the studio's north light, never moving a stand.

7 frames

A sculptor in an apron steadying a large clay portrait bust on a wooden stand. — Measuring by eye.

Close view of a clay portrait bust of an older woman, other busts behind. — The largest head in the show.

The sculptor standing among clay busts on wooden stands in a high studio. — The studio in the week before casting.

A second sculptor in a green sweater in the studio of clay busts. — The second sculptor's corner.

The sculptor modelling the shoulder of the large clay bust. — Working the shoulder line.

The second sculptor contemplating the busts under a high white ceiling. — Under the skylight.

The second sculptor working on a small plaster head at a stand. — A plaster study on the side table.

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