Bound Species
About Jennifer Latour
Jennifer Latour was born in Seven Islands, Quebec, and now works and lives in Vancouver, BC. She is a self-taught artist who has worked internationally in special effects makeup for film and television since 2003 and began practicing photography in 2006. Her love for photography, cinema, sculpture, and creating characters runs through all her work, and has heavily influenced her Bound Species series.
In an era of AI and sophisticated digital tools, one of the most impressive elements of Jennifer’s practice is that each species is created by hand. Temporary organic sculptures which she then photographs either in her studio or sometimes even releasing her creations back into the wild.
Bound Species draws comparisons to the work of past masters such as Karl Blossfeldt whose early depictions of locally found specimens continue to inspire artists and designers around the world, celebrating nature’s patterns, structures and intricate beauty. Also more contemporary conceptual artists like Joan Fontcuberta whose playful interventions and creations with wildlife and fauna explore similar themes.
Jennifer Latour began creating her species in her studio during the first lockdown back in 2020. She uses her skills as a special effects makeup artist to construct ‘new species’ of plants from locally sourced fresh flowers and plants. Each piece is its own delicate and surreal creature, a beautiful Frankenstein of sorts.
While each piece has a unique character and stands on its own, the series as a whole is evocative of the interconnectedness found in nature, and serves as a reminder that all creatures are bound simultaneously by both their similarities and their differences.
About the Bound Species Series
Following the elegant eye of Vancouver-based photographer Jennifer Latour leads us to a world brimming with beauty, where flowers bloom with color and tranquility. Within the selection below are some shots from her ongoing body of work ‘Bound Species’, alongside other works from her charming portfolio.
Latour was born in Seven Islands, Quebec, but lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Having moved to the UK almost two decades ago to learn the art of prosthetic makeup and otherworldly creature effects, Latour became a self-taught artist. In this time, she developed her love for character creation, sculpture, photography, and cinema, while working throughout Europe in film and television. Her eye for color and the allurement of the natural world imprints her photos with a distinct, delicate, and ethereal aesthetic. It’s this influence that is evident in ‘Bound Species’, which was a product of the first lockdown in 2020.
In the series, her plant creations transport us to the vibrant technicolor of a warm spring day. “It was brought together from my love for design, my work in effects, and my photography,” she explains to IGNANT. “I splice different plants and flora together to create their own unique breed of species”. Combined with frosted natural scenes, peculiar cemetery trees, and anonymous portraits drenched in sunshine, Latour’s poetic and tender imagery elicits feelings of positivity and calm. Despite referencing a common object in art history, Latour’s spliced creations are surprising in their balance of color, minimalism, and innocence, transmitting visual pleasure and contentment in the viewer.
See more / content via: https://www.ignant.com
