South African fashion and beauty photographer Nadette Clare-Talbot has launched her first exhibition at Le Meridien St Julians Hotel & Spa in Malta.

Nadette Clare-Talbot always wanted to be a photographer, there never was a plan B for her. She started shooting as a teenager when her father helped her to set up a little darkroom at their home as she was the only student in her final academic year to Art major in Photography.

After finishing school, she completed her B-Tech degree in Photography at Tshwane University of Technology whilst assisting a commercial photographer at the same time.

Soon she began shooting for her own clients and worked in Johannesburg over the next 15 years in the magazine and advertising industry.

Her magazine clients over the years have included: marie claire, Glamour, Elle, Elle Decoration, O Magazine and Men’s Health.

My passion has always been beauty, fashion and stills photography and my favourite photographers include Tim Walker and Paolo Roversi. I am inspired by the work of makeup artist guru Pat McGrath and the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

From photographing A-listers like Oprah Winfrey with her students for the The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls and shooting advertising campaigns for top brands like Soviet, the little girl with no plan B has come a long way!

Since moving to Malta in 2009, she made the artistic decision to concentrate on creating one-off pieces that reflect her photography from a very personal aesthetic. Her work is not incidental by any means, but extremely well thought out. Every last detail is considered – from the choice of theme, model, subject matter, styling, hair and makeup and post editing work. The artist creates very layered and textured works that exude a theme and mood without persuading the viewer to any particular opinion.

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Entitled “Lacey & Lace”, Clare-Talbot’s new exhibition celebrates the island’s iconic craft through the lens of beauty and stills photography and showcases 18 works accentuating lace as the common theme.

“The concept for this exhibition was born from my love of lace” says the artist. “From my years of shooting for glossy magazines in SA like Elle, Glamour and marie claire, I found that I instinctively visualized my imagery in a double page layout. I wanted to echo that idea in my exhibition by creating images as a two-part story.”

“As lace is the common thread, I explored the concept by integrating the fabric in the styling aspects of the subject matter, and then layering the images digitally afterwards by incorporating scanned-in pieces of the textile. It is my hope that the photographed lace and scanned lace are not obviously differentiated from one other, but viewed blended to create the layered effect.

Each beauty portrait is titled by incorporating the girls name Lacey, and each complementary still using the word Lace.

The exhibition opened on Friday 27 May and runs at Le Meridien St Julians Hotel & Spa, Malta until the end of August 2016.

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About the Author

Brent Lindeque is the founder and editor in charge at Good Things Guy.

Recognised as one of the Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South African’s as well as a Primedia LeadSA Hero, Brent is a change maker, thought leader, radio host, foodie, vlogger, writer and all round good guy.

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