Jocelyn Lee's melancholy photographs of women through every stage of life

Lee’s work is driven by existential themes of sexuality, family, death and ageing. Throughout her career, she has used portraiture of the female form as a tool to explore the tactile qualities of the living world. Her richly descriptive colour works emphasise the tonal and textural richness of foliage, fabrics and flesh.

Her series, The Appearance of Things, continues Lee’s ongoing examination of the physical world. Encompassing and fusing still life, portrait and landscape genres, the images depict bodies enmeshed in an ephemeral environment. The female forms are submerged in water or dappled in sunlight, counterpointed with contemporary memento mori of vivid and painterly still lifes of rotting flowers and glistening fruit. Collectively, they offer a melancholy yet unsentimental reflection on life’s transitions through stages of birth, blossoming and death.

Lee’s photographs seek to question and expand on the traditional definitions of female beauty – her portraits steer clear of the conventional and idealised. Women, both old and young, pose in the natural landscape, creating raw and honest portraits, rich in implied narrative.

"I want to expand the notion of the beautiful to include the more vulnerable stages of life, including adolescence, pregnancy, middle age, old age and illness," she explains. "I am interested in embracing what others may see as physical imperfection or vulnerability, and document it with the eyes of a lover."

Jocelyn Lee: The Appearance of Things runs from 19 April until 12 May 2018 at Huxley-Parlour Gallery, 3-5 Swallow Street, London, W1B 4DE. Find out more: www.huxleyparlour.com.