Known for her cleanly minimalist style and her keen attention to detail, texture and colour, British still life photographer Victoria Ling has worked for major clients like Vogue, John Lewis, Wired, Tatler and Marie Claire. While her portfolio mainly remains commercial, she is always executing some or the other personal project to explore her aesthetic further. Her subject matter is usually simple and ordinary – folds of paper, vegetables and plants, glasses and bowls, bottles and sponges. Whichever theme she chooses, she makes sure her items and backgrounds radiate a polished finish and are extremely pleasing to the eyes.

Victoria was born in Suffolk and studied Fine Art in Newcastle upon Tyne. Soon after, she did a Higher National Certificate in commercial photography that would give her technical skills. Later, while being employed in the role of a full-time second assistant for a studio photographer, she worked her way up to shooting on her own. Her studio is based is Brixton, London.

The photographer writes: “I like to try and bring a soul to my imagery, a painterly feel. I love that with still life photography you start with a blank canvas and get to build the structure, colour and atmosphere; my painting school routes coming in I think. However I also realise I love restrictions/a brief to explore/develop, and collaborating with art directors, set designers and stylists, hence the move away from the Fine Art. I am very lucky to work on some great creative and fun projects so feel I really do have the best of both worlds.

“Colour is a large part of my work and always features strongly, along with lighting that is clean but emphasises textures and creates a sense of place, puts the soul in the image. It should be beautiful but not hyper real, keeping a see sense of reality. I don’t use lots of retouching, most of it is done in camera…especially on the personal projects.”

Victoria Ling is represented by Siobhan Squire.

Links: Website (www.victorialing.com)

Images used with permission.