A new installation from Carolyn Mendelsohn
An immersive audio-visual experience that transports us to the magnificent Yorkshire landscape, telling the unique stories of twelve extraordinary women.
"I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free..."
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
In this new art installation, inspired by personal journeys and stories of discovery, renowned artist and portrait photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn celebrates the female connection to nature, examining how feeling connected to the natural world can be an inspiring and important aspect of everyday life for women.
Over the course of four months, Carolyn embarked on a series of adventures to capture the personal stories of remarkable women living and working in the Bradford District; women who work on the land, women who are inspired by the land, and women for whom the landscape is a place of freedom.
Inspired by the power and prevalence of the natural world in the lives and literature of the Brontës, this immersive installation celebrates the enduring connection between Yorkshire women and the landscape today, telling unique and powerful stories through projection, soundscapes, personal objects and a filmic collection of photographs.
Dates: 5 May to 31 December 2023
Free with entry to the Museum
Book tickets for the Museum HERE.
Commissioned as part of the Brontë Parsonage Museum Contemporary Arts Programme
About Carolyn Mendelsohn
Carolyn Mendelsohn is an artist and portrait photographer based in Bradford working across the UK, whose practice is rooted in telling stories and amplifying the voices of those who are not always heard. Her passion is to be able to connect and communicate with people of all ages and backgrounds, to create work that is strong, powerful and based on their lives and stories. She is recognised internationally for her portraits, including her portrait series and book Being Inbetween, and is the founder of Through Our Lens, a workshop and mentoring programme that enables people to tell their stories through the medium of photography. Both have been exhibited at Impressions Gallery – and TOL has been acquired and is in the special collections at Bradford Museums and Galleries.
Carolyn’s work has been exhibited internationally, with solo and group exhibitions in national galleries across the UK and Europe, and has been published by the BBC, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, La Monde, and British Journal of Photography amongst many others. Carolyn’s awards include BJP Portrait of Britain 2017, 2019 and 2021, Open Wall Arles winner 2020, The Kuala Lumpa International Portrait Awards 2021, The Royal Photographic Society International Photography exhibitions RPS IPE 159 gold and she was a finalist for RPS IPE 160. In 2020, Carolyn was named winner of the Portrait Series category for the 15th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards. Carolyn was nominated for the RPS 100 heroines award.
She is a freelance photographer with Bloomberg News, and Artist in Residence for Born In Bradford, alongside this she works on personal projects, portrait commissions, and commercial briefs.
Carolyn is a Nikon Europe Ambassador and Ambassador for the Royal Photographic Society.
Thank you to the women who contributed to Hardy and Free:
Claire Buckler
Hannah Butler
Jude Caldwell
Chrissy Chelinski
Meryl Clarke
Rachel Coates
Ella Curtis
Lucy Elkiss
Jo Foster
Kemmi Gill
Shanaz Gulzar
Celia Hickson
Aina Khan
Evie Manning
Jenny Ramsden
Stacey Rushworth
Carol Timlin
Nyarai Urbanek
Anita Walker
About the Contemporary Arts Programme
The Contemporary Arts Programme exists to support local artists and commission new work that explores the places where literature meets art. Find out more
here.