Taking breath © Chloe Sells

Chloe Sells becomes our next guest editor for our Instagram Takeover. Sells was born in Aspen, Colorado and began photographing in 1993.

She attended the Rhode Island School of Design and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography. She completed her Masters in Fine Art from Central St. Martins London. Her work has been exhibited internationally in multiple solo and group exhibitions. She has created two acclaimed books, SWAMP (2016) and Flamingo (2017), both published by GOST. She currently lives between her darkroom in London and her home in Maun, Botswana.

Chloe photographs with a Contax 645 and Linhof 4×5. She still uses film and prints all of her work in the darkroom, by hand. Each of her works is a unique C-type print, using conventional negatives overlaid with abstract colour, light, texture and patterns in the darkroom. In some instances, after printing, she draws into the surface of her photographs with paint, ink and marker.

 

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“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” (Hunter S. Thompson) Hello, its @studiochloesells sharing my next book project about the infamous GONZO writer. I worked as one of Hunter’s last personal assistants at his home, Owl Farm, in Woody Creek, Colorado. Hunter asked me to photograph his home as he figured it was the only part of his life that hadn’t been documented properly. I was happy with the assignment. By the time I started working with Hunter he was entirely nocturnal. He woke anytime between sunset and 21:00. I started work by making him a nutritious breakfast. Breakfast was an ornate affair and started with, a Bloody Mary. This was no ordinary Bloody Mary. It was spicy and full of booze, often with a spoon of Indian chutney, a celery stick with peanut butter stuffed inside, celery salt, lemon pepper, lemon wedge, green olives, Worcestershire sauce, and a dash of tabasco. Then there was a side carriage of whisky (Maker’s Mark), a beer, a coffee and an often untouched glass of water. The work that I am creating for the book is a combination of the photographs that I took 15 years ago and images that I printed of the Rocky Mountains that I have painted over with psychedelic patterns and colors. The book will be published by @gost_books next year.

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Hello, its @studiochloesells. I am sharing a new book project with you about Hunter S. Thompson, one of the most influential journalists of the 20th century. “No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride…and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.” (HST) I worked for Hunter as his personal assistant at the end of his life. Hunter asked me to photograph his home, Owl Farm, which was his hide out in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Hunter always kept peacocks. They lived pressed up against the house in a giant glass cage and their screeches filled the valley day and night, ratcheting up the electric energy within the already heavily burdened atmosphere of the kitchen. The work that I am creating for the book is a combination of the photographs that I took 15 years ago and images that I printed of the Rocky Mountains that I have painted over with psychedelic patterns and colors.

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For more of Chloe’s work, click here. 

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