Book Details

Creative Team

Introduction

Photographer Cat Garcia has documented the working lives of Britain’s most creative talents to produce this series of quietly revelatory images. Featuring some of the most pioneering minds in the fields of art, photography, design, fashion, film and more, Our Time combines candid black-and-white and colour portraits with telling incidental details from the ordinary lives of extraordinary people.

The photographs in this book don’t try to dissect creativity or explain the process of inspiration; they make no thunderbolt claims about genius. They are simply the result of time spent with 60 of Britain’s most creative people – an assortment of artists, designers, photographers, film-makers and other talents – all linked not by the arena in which they operate, but by the fact that ideas are their currency. Whether artist or curator, fashion designer or florist, their aim is to cross a few boundaries, shake things up a touch, make something new.

Each of the people featured in Our Time allowed Cat Garcia to share their lives for one day, inviting her and her camera into their homes and workspaces, taking her along on their daily journeys and giving her the chance to see them at work. The resultant images are a compelling assortment of candid portraits, captured moments of stillness and telling incidental details. These fascinating still lifes from their environment (a model unicorn, a rainbow of paint pots, an antiquarian book…) offer the viewer, for one stolen second, a flash of insight into the style and surroundings of Britain’s creative generation.

Don’t open the book expecting to find sample art, finished pieces, or examples of what each contributor is ‘most famous for’. There are other books for that. Cat’s book is about the life, not the work. Above all else, it is a series of photo stories about people, a compendium of quiet revelations, the collected fragments of lives lived creatively, one day at a time.

GF Smith

Our Time is printed on tactile, uncoated paper provided by GF Smith, an independent British company that specialises in the manufacture and supply of beautiful premium papers. Pioneering and passionate, GF Smith has been a champion of innovation and a staunch supporter of creativity in the design and print worlds for over a century.

SPM Print

Established in London over 20 years ago, Our Time‘s printer SPM Print is one of the most forward-thinking and environmentally aware printers in the industry today, earning both ISO14001 and FSC accreditation long before many other printers thought to assess their ecological impact. SPM offers a broad spectrum of design, communication and print services to corporate and private clients, all underpinned by a strong emphasis on social and environmental responsibility.