This project was made during a recent artist residency at the Pouch Cove Foundation in remote Newfoundland, Canada.

Using a makeshift still-life table covered with a paper tablecloth in the live/work space that became my home during my stay.

I created still-life compositions with objects I found in the studio, food items, and whatever foliage I could forage each day in the rough wasteland directly outside the building. The still-life genre holds a fascination for me; I have always reflected on the stories that objects carry. Each day of the residency, I enjoyed making simple compositions referencing the symbolism of early vanitas paintings, a reminder to the viewer of the fragility and transience of life. Placing found objects in dialogue with each other and photographing them under the vagaries of the ever-changing natural light in this remote coastal area, I assembled a series of quiet tableaux.

All We Find, All We Leave Behind focuses on the layering of history in a place, both in its original life as a school with shelves bulging with old books and, more recently, as a temporary home to the many artists who inhabited the space before me to make their own work. The studio resonated with the traces of all those people I would never meet dusty leafed-through books, paint-stained pots, seashells and pebbles gathered from the nearby coast which told a story of past and present. I too left behind my own objects for the next artist to find.

About Julie Derbyshire

Julie Derbyshire, born in the UK, is a London-based artist. She studied for an MA in Photography (Distinction) at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London (2016–2017), following a BA in Photography (First Class) at the University of Westminster (2011–2015). Her solo exhibition Possession was held at One Paved Court, Richmond, in 2019. Selected group exhibitions include Women in Art at ECAD Gallery, Cromwell Place, London (2023); Photo London with ECAD Gallery (2022); the 6th Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography at Gallery FotoNostrum, Barcelona (2021); Circle with Pollen Collective at 44 Great Russell Street, London (2021); the 14th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards at Gallery FotoNostrum, Barcelona (2020); the Tokyo International Foto Awards at ICA Gallery, Tokyo (2018); and the Arte Laguna Prize Finalists Exhibition at the Arsenale, Venice (2016). Recent awards include an Honourable Mention at the 20th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards (2023); an Honourable Mention at the PX3 Prix de la Photographie (2021); Runner-up at the 16th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards (2021); the Travers Smith Art Awards (2021); and the Photofusion Prize (2017). She has also undertaken residencies at the Pouch Cove Foundation Artist Residency Program in Newfoundland, Canada (2022 and 2024). [Official Website]