LARA JADE: EXPLORING THE ESSENTIALS
Fashion and portrait photographer Lara Jade got her start in photography as a young teenager growing up in Staffordshire, England, with interests in self-portraiture and conceptual art. These interests came to life thanks to a confluence of events: her final exams, for which she wanted to do a paper on illustration; the discovery of the DeviantArt online community, where artists showed and shared their work; and the ability to stealthily “borrow” her father’s camera.
Jade began making self-portraits and enhancing them with an early version of Adobe Photoshop. “I would add fairy wings and other embellishments and use brushes and layers to create images.” Through these self-portraits and meeting and sharing ideas (as well as brushes and textures) on DeviantArt, Jade’s confidence in herself and her craft grew. “Meeting these people online and making friends around the world gave me confidence. We challenged each other and learned from each other.” It was the start of social media, and Jade “jumped on it early on, and that benefitted me, even to this day.”
By 17, she started her own business and was getting a lot of work from
