Emma Hardy Captures Real Life Characters

A self taught photographer, Hardy has an almost childlike affinity with light in photography, which often manifests as shadow play and light flares around her subjects. She maintains a passive photographic approach, presenting events and interactions as they evolve naturally around her. Through this, Hardy exhibits a somewhat romantic view of the world, observing things as they are and teaching her viewers how to find beauty in the mundane. Drawn to the physicality of film photography, Hardy tends to use it for her personal work. There is often a timelessness present in her work, particularly in surroundings of wilderness and water that becomes enhanced by film’s grain and imperfections. Hardy preserves everyday life with an engaged insight of personalities and environments. Regarding such encounters, the photographer explains, “I photograph with my heart engaged, and however manufactured an instance in photography, the test is to bring soul into commerce.”