Spotlight Artist Lily Bertrand-Webb
![The Wick - Lily Bertrand-Webb for Refinery29](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Bertrand-Webb-Lily_Threading-Ayesha-3-1024x1024-1.jpg)
WATCH
WATCH
![The Wick - Photo by Evie Milsom](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/LILY-FINAL-PHOTO-IN-STUDIO-LILY_scans24.jpg)
Born and raised in a creative West London family with Dominican and British heritage, Bertrand-Webb lost her hearing at 18 months old – which was around the same time she was first introduced to a camera. She learned to lipread and now wears a cochlear implant, but photography has remained an important way of communicating with the world without sound: taking pictures helped her overcome the difficulties she faced losing her hearing and allow her represent the world through her experience, with a heightened sense of the visual, whether she’s recording people or places. “I am constantly searching for the imitation of sounds in my daily life, through both silence and the electronic sounds that my cochlear implant gives me,” Bertrand-Webb explains.
After graduating from Bournemouth Arts Institute in 2011, where she earned a BA in Photography, Bertrand-Webb worked as an intern for Sam Taylor-Johnson, the YBA artist and filmmaker. She went on to work at a gallery in Fitzrovia. British culture, nature and society has remained at the forefront of Bertrand-Webb’s practice since the beginning – she has become a kind of Martin Parr, a chronicler of British life for a new generation, with brilliant bold colour, capturing serendipitous moments with a joyful regard. Recogising her burgeoning importance, The National Portrait Gallery acquired Bertrand-Webb’s portrait of John Keane for their permanent collection – a moment the artist describes as her biggest achievement to date.
About the champion
![The Wick - Spotlight Artist Lily Bertrand-Webb](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Sophie-Ashby-Portrait.jpg)
Sophie Ashby grew up between Stellenbosch (Cape Town) and the UK. She gained a BA in History of Art at Leeds University, going on to study Interior Design at Parsons, The New School for Design in New York. Sophie founded her interior design and creative direction practice, Studio Ashby Ltd, in 2014 at the age of 25, and is also the co-founder of United Design, a new charitable initiative which launched in July 2020, with a mission to address the lack of diversity in interior design. In 2021, Sophie also launched her interiors arm, Sister by Studio Ashby, which opened its first bricks and mortar home at the Blewcoat School in St James’s Park in 2022. Sophie is also a Young Patron of the Royal Academy of Arts, a Frieze 91 Committee Member, guest speaker at Central St Martins and part of the 1st Dibs 50. Studio Ashby is also a House & Garden Top 100 design studio. Sophie lives with her husband Charlie Casely-Hayford, daughter Gaia and son Skyler in north London.
“There is an amazing quality to every image she creates that I can’t quite capture in words but each pictures feels honest, authentic and dynamic.”
![The Wick - Spotlight Artist Lily Bertrand-Webb](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/188600020020_selfie_november2022_2.jpg)
![The Wick - Spotlight Artist Lily Bertrand-Webb](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/LILY_scans17.jpeg)
![The Wick - Spotlight Artist Lily Bertrand-Webb](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Danny_Webb_lowres-783x1024-1-e1720538303384.jpg)
![The Wick - Spring's Morning, London, 2019 | Lily Bertrand-Webb for Partnership Editions](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2169_LBW_PRINTS_02_SpringsMorning_1_Large_0d3723d7-0b57-4969-9f2b-4bdaecf3be30.jpeg)
![The Wick - Spotlight Artist Lily Bertrand-Webb](https://thewickculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mummy_lowres-786x1024-1.jpg)