Our Time

‘Our Time’, a personal series by Cat Garcia, documents the lives of 60 of Britain’s creative talents including Bella Freud, David Downton, Grace Ladoja, Sir Paul Smith and Sir Peter Blake. The book combines black-and-white and colour portraits with observed details, telling stories of time spent together.

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.

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.

Details: Hardcover
Number of pages: 252
Dimensions: 21.6 x 28.6 x 2.2cm
Print run: 1000 books

Photographer and designer: Cat Garcia
Curator: Olivia Triggs
Editor: Anthony Leyton

'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.