This shoot with Kelsey was a little different from a traditional portrait session.

Kelsey came into the studio as part of Just Between Us, my portrait and podcast project where I photograph women and sit down with them to talk about the experiences that have shaped their lives for the podcast After Thirty.

Kelsey shared her experience living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, including the changes to her mobility and everyday life.

For the photographs, though, we didn’t want to create one visual version of Kelsey. We wanted to be creative and have fun with it.

We created several completely different fashion-inspired looks, changed sets and styling throughout the shoot, and incorporated her cane into some of the photographs rather than feeling like it needed to be hidden away.

Five looks, one studio

Rather than choosing one backdrop and simply changing outfits, we treated each look almost like its own little editorial.

We started really clean and bright with denim against a warm background, then shifted into an oversized double-denim look against hand painted textured canvas backdrops.

For the third look we stripped everything right back again with a white top, brown trousers and a simple chair against the cream studio backdrop.

Then we went somewhere completely different.

Creating the green set

For the final looks, we built a textured set from crumpled green paper and then played with different tones, styling and combinations against it.

We photographed Kelsey in a tonal olive look, then changed things again with a brighter green shirt, patterned trousers and her cane.

Rather than trying to hide the cane or photograph around it, it simply became part of the styling and part of Kelsey.

The set itself was made from incredibly simple materials, but the folds in the paper caught the light differently across the background and gave the photographs much more depth.

Portrait photography doesn’t have to mean one backdrop

This is one of the things I love about working in the studio.

A portrait shoot can be clean and approachable, fashion-led, darker and more editorial, or something we make up specifically for the person standing in front of my camera.

Sometimes all within the same afternoon.

You can listen to Kelsey’s full conversation as part of Just Between Us here.