Hardy & Free

For portrait photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn, placing her subjects in the landscape creates a personal connection. Amy Davies finds out more

- Amy Davies

Using a landscape as a backdrop for a portrait is a fantastic way to evoke a sense of scale, especially when said landscape is sprawling and it's hard to convey just how big it is. It's also a good way to bring in an element of the sitter's personality, allowing for a different type of creativity when compared to indoor and studio portraits.

You can also create a sense of story, especially if you take several portraits and use them together in a vignette. Carolyn Mendelsohn's latest project - Hardy and Free - a commission for the Brontë Parsonage museum in Howarth, does exactly that. It also goes one step further by introducing audio clips that are played in conjunction with the portraits at the exhibition.

Located in Howarth, Yorkshire, the Brontë Parsonage museum is where the famous literary sisters spent most of their lives. Today, it is home to the Brontë society, and also runs a contemporary arts programme. This year's project, Hardy and Free - the name of which is taken from an Emily Brontë quote - explores the sisters' connection with the landscape. When the museum put out a call for a photographer to create stories using photographic portraits and audio, Carolyn - who lives just a few miles away in Saltaire - felt that she would be perfect for the job.

She tells me, 'I thought I could absolutely do this. My work is all about story and I'm also fascinated by the life of the Brontës; and, the idea of creating something that is hardy and free - I knew I could approach it in that exact way.'