About the Artist

Following the tragic loss of her mother, Kirsty immersed herself deeper into photography to help deal with her overwhelming grief, and in the summer of 2009 embarked on her now revered 5 year series entitled ‘Wonderland’.

Kirsty describes the project as a therapy, an alternative existence filled with fantasy, sadness and longing; inspired by the faded memories of the books her mother Maureen had read to her as a child, imbued with the pain of her adult grief. Over time it evolved into an autobiographical journey, where the protagonist Katie mirrored Kirsty’s emotional state in the real world. The scenes are entirely real, true scale and took months for Kirsty to hand make all the costumes and props, which were then assembled out in the English landscape.

As the series grew, it developed a global fan base of over 450,000 followers online, resulting in the photographs achieving a viral status and extensive international media coverage. The acclaim for her work and escalating demands of the project led Kirsty to finally leave her fashion career behind at the end of 2011, to commit her future to the completion of the collection and producing the Wonderland book.

In 2015 despite a number of offers from major publishers, Kirsty decided to launch her own Kickstarter campaign to self publish the Wonderland book in collaboration with renowned British book designer Stuart Smith.

The project was launched on September 9th, 2015 and has since become the most funded photobook campaign in crowdfunding history, a title it still holds to this day. It closed at almost 500% funded – a total of £334k, with backers from all over the world supporting the book. The success of the campaign enabled Kirsty to create the book she had always dreamt of for her mother, made from the highest quality materials, printed in Italy at one of the most best book factories in the world.

 The resulting huge volume contained over 640 photographs, featuring all 74 pieces in the Wonderland collection, as well as extensive behind the scenes imagery from the shoots and costume galleries of the pieces made by Kirsty. Most importantly for her, alongside the photographs, the book contained the deeply personal journal written by Kirsty throughout the duration of Wonderland, which documents the creation and meaning of the works, as well as her emotional journey through grief.

The First Edition sold out almost immediately and so, due to overwhelming public demand a Second Edition of the Wonderland book was published in December 2016, with a new elaborate cover designed by Kirsty. In the same year the Limited Edition box set of the First Edition was also awarded an honourable mention in the Professional Fine Art Book category at the 2016 annual International Photography Awards. The competition is judged by some of the most important gallerists and art critics in contemporary photography today.

The book has since continued its extraordinary success with the Third Edition released in December 2021. This edition has most recently won Silver for the ‘Fine Art Book – Professional category’ at Budapest International Foto Awards 2022.