Sarah Larby makes art from tools

Stained rags, splattered shoes, brushes stiff and colourful from layers of dried-on paint; these are just some of the marvellous images captured by the photographer Sarah Larby in her project Artists & Their Tools.

Seeking to record the often hidden labour behind making art, Larby has spent the past few years documenting the paraphernalia used by painters in London and Leeds. The series is part of her forthcoming book, Painters’ Tools, out in November.

“I hope the final photographs go beyond documentation, instead opening up questions about the relationship between art and photography,” Larby writes in the book. “Does creativity reside in the finished painting, the artist, their tools, or in the photograph itself?”

sarahlarby.com/books