Lola & Pani: Bumps

Lola & Pani work across the fields of documentary, portraiture & fashion photography. Their collaborative approach is rooted in documentary photography and focuses on sentimental narratives that provide an authentic, personal insight into the worlds of whom they are photographing.

The photographic series Bumps by Lola Paprocka and Pani Paul is a contemplative exploration of the tumultuous and euphoric facets inherent in the experience of youth. The photographs visually articulate the cyclical nature of young adulthood, portraying a constant state of broken skin, rugged and perilous landscapes, and subjects embodying an awkwardness and lack of certainty. Combining portrait and landscape, the series focuses on themes of renewal, subcultures, and looking for one’s place in the world.

“A pimple-faced teenage boy stares directly at the camera exuding the overconfidence of youth. The world, as far as his understanding permits, is his to be explored and conquered. An algal bloom sparkles in the sun under a thin layer of trickling water exuding an electric green that resonates with the colors of another photograph detailing the bleached yellow hair of a young man. Another boy wears the proof of his sexual conquest around his neck in the form of hickeys like a nouveau riche collector displays a Hirst painting in their living room.

The artist duo Lola Paprocka and Pani Paul are creating visual poetry by pairing the breath-taking beauty of nature on a macro and micro scale and applying the same approach to their exploration of adolescence. An undulating stone sculpture analogous to a buxom woman is paired with a portrait of a young man whose expression is a surrogate for youth confronting an awakening reality they’re unprepared to negotiate. Metaphors abound in their couplets. The cosmic truths of our society are found in this work if you are open to the trains of thought these images spark in your mind.

A photograph is a bookmark placed in our lives to remember little snippets of the relentlessly moving world around us. What is kept, what is discarded, and what is ultimately chosen and arranged for public viewing by artists like Lola and Pani invite us to step into their world and pick up the clues within these well-crafted images, hinting at the story they’re trying to tell, but never so definitively that we can’t form our own interpretations.” –Ed Templeton

Lola Paprocka is a self-taught photographer, curator and founder of Palm* Studios, an independent publishing house showcasing the work of photographers and artists. Lola is a visiting lecturer at LCC and LCF in London.

Pani Paul grew up in the Northern Rivers region of Australia. He studied photography in Melbourne before moving to London in 2009. His debut book Mile End published in 2015 was critically acclaimed.

BUMPS – LOLA & PANI
Photography by Lola & Pani, curated by Lola & Pani and Alastair McKimm
Creative Direction Jonny Lu, Design Alana Leddin at Jonny Lu Studio
Original Artwork hand printed by Daren Catlin
Prepress & colour proofing by Krzysiek Krzysztofiak
Palm* Studios, 15 May 2024
Soft cover with screen printed dust jacket, French fold printed Munken Print White 100gsm paper
First Edition of 750, 134 pages, 131 ills.
26.5 x 20.5 cm
RRP £45

Order Book