Jennifer Latour was born in Seven Islands, Quebec, and now lives and works in Vancouver, BC. She is a self-taught artist, having moved to the UK in 2003 to work in special effects makeup. She started her photography in 2006. Her love for cinema, sculpture, and creating characters has heavily led to the making of Bound Species as she sees each piece as its own creature, a Frankenstein of sorts. Her influences are many, but within her fields span from Dick Smith and Rick Baker to Irving Penn and Tim Walker.

Her path forward with Bound Species will be one that takes on many variations but the meditative and challenging process is one she is completely captivated by.

“For the past 16 years, I have been immersed in a world of making monsters, zombies, aliens, and many forms of prosthetic applications on humans for my work in special FX makeup. When time slowed down around the world early last year one of the only things I could work on from home was still-life photography and so I set out to create compositions that reflected my love for form, sculpture, color and textures while keeping it light, playful and above all unique.

It was only when I started visualizing the plants and flowers as an extension of the humans and creatures I get to transform at work that I thought of making a new “species” and that’s when my imagination took over. I began joining pieces of flowers, plants and various other things off one stem, creating a Frankenstein of sorts, and have been working on them whenever I can.

This series, Bound Species, has been so meditative, plant therapy is very real. I love that there is also a challenge in the making, balance is key as these are not photoshopped together and lots of patience is needed, especially when adding the last piece.

I really feel Bound Species will be a lifelong series that will keep morphing into new varied and stranger versions.”

– Jennifer Latour, 2021