Casey Orr and Jude Kershaw: A Year of Jude

A Year of Jude is series of collaborative photoshoots through a season of Northern landscapes and locations. Jude Kershaw and Casey Orr met in 2023 at the photographer’s pop-up portrait studio, Saturday Town, in Leeds. Orr photographs Saturday afternoons meeting and documenting young people through portraiture.

Jude was dressed as a suffragette. She was 21 at the time, funny, smart and with a knowledge of history and historical costume beyond her years. Jude and Casey began working together and have never stopped.

Casey Orr says, “Our work together is playful, wholly collaborative, deeply connected to the joys of the every day, of colour, weather and the seasons. I have been photographing the nonverbal language of fashion and identity for over 10 years now and I am in awe of all the girls and marginalised people who are communicating what they love and care about; what they think is cool and powerful, through the way they present themselves. They are experts at this essential language in a world that has mostly suppressed their (our) voices. Fashion and presentation can tell us about the values and beliefs of a generation, about our world now, where we are headed as a society. Jude’s visibility as a trans woman is inherently political as her rights and identity continue to be contested. She is utterly singular, expressing herself, often hilariously, in relation to her love of history and costume, to performance, to fashion, and the fun to be had in this world. A Year of Jude is us committing to regular collaborations that respond to seasons, to nature’s cycles and to the culture calendar. Our practices as photographer and performer are underpinned with friendship.”

DuoVision
Indpendents Biennial ’25
Arts Council England