Maren Oduya — Editorial portraits, London

The sitter,
held in
window light.

Portraits made slowly by available light — one sitter, one afternoon, one print that keeps what the hour gave.

The sitters Commissions

E. Ashworth, north light — 2024

Pressed linen, ten o'clock — 2023

S. Marchand, turned to the light — 2026

Hackney Wick, London E9 Available light only — proofs by hand, within a fortnight

01 — Sitters

Five sitters, one easel.

Rest on a number and the print on the easel changes hands.

N-03 / 05 Espresso chiaroscuro

02 — Studies

What the window does when nobody sits.

Between commissions the studio photographs its own light — wall, curtain, table.

Ten o'clock across the wall — 2025

Sheer curtain, morning — 2024

The studio table, cleared — 2025

The Window Studies

An ongoing record of one north window — the same light the sitters borrow, photographed on its own terms.

Plates — 22
Years — 2019–ongoing
Print — Pigment, 40 × 50

03 — Commissions

Published sittings, listed plainly.

A selection from one hundred and forty-eight sittings since 2019.

C-24Meridian ReviewE. Ashworth, cover portraitEditorial2024

C-23NocturneJ. Ferreira, profile seriesEditorial2023

C-26Kestrel QuarterlyS. Marchand, spring issueCover2026

C-22Marrow JournalI. Brandt, potter, at the wheelFeature2022

C-21The Sunday SittingRev. T. Achebe, vestryPortrait2021

C-25La FalaiseThe Kettleworth sistersEditorial2025

C-20Aperture & SonsO. Lindqvist, composerJacket2020

C-19The Weekend PortfolioNell, harvest morningFeature2019

Editorial sittings from £1,400 · Jacket portraits from £900 Enquire about a sitting

04 — About

No sitting shorter than an afternoon.

The photographer's chair, occupied

Maren Oduya photographs people the way the window photographs the wall — patiently, and without flattery.

August & Grain was founded in 2019 on a single rule: no sitting shorter than an afternoon. Maren works almost entirely by available light — a north window, an open door, the last hour before dusk — and prints every commission by hand in the studio at Hackney Wick.

Her portraits sit in the permanent collections of two national libraries and a great many kitchen hallways, which she considers the higher honour.

National Portrait Gallery — acquisition 2025
Taylor Wessing Prize — shortlist 2024
Meridian Review — contract photographer 2023
The Photographers' Gallery — group show 2022
British Journal of Photography — Ones to Watch 2021
Darkroom apprenticeship, Lagos 2014–2016

05 — Contact studio@augustandgrain.photo

Studio Unit 9, Wallis Yard Hackney Wick, London E9

Sittings Autumn book opens 01 Sep One sitter per afternoon

Elsewhere Instagram Print shop