You Are Somebody’s Ancestor in Progress
On the ordinary photographs, small rituals and unfinished lives that may one day become family history.
Read the story ↗Meet the artist
I create artwork that keeps stories close.
I’m Zoë. I make contemporary collages from photographs, found images and imagined scenes, but people are always at the centre.
Some pieces begin with public history. Others begin with a family photograph, a memory or a world that did not exist until I made it. I’m interested in what becomes visible when we slow down and look again.
- Founded
- 2018
- Practice
- Contemporary digital collage
- Between
- London & South Africa
How Frequency of Love began
Before the studio, there were sandwiches.
Before I became a full-time artist, I ran a café and office-lunch business called Love Grub. Five of us delivered sandwiches and salads around southeast London and became affectionately known as “the sandwich babes.”
As that chapter ended, I returned to creativity. I made portraits of Harriet Tubman and Marcus Garvey and placed them on the office wall. A friend asked to have them in her own home.
That small exchange opened a much bigger conversation. In 2018, it became Frequency of Love.
Harriet Tubman
Marcus Garvey
What I notice
I’m interested in the pictures people almost overlook.
I have always been drawn to photographs, not only the celebrated images that become public history, but quieter ones: a family around a table, someone dressed carefully for an ordinary day, a child caught mid-expression.
Photographs hold evidence that someone was here. My work begins with that presence. Colour and pattern do not replace the original story; they ask us to stay with it longer.
When a scene is imagined, the same principle holds. The figure must feel present, not merely decorative. I am not trying to make the past prettier. I am trying to give people more room within the frame.
“A portrait says: I want to keep seeing you.”
How I work
The starting point stays visible. Everything else changes the way we meet it.
I studied 3D design and animation at university, but this visual language developed through years of independent experimentation. I work digitally, considering where the eye rests, what should remain quiet and where colour can change the energy of an image.
- The starting image
- A face, gesture or human presence worth staying with.
- Colour
- Used to guide attention and shift the emotional temperature.
- Pattern
- Textile-inspired layers that carry rhythm, identity and place.
- The circle
- A recurring form of wholeness, continuity and connection.
London and South Africa
The feeling I want my work to carry began around tables in South Africa.
I work between London and South Africa. My earliest experiences of South Africa stayed with me, not only the landscape, but the vibrancy, warmth, humour and style of the people I met.
There was a feeling of being welcomed into a place, a conversation and, especially, around a table. That sense of generosity still shapes the atmosphere I want the work to hold.
Room to arrive. Room to be seen. Room to belong.
From my studio to their story
The work only feels complete when it belongs to someone.
“Zoë has transformed four of my favourite family photographs, as well as a photograph from a work trip, and every one consistently blows me away. I recommend her to anyone wanting a beautiful way to cherish their favourite photographs.”
Raniyah Verified customer
See portrait commissionsFrom the Journal
The thoughts behind the work.
Notes on photographs, family, memory and the strange little details that become a life.
Professional biography and trade information
Zoë is a contemporary digital collage artist and the founder of Frequency of Love. Working between London and South Africa, she combines photography, expressive colour and textile-inspired pattern to explore memory, identity, heritage and belonging.
After studying 3D design and animation, Zoë developed her visual language through independent experimentation. Her practice encompasses heritage artworks, original portraiture, personal commissions and selected trade and licensing partnerships.
Trade and licensingFrom my studio to your story
Find the work that keeps something close.
Whether you are drawn to a moment from history, an imagined portrait or a photograph from your own family, I hope you find something that stays with you.
With love,
Zoë