On Greek Independence Day, Fran May arrived at our Sloane Street boutique wearing a set of jewellery that quietly set the tone for the evening. The earrings and necklace she wore once belonged to her ancestor, Sir Richard Church, an Anglo-Irish military officer who served as commander-in-chief of the Greek land forces during the final stages of the Greek War of Independence. He had gifted the set to his wife: 18ct gold with amethyst and turquoise.

Fran approaches the same material through photography. Her work begins with Greek temple architecture, from sites in Sicily and Southern Italy to Athens, where she photographed the Acropolis and Parthenon. She connects these structures to their original meanings, layering in references to the cosmos, with figures such as Zeus and Athena set against planetary and galactic imagery.

Each process is slow and precise. Glass plates are coated by hand, often using an egg white and honey solution, then sensitised with silver nitrate under coloured light. A digital negative is created and carefully adjusted so tones print correctly. The image is exposed using ultraviolet light, before being developed through a series of chemical baths. In the orotone process, a gold chloride bath transforms the silver into gold, before the final image is water gilded with sheets of 24ct gold leaf. For her larger works, she applies gold leaf to paper first, then transfers the image using layers of gelatine and pigment, building up a surface that has depth and permanence.