Filmmaker and photographer Lydia Garnett focuses on style and subculture, crafting intimate storytelling rooted in a collision of ritual, collectivity and play.

Deftly attuned to the nuanced intersections of fashion and identity, Lydia uses these to inform projects as told through the codes of underground culture. In 2025, Lydia directed ‘Last Exit on Bethnal’, a poetic, surreal exploration of power and sexuality set in a fantasy underworld to mark the release of Hannah Holland’s next album, which premiered in April at the ICA in London.

Recently, Lydia co-directed the music video ‘Statue In The Square’ for Kae Tempest, a powerful visualisation of defiance and a raw celebration of trans love and resilience made with Boy Dykes collective.

For Lydia, film and photography go hand in hand, offering a space to tell new, intimate stories. In 2022, Garnett exhibited ‘Close Shave’, an acclaimed photography series and short film that pays homage to Dyke, Butch and transmasc haircuts built on the legacy of Catherine Opie and Phyllis Christopher. Through the radical yet profoundly personal transcultural symbol of hair, the artist reveals incisive ideas about gender, beauty, sexuality and style. ‘Close Shave’'s visceral scenes—exploring everything from the hum of the clippers and butch-on-butch love—hold space for tenderness, self-care, and trust.

Previously Lydia helmed the Iris Prize-winning and UKMVA nominated ‘Lonely Cowgirl,’ a seductive music video for DIY punk band Trouble Wanted set within a fantasy western-themed utopia.

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