Haze like Sharna
Sharna Osborne’s hazy, lo-fi visual language reimagines fashion photography as a space for emotional residue, nostalgia, and intimacy—rejecting high-definition gloss in favor of something quieter, stranger, and more human.
Emilie Kareh shot by Sharna Osborne for i-D 03 Magazine, published in 2021. Available via models. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Sharna Osborne’s photography feels like stumbling across an old home video left behind by a house’s previous owners, shot sometime in the ‘80s or ‘90s, its footage dulled and muted to pastels, as if soaked in milk.There’s a subtle sense of voyeurism gestured toward within Osborne’s work, embedded in the experience of watching something intimate unfold, naïve to the camera. The audio is cloaked in dust and hums in a gentle static, conjuring an atmosphere to be experienced rather than viewed. Dreamlike and fragile, her visuals remain somewhat lo-fi and detached- often shot through a lens of pixelated static, resembling the faded pattern of a London bus seat.
Osborne’s work is influenced by her upbringing, in an interview with models.com she discussed memories of her curiosity with CD and DVD sleeves- paying attention to their (typically considered) mundane fonts and layout, this curiosity in digital form and design followed her to university where she studied Fine Art- rediscovering the world of motion in her local ‘video land’, the local rental store. This then became her primary media, majoring in Moving Image- she cites surrealist videographers Jan and Eva Svankmajer as sources of deep inspiration, their ultimate sincerity and lack of irony when revelling in the unusual is a feature well preserved in Osborne’s portfolio.
Upon moving to the UK- Osborne began primarily working with the VHS camera, using muted, grainy hues as a new proposition in which to explore the cadence of imagery. Her work quickly gained recognition, first by Miu Miu, and soon after by Prada, with her liminal visuals adorning the catwalk screens. Osborne’s success has only grown since, with collaborations spanning Valentino, Givenchy, and editorial brands like i-D and The Face.
When first encountering Osborne’s work, my mind couldn’t help but recall the cultural impression left by Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999). The filmography of both artists share an impenetrable, sleepy yet fierce energy, both embracing a girlish sheen atop their gritty, liminal undercurrents. This is presented in Osborne’s work through her use of non-descript backgrounds, reminiscent of the popularised concept of the ‘backrooms’ a concept that emerged from 4chan in 2019- the ‘backrooms’ are claustrophobic in their vastness, and thus were popularised in online horror discourse. This aesthetic unites with Osborne’s work and The Virgin Suicides by being so convincingly weird and mysterious while unknowably threatening.
For ALL-IN’s ‘Downtown Girl’ Fall/Winter collection, photographed by Sharna Osborne, available via Pairs Project © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
This to say, Osborne takes this aesthetic and plunges it into the depths of high fashion. There’s something interesting about the low resolution of VHS photography chosen to capture designer clothing- it's casual and visually honest. Osborne explains how the VHS camera offers an interaction with the subject being photographed in an organic way, where you can capture moments with the model you wouldn’t be able to if they were static, jaunty, and repetitively posing. This reintroduces the idea of voyeurism. Osborne offers us snapshots into this intimate experience where clothes are less so advertised and more so worn, shrinking back from the camera and enmeshed in real life.
Osborne also experiments with plain, colour blocked backgrounds, as seen in the Miu Miu Pre-Fall 2019 Lookbook. This choice in environment and background tends to centralise the model as a dense site of texture and colour within the monochrome image, ensuring your gaze is centred upon the subject. The positioning of models seems acutely intentional, bodies are gently bent and contorted - perhaps referencing the ‘doll in a box’ commercial dreamscape of the 80s. Some images in the collection disrupt this motif with blurred, moving limbs and distracted faces- again using liminality to marry together motion and stillness. .
Photographed by Sharna Osborne for Miu Miu’s 2019 Pre-Fall lookbook. Available via models. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Interestingly, in Osborne’s most recent Spring/Summer 2025 collaboration with Acne Studios, we see her signature haze slightly lift, perhaps because the project collided the works of artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s richly saturated and textural artwork with Osborne’s lo-fi style. Their work marries well in their use of layers and collage, the Acne Studios campaign sees Osborne positioning models atop Chase’s vibrant compositions resembling an 90s cartoonish sticker pack. Spring arrives in this collection, and for a moment Osborne’s lens takes a breath, just enough to let the colours sharpen.
Sharna Osborne’s photography for the Summer/Spring 2025 Acne Studios collection. Available via Anne of Carversville, © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
In an age of visual precision, the pristine can feel boring- unburdened by deep connection or the fondness of nostalgia. Perhaps this is why lo-fi filmography is experiencing a revival? The reimagining of VHS as a media of fine art in its own right feels like a quiet rebellion against the hyperreal beauty permeating every inch of our screens. Osborne has contributed to a shift within branding becoming tender and honest, a rarity in the corporate world. The nature of lovingly worn down, hazy photography makes fashion feel less like a billboard and more like a diary entry; and it’s this balance of familiarity and the uncanny that has carved Osborne’s place at the heart of fashion's new visual landscape.
