Roxanna Panufnik

Summary

‘I definitely view myself as providing a service of some kind.’

My encounter with Roxanna Panufnik was unusual in that it began with a series of photographs rather than an interview. When she learned that I would want to photograph her for this book she had an idea: since most of her official photos are formal studio portraits, why not try something more spontaneous? In a few weeks’ time, she explained, she would be at St Mary's Church in Rye, East Sussex, for the final rehearsal of her Cantator and Amanda, to be premiered later that day by the bassoonist Julie Price and the Wihan String Quartet; and she suggested that I photograph her there while she was listening to the players and interview her after the rehearsal. Undaunted despite the fact that her mother, Lady Panufnik, is the photographer (and author) Camilla Jessel, I said yes and, in September 2011, duly turned up not knowing quite what to expect.

This being a Saturday afternoon during the town's annual Festival, the church was busy with tourists and sightseers, some of whom inevitably pointed their own cameras at the activity on the temporary stage that had been set up in the middle of the nave. But Panufnik appeared unfazed by it all. Snapping away at her while she listened to her new work and made occasional comments to the performers, I felt rather obtrusive, but she assured me that I wasn't distracting her. At one point she even grinned at me while the musicians were playing, as if to suggest that she found the experiment fun.

The resulting images were far from perfect, technically, because of the varying levels of light in the church, my need to work around pillars, the stage and members of the public, and Panufnik's movement around the nave as she listened to the balance of the music. But they’re at least a record of a musical event, and the one reproduced here is that which both she and I like the most.

Afterwards there was no time for the interview, so what follows is drawn from conversations with her by e-mail and on the telephone.