“Marble has the same qualities as human skin, absorbing and reflecting light,” says British sculptor and Henry Moore Award-winner Paul Vanstone. Playing with scale, texture and traditional marble carving techniques, the former apprentice of Anish Kapoor carves figurative pieces that have exhibited in Tate Modern, British Museum and the V&A. Setting up studio near one of London’s distinguished sculptural landscapes, the 19th-century Kensal Rise Cemetery, the artist’s space captured here by photographer Leon Chew is filled from corner to corner with busts, tools, and unfinished monuments, all coated in a fine layer of marble powder. After graduating from London’s Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in 1993, Vanstone made a pilgrimage to Carrara, located in the northernmost hills of Tuscany and veritable home to marble work since the days of antiquity. “Marble has to be worked in such a careful way compared to other stones,” he adds, having spent time with the stonemasons of Rajasthan in North-Western India to hone his medium. “There can be a lot of difference in the feel of the stone across the same block.”