The expanse of skin stretches out before you, looking more like a series of shadowy sand dunes than the heel of a foot. The skin in another photograph could almost be the bark of a tree, until you realise it is the delicate inside of an old woman’s arm.

Middlesex University student Laura Bissett, who graduated from her BA Photography course in July, has created an unusual photography project made up of micro close-up images of the skin on various parts of the bodies of herself and her 79-year-old grandmother.

The black and white images, which she created for her final-year project, were taken so closely that the subjects appear abstract and it can take some moments before viewers are able to work out what they are looking at.

“I remember when I printed the photos I couldn’t even remember myself what I’d actually taken the photo of!“ says Laura, 21. “I photographed a mixture of things – hands, fingers, creases of elbows, the face.“ Laura’s interest in micro photography of the body started when she was at school, so she decided to make that the subject of her university project.

“I’ve always been interested in making things look weird and wanted people to actually stand and look at a picture and wonder what it was,“ she says.

“At the beginning, it was just a case of wanting to photograph it because it looked weird or interesting or striking, but as it went on I found meaning in it because it was about me and my nan – the contrast between us, and also that I was going to look like that one day. That connected it to me more than at the beginning, which made me enjoy it even more.“ What did Laura’s nan make of the images?

“I think she was a little bit embarrassed,“ laughs Laura, from Morden in Surrey, “she went ‘I don’t look like that!’ But she also found it funny.“ Laura herself thinks older skin is more interesting to photograph, because of the different textures and perspective it offers. But she finds that even her own, 21-year-old skin has its interesting features, too.

“It all depends on the light, really,“ she explains.

“If you’ve got very harsh light and you black out the rest of the surrounding area, even young skin can look quite aged and textured. It’s fascinating.“