This gives the project a vitality that sees her moving from established names to those on the first rung of the ladder, and back again.
Lewis says: "Hackney is still full of creative people working down side-alleys, tucked behind residential streets, in old factories and warehouses as well as new studio communities."
She is aware that as time passes, the area is changing, and this could be last chance to capture this creative community.
Lewis says that even some of those she has photographed have since had to move out.
"The borough is evolving so quickly it sometimes feels like historical documentation, recording the way things once were," she says, "capturing a studio with the 20 or so years build up of detritus before the slate is wiped clean and a block of flats takes its place."
You can see more of Jenny Lewis's work on her website.
Jenny Lewis has been photographing artists who live and work in Hackney - but rather than setting out with a list of names, she asks each sitter to suggest the next person in the chain.