Part B - Recent work

For this part of my portfolio I have drawn on work dating from December 2024, starting with an image I took when photographing mountain hares with Tesni Ward, in the Derbyshire Peak District, to photos chosen from ongoing projects. My current work includes recording the changes brought about by a rewilding programme at Embercombe, Devon; documenting the activities of a wildlife consultant and photographing two local gardeners throughout the gardening year. Putting this portfolio together has given me the opportunity to reflect on my own development as a photographer. As well as technical skill, the most important change I can see in my images is that I believe I have become a lot more purposeful with the camera.

For my wildlife work, I am now moving towards a style which is probably best described as conservation photography. By this I mean I am keen to present more of a narrative, with the aim of campaigning through visual story telling. Examples of this style of photography are the photo of the dragonflies as a glimpse of possible bio-abundance in an otherwise nature-depleted country, or a rarely seen bittern caught in flight by the morning light against a threatened landscape; the impact of animal behaviours on the environment; human interaction with wildlife or by simply showcasing the extraordinary beauty, sometimes brutality, of animal behaviour. Some of the moments on display here were anticipated, all involved an element of making-my-own luck through prior research of the wildlife I was hoping to see. For example, the beaver was photographed near to its lodge which I have been watching, very, very early in the mornings, for several years now, whereas the image of the barn owl was taken, lit by a torch, held by my partner, when we were out looking for nocturnal wildlife along the canal tow path that I regularly cycle along as part of my working commute.

This sense of purpose is also evident in my naturescapes. The photograph of the wild meadow was taken at Embercombe, a nature retreat in Devon, where I have been documenting the changes brought about by the ongoing work to re-wild the land there. The day I took the photo of the meadow grasses, I had been hoping to photograph butterflies. However the breeze was too strong for such activity. Looking through the lens, I suddenly saw the movement of the wind and realised this is what I wanted to show. It was my attempt to photograph the summer breeze through the grasses that made me see the complexity of the landscape and the interaction of all the elements that are part of its making. This is a good example of what I mean when I say that looking through the camera lens has helped to change the way I see the world around me.

However, even before I picked up a camera, looking at photos by others and the quiet, often unnoticed, absorption of the visual culture that exists all around us, past and present, has also helped to frame the way I see the world. The photo of the lilies is from a series of images I took at a pond on Dartmoor, the Haytor quarry pond, popular with open water swimmers. I had been swimming there myself a few weeks earlier and seeing the lilies in bloom reminded me of a series of photographs, Lotus Meditations, by the Norwegian photographer, Tine Poppe. My photograph of the Haytor lilies owes much to the influence of her work on my creative thinking. Likewise, the inspiration for my study of the buddleia through the wall of the polytunnel was the photo book Botanical by Samuel Zeller. My first degree was in archaeology and a lifetime later I am still interested in the archeological line of enquiry that can reveal the cultural inheritance that exists behind every single image. This interplay between our surrounding visual environment and ongoing creativity is something that I would like to explore further.

The last two photos in this section are from current projects and illustrate my interest in environmental portraiture as an approach for documenting human interaction with nature. Photographing people and human activity within the landscape feels to me like a sister-subject to my wildlife photography, as ultimately, it is human engagement with nature, big or small, including my own as a photographer, which determines our impact on the natural world around us.