I am thrilled to receive a Professional Development Bursary from a-n. The funding will enable me to learn new practical skills working with textiles in order to research and test new formats of showing photographic images.
My practice considers our experience and connection to nature and investigates the nature of our experience (you can see my website here). This involves walking, gathering, and observing in a process-driven manner informed by Eastern philosophies. I work mainly with photography, moving-image and found objects, making use of traditional analogue processes and digital technologies. I completed my MA Photography and the Land in September 2016. I was fortunate to receive an 8 month residency at Ocean Studios funded by Plymouth University which I will complete at the end of April. During this time I have found myself in a fragile yet exciting place, transitioning from the safety and structure of the institution to a self-led studio-based practice. Whilst the bursary is funding specific courses, I see the professional development activity as a much wider platform from which to build structure, independence and accountability in my practice. Maintaining this blog is a large part of building this discipline. I kept project journals throughout my MA yet was very aware that they would only be read by my tutors and cohort. I love writing and hope to build confidence in writing and sharing my ideas and progress in a more public space.
I’m developing a series of photographs created using extended exposure times that capture the movement of the land and of the body as it moves through the landscape. I have a habit of gathering natural found objects whilst walking. I reflect on these in my studio and bring them into my work in different ways. As my practice is all about experiences of nature, flows and rhythms, I want the presentation of my images to reflect this. For some time I have been thinking about printing onto textiles but have lacked the knowledge or skills to work with fabrics. I see so much potential in the fluidity or stiffness that different materials can carry, and the translucency they can hold. I’m not aiming to complete the production of this work during the bursary activity period but consider this as an opening for further works.
I will be updating this blog regularly as the project moves forward and am also available for following on Instagram and Twitter
