Harvest for Health
A selection of Sara Hannant's photographs is on permanent display at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. Sara Hannant was commissioned by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, to photograph their hospital food initiative. The project aims to demonstrate how public procurement can become more sustainable by establishing a network of producers, suppliers and transport links bringing local and organic food into London hospitals.

The photographs portray key stages in the food supply chain. Sara photographed producers in Hampshire, Essex, Wiltshire and Kent plus catering, staff and patients at the Royal Brompton and the Maudsley Hospital. The exhibition was previously launched at City Hall in London during November 2005.

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Almanac
Almanac will be showing at the Horniman Museum in London from November 2010 - May 2011.

Often entirely unknown outside the community, a range of cultural customs occur in rural and urban locations throughout England that mark the changing seasons. The agricultural Almanac is no longer vital to most people's employment and survival, yet seasonal customs remain an integral expression of collective identity. The enduring resonances of such rituals suggest the human need to maintain a pattern of existence in tune with the rhythm of the year.

Since 2006 Sara Hannant has photographed non-institutional community rituals that reflect contemporary concerns regarding belonging, memory, identity and place. Traditions such as the Abbots Bromley Horn dance boast an uninterrupted annual occurrence since 1226. While more recent revivals include the recreations of regionally distinctive dramatisations, dance and musical performances that were once enjoyed by working people prior to Victorian repression. Neo-paganism and the pressing demands of climate change have also led to restorative connections with nature, bringing new interest into old customs.

Controversial attempts have been made by the far right to claim some of these rituals as 'pure English'. Likewise anti-racist groups have protested against the blacked up faces of some performers as an anachronism in multicultural Britain. Sara Hannant's work is informed by research into the transnational migrations and originations of many English traditions; she seeks to stimulate a dialogue about Englishness within the context of world cultures and shifting notions of national identity.