Dark Solace Alternative processes Winner

I have great news, my series Dark Solace has won the category of ‘Alternative Processes Series’ in the 19th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers. 

I am included in the  100 photographers selected for YEARBOOK 2022

The YEARBOOK 2022, Shutter Hub printed publication is available to order now, shipping week commencing 19 September.

Five photographers will be awarded YEARBOOK Awards with prizes from our partners Alamy, BenQ, Metro Imaging, Newspaper Club and PhotoShelter.

I am delighted to be contributing to the Trans- States: The Art of Deception on exhibition at the University of Northampton, 9-10th September. The conference has been hosted by the University of Northampton in association with the University of the West of England (Bristol) and the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). The Conference Committee Conference Organiser is Cavan McLaughlin and the Conference Organiser & Exhibition Curator is Elizabeth Tomos with Curatorial Support Team, Kirsty Wagstaffe and Libby Bove. Trans- States C.I.C. is a not-for-profit organisation, research network, art collective, and community outreach programme.

Trans-States’ mission is to work with, and for, communities to educate, empower, enchant, and entertain.The organisation is dedicated to building bridges and supporting exchanges between academics, independent scholars, esoteric practitioners, artists, and layfolk with shared interests in the study, production and consumption of contemporary occulture.

My work Dark Solace has won the 18th Pollux Awards: Alternative Processes Series, selected by the FotoNostrum curators’ team and Juror Julio Hirsch-Hardy. I will participate in the 7th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography, which reunites works from the 17th and 18th editions of the Pollux Awards, as well as works selected in the 17th and 18th Julia Margaret Cameron Award. The exhibition will be held in FotoNostrum Barcelona from October 13 to October 30.

‘Magic Lantern’ has been shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society’s International Photography Exhibition 164. The shortlist selection features work from 314 photographers from 47 countries, chosen from a worldwide open call in which over 6000 images were entered by 3466 photographers around the world. The selection, made anonymously, demonstrates the breadth of contemporary image-making and storytelling that includes alternative approaches, new genres, and processes. The selection explores themes of identity, relationships, religion, conflict, global cultural issues and the environment.

The IPE 164 guest selection panel are Mariama Attah (Curator, Open Eye Gallery), Amak Mahmoodian (Artist), Ryan Prince (Portrait and Documentary Photographer) and Dr Michael Pritchard, RPS Director of Programmes and photohistorian.

The International Photography Exhibition 164 will be on display at RPS Gallery, Bristol in January 2023. It will then tour the United Kingdom and will reach its final venue at the Museum of Gloucester in January 2024.

Judges for the 18th Julia Margaret Cameron Award have awarded my image, which is from the series Magic Lantern, an Honourable Mention in the Alternative Processes: Single category.  My series Mother Shipton received an Honourable Mention Abstract and Still Life: Series, and the series ‘Force Fields’ was awarded Runner-up in the Alternative Processes: Series.  

IPA BEST OF SHOW 2021 EXHIBITION IN HOUSE OF LUCIE, BUDAPEST

THE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS “BEST OF SHOW 2021”, FEATURING THE CATEGORY WINNERS, ALONG WITH A SPECIAL SELECTION BY GUEST CURATOR, ALICE GABRINER

The 2021 IPA category winners whose work will be exhibited are: John Huet, Angélique Boissiére, Julia Anna Gospodaru, Delphine Blast, Bob Newman, Mel D Cole, Chong Kok Yew, Liselotte Schuppers, Mikael Owunna, Art Streiber, Howard Schatz, Andre Magarao, Antonio Coelho, Shilpa Narayanan, Sue Park, Chris Round , César Cedano-Bréa, Joanna Borowiec, Brian Wotring, Jiale Liu, Sharwar Hussain, Elisa Miller, Bernd Schirmer, Masatoshi Ujahara, Javier Rupérez, Aitor Del Arco.

The 2021 IPA Best of Show curated selection photographers whose work will be exhibited are: George Tatakis, Younes Mohammad, Mikael Owunna, Mel D Cole, Walter Luttenberger, Sara Hannant, Daniel Skwarna, Jonas Larsson Folkeson, Alessandro Malaguti, Yi Sun, Amru Salahuddien, Mark Clennon, Ernesto Benavides, Pedro Luis Ajuriaguerra Saiz, Ahmed Carlos Esguerra Akacha, Max McGerry, Sue Oakford, Jesse Vance, Liselotte Schuppers, 博 史, Guanghui Hu, Yuan Ji, Jane Olin, Svet Jacqueline, Richard Li, Guiseppe Cardoni, Andrew Doggett, Lynn Emery, Kiiro. 

The exhibition will be open from May 3 onwards, Tuesdays to Fridays, 14:00-18:00 at The House of Lucie Budapest in Budapest, Falk Miksa utca 30.

BEST OF SHOW

Showcasing almost 100 photographers, and over 200 images, YOUR BODY BELONGS TO YOU brings together women and non-binary photographers from around the world in a selected exhibition and promotes the future of photography through diverse and creative imagery. The outdoor exhibition site is in the centre of St Gilles Croix de Vie, an area that attracts thousands of visitors day and night throughout the seasons, making the exhibition accessible to all.  The exhibition includes ‘Phantom’ from my ongoing series ‘Hysterium’.

The exhibition has been extended until 28 February 2023

My image ‘Ancient crocodile’ has been selected by Shutter Hub as part of the Postcards from Great Britain Collectable Postcard Set.  100 images from the Postcards from Great Britain project have been selected to be included in the set, which is available for people to purchase on the Shutter Hub website, either as a full set of 100 or in randomly selected sets of 10.

Each postcard features a QR code on the back that takes them to a gallery containing all the selected images, where they can learn more about the images and the photographers behind them. 

 

Winner 17th Pollux Awards: Alternative Processes

My series Force Fields has won the Alternative Processes Series in the 17th edition of the Pollux Awards. The jurors were Julio Hirsch-Hardy and Elena Paraskeva.   A selection of the images will be on show at the 17th Pollux Awards Exhibition, FotoNostrum Gallery in Barcelona October 13-30, 2022.

Ten of my analogue images of Prague are on show in the exhibition Postcards from Europe at Art at the ARB at Cambridge University 

My work has been selected for the Best of Show International Photography Awards 2021

‘Reverie’ from my series ‘Betwixt’ has been selected for the Best of Show International Photography Awards exhibition.  Alice Gabriner, IPA best in show curator, says ‘These 30 photographs exhibited represent the myriad ways we see, encapsulating the interpretations, experiences, and imagination of the diverse individuals behind the camera. Whether it be a visual love poem, a unique observation, or a historic event witnessed, the collective work links together art, evidence, artifacts, and fleeting moments frozen in time. Photography has the magical power to transform three dimensions into a flattened plane. An entirely new perspective is forever preserved. The resulting images, once offered to the world, have the power to connect us across borders and through time.’

Betwixt has won second place in the International Photography Awards: Professional Analog/Film, Other category

2021 Selected by  Irina Chmyreva IPA Jury Top 5

2021 Selected for IPA Country Pick: United Kingdom

Force Fields is Runner-up Julia Margaret Cameron Award: Alternative Processes Series.  The jurors for this year’s 17th edition of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award were Laura Noble and Jeannie Rickets. 

2021 PX3 – Prix de la Photographie, Paris.  Fine Art/Nature, Honorable Mention

The Prix de la Photographie, Paris (PX3) strives to promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent, and introduce photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. A selection of work from this competition is displayed in Paris and the winners are published in the PX3 Annual Book. Juried by leading editors, publishers, curators, gallery owners, consultants, creative directors, and art directors, PX3 brings the best of photography from across the globe to Paris.

UNSETTLING LANDSCAPES: THE ART OF THE EERIE

St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery

Lymington, Hampshire

11 September 2021 – 8 January 2022

Unsettling Landscapes explores eerie portrayals of the British countryside from the 20th and 21st centuries: an unquiet counterpoint to the pastoral tradition, imagery that ‘trips, bites and troubles’

An exhibition exploring eerie representations of rural landscapes from the aftermath of the First World War to the present. In his essay for the catalogue Robert Macfarlane explains that the eerie ‘involves that form of fear which is felt first as unease then as dread, and it tends to be incited by glimpses and tremors rather than outright attack. Horror specialises in confrontation and aggression; the eerie in intimation and intimidation.

The exhibition is grouped around four overlapping themes:

Ancient Landscapes — features that are inexplicable and mysterious that connect us to the unknown distant past

Unquiet Nature — natural forms used to unsettling effect, such as trees, lonely expanses of heath and the borderlands where different worlds meet

Absence/Presence — how the inclusion or absence of figures and objects invoke the eerie through uncertainty and suggestion

Atmospheric Effect — the influence of weather, season, light and time of day on our responses to landscape.

Historic Artists represented include Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Monica Poole, Henry Moore, John Craxton, Edward Burra and Michael Ayrton. Among those contemporary artists taking part are George Shaw, Ingrid Pollard, Elizabeth Magill, Paul Kershaw, Jeremy Millar, Jeremy Gardiner, Laurence Edwards, Sara Hannant, Blaze Cyan and Annie Ovenden. Also featured is artwork from Ghost Box ‘a record label for a group of artists exploring the misremembered musical history of a parallel world’ whose eerie recordings and design ethos have been influencing the contemporary concept of hauntology since 2004.

Publication 11 September 2021 £25.00, 112 pages /  270 x 210mm Hardback ISBN: 978-1-911408-83-3

The Sky in Legend and Tradition

The Fifteenth Legendary Weekend of The Folklore Society

Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th September 2021

The Medieval Hall in Cathedral Close, Salisbury SP1 2EY

The flying pigs are knocking on Heaven’s door while thunderbirds circle the Merry Dancers and a woman standing on the moon bends over Endymion. Dragons release thunderbolts as parachuting nuns descend on Area 51. We’re walking in the air with flying ointment at the back of the North Wind when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a firedrake on a flying carpet. Horse and hattock! call the broomstick witches – Icarus is felled by elfshot but the Night Voyage is bright as St. Elmo’s fire on Jacob’s ladder, Bifrost trembles and a third part of the stars flame amazement. Let Phaethon saddle Pegasus and the Wild Huntsman chase Seven Whistlers through the Pearly Gates, for these late eclipses of the sun and moon are no twinkling little stars. Waft her, angels, to the skies where rain goes away in the sundance of Easter morning, there are gremlins in the chariots of the gods and Fata Morgana will buy us a stairway to Heaven.

Registration is £60 for the full weekend. To register, contact Jeremy Harte at bhallmuseum@gmail.com.

 

OPEN 2020/21 in the Gallery Café at St. Margaret’s House in Bethnal Green, London, from 01 September – 10 October 2021

Ley has been selected by Emma Bowkett and Zelda Cheatle for Salon/21 at Photofusion

3 Space International House,

6 Canterbury Crescent,

Brixton

The exhibition, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Photofusion, opens on 13 July – 31 August 2021.  Tickets can be booked via Eventbrite. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/salon21-tickets-161917225781 

MAKING MAGIC HAPPEN: SELECTED ESSAYS FROM THE INAUGURAL MAGICKAL WOMEN CONFERENCE 2019

Force Fields has been shortlisted for the Siena Creative Photo Awards 2021. Occult forces of nature are evoked in antique magic lantern slides of British landscapes.  Ethereal energy fields appear to be emanating like auras from trees and rocks. These picturesque views are seemingly inhabited by psychic phenomena.  The products of once frozen photographic moments are enlivened through air and moisture into a process of transformation.  Decay and disintegration merge with the image on the glass, forming patterns shaped like roots, leaves and ectoplasmic fissures, reclaiming the mechanical capture to become a sensory language that is used to describe a newly imagined and haunted landscape.  Some of the marks appear corrosive pointing to an intrusion or imbalance with the natural world alluding to our environmentally challenged existence.

Julia Margaret Cameron Award 2021, Culture and Daily Life Series, Honourable Mention 

Natural Magic has received 2021 Pollux Awards, Still Life Series, Second Place 

2021 Julia Margaret Cameron, Still Life Series, Honourable Mention

2020 International Photo Awards, Fine Art: Still Life Series, Honourable Mention

Photographing in a time of pandemic. Surrounded by uncertainty, I sought comfort from new rituals using ancient magic. In these rites of photographic evocation, I explore objects and materials attributed with the power to protect the body, the house, and the family, from invisible dangers.  I decided to suspend a veil in front of the objects as a visual metaphor for the mysterious division which separates the esoteric realm beyond the actual. An ethereal impression of the objects is created as the veil moves, shields, and interacts with the light.  The real and the imagined become blurred, giving a benign sense of solace.

Shutter Hub have selected my work to feature in their current exhibition POSTCARDS FROM GREAT BRITAIN The largescale project invites photographers to share their visions of British culture through photographic images and create conversations and exchange. 

Pop-up exhibitions are being held in locations across Europe, showcasing thousands of postcard-sized images. In a significant time in European history this project sets out to document and share aspects of British culture, spanning all genres of photography, and collating images which include social, political, historical, traditional and observational responses.

Thanks to Shutter Hub member Orande Mensink and her neighbour Madeleine Hoogestegeer, POSTCARDS FROM GREAT BRITAIN has popped up for the second time in the Dutch city of Bergen op Zoom, and will be on display until 20 April 2021, at Bredasestraat 14.

The World Within: Photo works realised during the lockdown in Europe (March to June 2020)

The book reveals the exceptional work created by photographers confined in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hangar Photo Art Center launched a photographic mission to the artists: present their vision of “the world within” through a positive lens, bursting the quarantine universe.

With nearly 600 images and some special pages dedicated to the 27 laureates, the publication reveals the different views of each of the photographers: personal and sensible approaches that show how creativity, empathy, love, reflection, sense of humour, and the inspiration of nature were part of their lives at this particular time.  The World Within includes an image from my Natural Magic series, Sum of All.

This book, a visual trace of a historical moment, will be released by Hangar Photo Art Center during the PhotoBrussels Festival 05 “The World Within” in November 2020.

The International Photography Awards is delighted to announce the category winners and finalists in its 2020 Photography Competition.  My series Natural Magic has been awarded an Honourable mention in the Fine Art, Still Life category.

In the series Betwixt, children interact with projected archival images, merging history with the present moment.  The slides, like magic, lay claim to another reality, time and place.  Here, in this liminal state, the photograph acts as a space of becoming, in which meaning can be made or explored. Through the children’s interactions once frozen moments are developed into new narratives.  The work combines optical devices, analogue processes and copper toning of the fibre-based prints to enhance temporal ambiguity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Seasons: Art of the Unfolding Year

St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery

New Street, Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 9BH

Starts: September 11 – 10:00am
Ends: January 9 – 4:00pm

This autumn sees the opening of a unique exhibition celebrating seasonal change as portrayed by British artists over the last 100 years. The seasonal cycle has long been a source of inspiration for artists, writers and musicians but in recent times our mainly urban and digitally-focused society has become increasingly remote from the natural rhythms of the year.

At a time when nature is threatened by climate change, pollution, development and declining fertility this exhibition serves as a timely reminder of the joys and critical importance of nature’s cycle. It will also resonate with those for whom lockdown provided an unexpected opportunity to connect once again with the onset of spring. 

Drawn from private and public collections including Tate, British Council and the UK Government Art Collection the exhibition explores changes in the landscape, plants that leaf, flower and fruit at particular times, wildlife that is prominent in different seasons, customs and folklore, the farming calendar, weather and gardens. It also touches on the way changes in farming practices, urban development and climate change are affecting how we experience seasonality today.

New dates for the exhibition Postcards from Great Britain

Postcards from Great Britain is a largescale project from Shutter Hub.  In a significant time in European history this project sets out to document and share aspects of British culture, spanning all genres of photography, and collating images which include social, political, historical, traditional and observational responses.

05 March – 20 May 2020 / Hotel Lion d’Or, Haarlem, The Netherlands.

Cancelled / Eurovision 2020, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Cancelled / ViZit, Ghent, Belgium.
Cancelled / DFDS Seaways, Newcastle to IJmuiden crossing, The North Sea.

06 July – 24 August 2020 / Bredasestraat 14, Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands.

01 July – 01 September 2020 / Les Alizes, St Gilles Croix de Vie, France.

Date TBC / FujiFilm HQ, Tilburg, The Netherlands

Date TBC / Copenhagen Photography Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Date TBC / 5&33 Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Rift series shortlisted for Siena Creative Photo Awards 2020

The Julia Margaret Cameron Award juried by Elizabeth Avedon has awarded Honorable Mentions for my work in two categories – Still Life Series of magical objects from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, and the Documentary and Reportage Series exploring Westminster scenes during Brexit negotiations. 

F.stop magazine group exhibition Past/Present

F.Stop magazine are featuring two of my images from the Scry series in their online group exhibition Past/Present.  

Scry is inspired by the ancient Greek and Roman practice of oomancy used to discover hidden knowledge or future events. The technique is a form of scrying, which involves pouring an egg white into a glass of water, then observing the results illuminated by candlelight. In a mild self-induced trance gazing beyond the translucent surface, recognisable shapes and forms can appear to which the scryer can ascribe meaning to the past, present or future.

Postcards from Great Britain launches in Haarlem on 05 March 2020 

Postcards from Great Britain is a largescale project from Shutter Hub.  In a significant time in European history this project sets out to document and share aspects of British culture, spanning all genres of photography, and collating images which include social, political, historical, traditional and observational responses.  The exhibition includes three of my images including one of the ancient alligator at Crystal Palace park.

Enchanted Environments Exhibition  

29 February – 11 April

The Art House, Castle Street, University of Worcester.  The exhibition includes works by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Folklore Tapes, Eleanor Mulhearn and many more…  My work Numinous is projected and displayed on a banner,

Manchester Folk Horror Festival III

14-16 Faraday St, Manchester M1 1BE

Sat, 1 Feb, 13:00 – Sun, 2 Feb, 03:30

The Manchester Folk Horror Festival returns for a third year, calling out to those brave souls blessed and able enough to know folk horror when they see it. This year, the umbrella widens into further reaches of esoterica, as we consider our ‘Invisible Neighbours’ and pay heed to hitherto ‘Hidden Devotions’. A broad animism can be observed within the boundaries of our experience—culturally, socially, biologically and imaginally.

With 2020 comes a new sensibility; the conclusion, that the super-normal is in fact entering our every day lives. From 80’s pop singers acting as the vessel for oracular wisdom, to statues of Moloch in the Vatican, to the obscure traditions of spirit propitiation on the banks of the Ribble, we now sit cheek to jowl with the liminal.

Artists have been approached who look to evoke to one degree or another, something of the incomprehensible consciousness, of that which is supposed without perception.  Artists and contributors include COMMON EIDER KING, Mark Pilkington AKA THOUGHT UNIVERSE, SPIRITUALIST CHURCH///Symphony, TARAS BULBA, ROTTEN BLISS, WATERFLOWER is artist Sabine Moore’s audiovisual performance project, CHELSEA HARE, ECKA MORDECAI, THE FATES Led by Manchester punk icon Una Baines, THE BEGOTTEN, EMILY OLDFIELD, FLANGE CIRCUS, PHIL LEGARD, SARA HANNANT, CHRISTOPHER JOSIFFE and STRANGER THAN LIFE DRAWING with BECCA SMITH

Everyday Delight.

5 December – 28 February 2020

Free Space Project
Kentish Town Health Centre
2 Bartholomew Road
London
NW5 2BX

Shutter Hub have teamed up with Free Space Project to bring EVERYDAY DELIGHT – an exhibition all about looking for the joy in the small things, finding the magic in what might at first appear mundane, and discovering the beauty in the everyday.It’s there, but you might not always be able to see it.In a world where we seem to have more to worry about every day it’s not always easy to find the positive view, but Shutter Hub are hoping that this collaboration with Free Space Project, and the collation of over 100 images, will give viewers something to think about and to focus on temporarily, and perhaps to come away seeing things differently.

Everyday Delight

Featured on the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/dec/18/magic-in-the-mundane-photographers-everyday-gems-in-pictures 

 

Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming

Sustain advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture.  The cover images were taken by Sara Hannant from her exhibitions Harvest for Health commissioned by Sustain in 2006 and Bread Street in 2004.  Both exhibitions were supported by the Arts Council and Soil Association.

Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd

Published 27th June, 2019 by Wyrd Harvest Press.  Welcome to the Urban Wyrd. Discover Hauntology, Weird Technology & Transport, Hauntings and much much more in the realms of TV, Film, Literature, Art, Culture, Lore and Life. Travel in time and spaces with Adam Scovell, Stephen Volk, Scarfolk, Julianne Regan, Sebastian Backziewicz, Sara Hannant, The Black Meadow and many other contributors. All sales profits from this book purchased from Lulu bookstore are donated at intervals to The Wildlife Trusts.

 

 

The new book Birch (Reaktion Books 2018) by the ethnobotanist Anna Lewington includes my photograph of an Imbolc celebration in West Yorkshire.  Elegant and beautiful, rich in history and supremely useful, birches (Betula spp.) have played an extraordinary yet largely unrecognized part in shaping both our natural environment and the material culture and beliefs of millions of people around the world. For thousands of years they have given people of the northern forests and beyond raw materials in the form of leaves, twigs, branches and bark, as well as wood and sap, not simply to survive but to flourish and express their identity in practical and spiritual ways. Tough, water-proof and flexible, birch bark has been used for everything from basketry and clothing to housing and transport, musical instruments and medicines, as well as the means to communicate and record sacred beliefs: some of our most ancient Buddhist texts and other historic documents are written on birch bark scrolls.