TERRA INCOGNITA: On This Land | In This Land | Of This Land

A meditiative commentary on and contemplation of the conflicted concepts of land ownership and land access or trespass.

Terra Incognita considers the barriers, boundaries and social constructs surrounding and imposed on our access to the land and the frames through which we view the ‘landscape’ as a separate entity to ourselves – viewed as an object, used as a resource, owned as a possession.

The work explores how permitted routes of access, while ostensibly opening up the land to many, in fact entrench this disconnection from the environment – reinforcing the concept of ‘landscape’ as a curated scene to be viewed from afar rather than an environment in which to immerse ourselves and rediscover our symbiotic connection, placing us in conflict with a land we should be attuned to. The concept of trespass – and our wariness to do so – discolours our perception and stewardship of the land, dislocating us from something that we are part of and connected to on a deeper level.

Through a combination of stills, moving imagery, soundscape and performance Terra Incognita explores public rights of way in North Yorkshire, to consider and challenge the socially constructed and accepted restrictions to ‘stick to the trodden path’. Evoking dark fairy tales of Little Red Riding Hood and Greek mythology, the work contemplates our kinship and associations with and memories of the land alongside the new cartography and traces that we leave if we trespass off the right of way: mapping new pathways responding to the contours of the land, unravelling our preconceptions of trespass like Ariadne’s ball of thread – a safety net enabling us to lose ourselves in the landscape while ensuring that we do not remain lost – to find our way to reconnect to, and to reclaim our place in, and part of, the land beyond the curated ‘scape’.

ON THIS LAND
IN THIS LAND
OF THIS LAND
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. Image of a knee in blue jeans crossing a fence
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire, Woman in blue jeans and red top with eyes blacked out and two dogs
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. image of an arm against hazy woodland backdrop
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. Image of waymarker on North York Moors with yellow arrow against a dry stone wall
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. Woman with hands over her eyes with a projected image of the landscape and no right of way sign
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. Image of a gate with public right of way sign in unnatural colours
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. Image of trees in distance with barbed wire in forefront
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. trackway into the woods
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. hazy woodland with white flowers and over-saturated greens
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. Hazy woodlamd with white flowers and over saturated green projected onto a woman standing within the landscape
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. woman standing  against a projected image of stones and water
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. woman hidden within projected image of the ground and tree roots
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. boggy ground
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. discoloured in blue cracked earth
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. discoloured in blue cracked earth projected onto a woman in white
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. image of water and grasses in unnatural colours projected onto the figure of a woman in white
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. Unnatural pink image of cracked earth
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire. unnatural blue image of cracked earth
Photographic work exploring trespass and right to roam North Yorkshire

THE HANDWORKERS | Exhibition at Ryedale Folk Museum |North Yorkshire Moors Photographer

The hands of a woman in a blue dress using tools to cut willow for basket making

A celebration of the heritage skills of Ryedale, The Handworkers is now on show at The Ryedale Folk Museum

Rooted in historic handskills handed down through generations, the series documents the people keeping traditional rural skills and handcrafts alive in the 21st century helping to preserve their past and cement their future.

A celebration of the creativity of the region and the preservation of traditional workmanship in a time where mechanised processes have often superseded the heritage skills of generations. Working with traditional materials, methods and crafts, each handworker’s personal touch is embedded in their work, honouring techniques that have been handed down through the ages, often with a strong environmental concern using the materials of the land and the locality. 

A ceramicist who uses clay dug from the land at Kirkham Priory, mixed with plant fibres foraged from the locality along the banks of the River Derwent, handcrafted and fired in a traditional fire pit in her back garden – a technique used since Roman times; a thatcher concerned with preserving the Yorkshire heritage of thatching with straw so that the traditions and skills of wheat straw husbandry are not lost; a blacksmith adapting to modern times with an induction forge while preserving traditional skills with ancient recipes for linseed oil paint for wrought iron gates and railings, hand-forged that will last hundred of years; a basket-maker bringing back to life the design of a nineteenth century handmade laundry basket; juice-makers keeping traditions alive with a hand apple press for Yorkshire orchards and fruiteries; a weaver using a traditional hand loom to create beautiful modern designs for the home; an eco-printer using the land’s resources to make ecologically-sustainable botanical textile prints.

a lady's hands remove leaves and flowers from a bright yellow piece of fabric revealing the colours and shapes they have left behind

The Handworkers honours the craftsmanship and skills of the generations that came before to hand on to those that follow.

The exhibition runs from Monday 20th March through to Sunday 30th April in the gallery space at The Ryedale Folk Museum.

You can see more from the series here as well as watch a short film about each subject.

white woman in blue dress standing outside her workshop with two bent pieces of willow with her willow steamer in background
a white man and woman stand outside a green wooden shed with pink buckets and a sack filled with apples
A white middle aged woman in a pale jumper with a botanical print chiffon scarf and shoulder length grey hair stands with a colander and a pair of scissors beside some pea climber frames in her kitchen garden
white male thatcher with grey hair standing beside a large thatched roof carrying a bundle of reeds with a ladder in background
Blacksmith working at an anvil with glowing red sparks flying off
A young woman in a white t-shirt with dark curly hair standing at a traditional style loom
woman with long purple and dark hair crouched outside her pottery studio mixing wet clay on a screenprinting board as a sieve over a bucket, wearing rubber gloves

LIES A CALM ALONG THE DEEP| New exhibition at Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire

An installation of my latest work exploring the vast empty space of the seascape as a place of solace and solitude is on show at Dalby Forest.

Lies A Calm Along The Deep is a multi-media visual installation encompassing stills and moving imagery, soundscape and sculptural photography considering the seascape and the act of immersion as a means of reconnecting with the ‘out there’ beyond the confines of our physical bodies.

An immersive reflection on being in, connecting with, and recollection of the sea, the installation is open to the public in Dalby Forest Courtyard from Thursday 24th November until Wednesday 30th November 10am-4pm.


Exploring deep seated memories of landscape with watercolour artist Ione Harrison | North Yorkshire branding photographer & filmmaker

Kirbymoorside watercolour artist portrait in her studio

I first met Ione through the fabulous and inaugural Ryedale Open Studios in 2021 – me newly moved to the area and keen to meet other artists in the area. I fell in love with her stunning paintings over Instagram – a true example fo the power of social media to connect and to reveal art that really speaks to you.

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Coast to Coast | Sandsend & Dolphins! | North Yorkshire Photographer

After a flurry of activity getting some big assignments in for my Masters course I confess I’ve barely picked up a camera in August. My focus has been on my installation of my work in progress on the project The Strandline, which took place in my studio as part of the Ryedale Open Studios over the summer. You can read more about my installation at the open studios here.

But I couldn’t resist some phone pictures on a recent trip with my children to Sandsend near Whitby in North Yorkshire – which now I’ve moved north to Malton is just a stone’s throw away.

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THE POWER OF LOVE | Passion projects that inspire creativity | FujiLove Feature | London photographic artist

Whether your interest piqued by the intricate detail of flowers or the vastness of empty skies; the complexities of the human condition or interesting faces; the humour and ridiculousness of life or documenting its darker side, there’s a personal passion project to inspire and spark a creative wandering.

As a London photographic artist and family and business photographer, it’s important to keep the creativity flowing.

For me it all started with doors …

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