Story Tellers: A New Collaboration with the Joseph Banks Society

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been awarded R&D funding through the Story Tellers programme to develop a new analogue photography project in partnership with the Joseph Banks Society in Horncastle.

This collaboration will explore the ecological heritage of the Lincolnshire Wolds, its soils, waters, and plant life, through the lens of experimental analogue processes. Working with locally and responsibly collected natural materials, I’ll be experimenting with techniques such as film souping and eco-processing, using elements from the landscape itself to shape and transform the final images.

It’s a project rooted in curiosity and place. I’ve always been drawn to the alchemy of film, the way chemistry, light, and time merge to create something living, unpredictable. In this case, the Lincolnshire Wolds themselves will become both subject and collaborator.

Alongside practical experimentation, I’ll be spending time with the Joseph Banks Society’s archives, tracing connections between historical exploration and contemporary environmental understanding. The work will document both process and discovery, the quiet act of collecting, developing, and reflecting, forming a visual and written record of what the landscape gives back.

This R&D period is part of a longer journey. The aim is to build towards public workshops, exhibitions, and community engagement opportunities, potentially contributing, I hope, to the 2026 Water Festival. The project will also connect to my ongoing work as Creative in Residence at the Barbican Creative Hub, where I’ll be sharing work-in-progress and reflections throughout.

For me, this is an opportunity to look closely, to slow down and let the land speak in its own language. Sometimes the most revealing stories are the ones that surface in the smallest reactions: the trace of iron in water, the tint left by a crushed leaf, the way a negative clouds or clears in response to what’s inside it.

I’m grateful to the Story Tellers team and to the Joseph Banks Society for supporting this exploration. Updates, experiments, and behind-the-scenes glimpses will be shared here in the coming months as the work begins to unfold.