Digital photography/cyanotype/digital multiple exposure photography
2023

A project inspired by naturalist and author Stephen Moss’s book The Accidental Countryside, which investigates places where nature is thriving in human-created environments. Throughout the course of the project I explored a diverse range of areas including roadside verges, disused quarries and former railway lines-turned-cycle-paths, documenting the plants living in these unlikely places. I became particularly fascinated with resilient plants such as poppies, rosebay willowherb and buddleia, and their ability to thrive.

As the project progressed I began to edit and layer the images, with the intention of weaving together the human and more-than-human elements of these environments and, in doing so, visually soften the edges of the perceived boundary between humans and nature. Slowly the forms became more and more abstract, taking on a topographical or map-like quality, which led me to wondering what we could learn about resilience from these plants, and whether it’s time we started following new maps with regards to our interaction with, and appreciation of, these plants that are often overlooked or considered ‘weeds’.