From the Wings 2024

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A photographic exploration of British birds as symbols of memory, belonging, and environmental change. The work considers how personal and collective associations with birds are shaped by cultural histories, shifting landscapes, and contemporary ecological concerns.

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Drawing on specimens from a museum natural sciences taxidermy collection, the photographs reimagine resident and migratory bird species that are increasingly affected by habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and other human pressures. Some species depicted, including the Greenfinch and Blackbird, have experienced significant declines, while others face growing challenges through changes to their environments and food sources.

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Rather than functioning as scientific records, the photographs occupy a space between documentation and imagination. By blurring the boundaries between the real and the constructed, the images transform birds into poetic tokens of memory and absence, inviting reflection on what is being lost from both the British landscape and our shared cultural experience of nature.

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The work is informed by ecologist Oliver Rackham's observation that landscapes are lost through the erosion of beauty, freedom, wildlife, vegetation, and meaning. Responding to these ideas, the photographs explore how environmental decline affects not only biodiversity but also the emotional and cultural connections that bind people to place. Through acts of photographic reimagining, From the Wings seeks to make visible the fragile relationship between people, wildlife, and landscape, and to consider what remains when familiar species become increasingly absent from everyday life.

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Big Screen, Darley Street Market Screen, Bradford Summer 2025

From the Wings long listed Aesthetica Art Prize 2025