Application To The South West Showcase 2026
Artist Statement
I'm an accomplished photographer living in Plymouth, making work in response to my personal life and the spontaneity of the world we live in. Starting with an education in Commercial Photography, I have shifted towards an art based practice recently, finding solace on Dartmoor through a period of recent hardship.
Building a career that merges emotional depth with creative ambition, my art invites audiences to enter imagined worlds beyond the human mind and explore the inner self with landscape photography soaked in symbolism, melancholy and beauty in darkness based loosely on my own experience with failing to see the world through the same lens as others. The objective is to shine a light on the experiences of being, both positive and negative, and the states of mind brought along by our existence.
My latest project Dystopia is a meditative, walking-based photographic journey through Dartmoor shaped by personal experiences of hardship, persistence and loneliness, as well as environmental reflection and militarisation of the landscape.
CV
My work has recently featured in many group exhibitions, one of which being The Artemis Collective’s Annual Winter Salon at Manor Street Galleries in Plymouth. I also exhibited at The Royal William Yard as part of the Co-Lab exhibition, alongside Gabriel van Ingen and several photography students.
As a student I was highly commended nationally which led to several reputation-boosting exhibits. The first was in London at Truman Brewery when I was included in the Starting Out exhibition - this was when I was awarded Best in Show from the prestigious AOP Student Awards. I have been selected as Winner of the Communities in Motion category by Uniday’s Student Photographer of the Year competition, which earned me a spot in their annual winners presentation on Fleet Street, Soho. I’ve also presented my newest work in Glasgow with The Emergence Project, an exhibition of 12 up and coming UK graduates.
Proposal
My proposal is to culminate my Dystopia project and present the finalised three phases in a public exhibition. Dystopia is a representation of the mind unravelling, as well as a warning about our future if we continue to accept centralised control, and the environmental effect the human race is having on our world through requirements of militarisation and industrialisation. This project is heavily inspired by the Land Art of Richard Long and the militarised documentation of Nicholas J.R. White.
The aim of the show is to engage young people especially with their own mental health. It is important to me that they understand that unique thought is OK and it doesn’t make you any less valuable to society. It’s how you deal with what’s in your head creatively. This is the perfect opportunity for student engagement to take place, to speak about my creative process and how it links to my own hardship, inspiring young creatives to do similar with their practice. It’s also suitable for the general public, to make people think about the ramifications of our actions on the landscape and how interference could lead to the demise of our planet.
The one to one student mentorship is important to me to nurture talent, not just for the benefit of this proposal but also to give back to an enthusiastic and eager individual. The creation of the work in MIRROR can also be part of a larger student collaboration - for example, content creation can help with online promotion. This gives students real world experience on a live brief.
The exhibition will consist of stills photography, text, poetry (read by speaker or displayed on the window of MIRROR), mapping of walked routes, empty bullet casings retrieved from firing ranges, and potentially co-ordinates at certain points along a predetermined route through the gallery. The way these will be presented is all linked to scale - I want to deliberately print things smaller than others to display underlying themes in the subject’s mind that support the key messages the photographs are presenting to the audience.
The primary resource I want to utilise at AUP is the library. The massive collection of books, journals and collections was vital to expanding the project’s outputs beyond just photography in the first place and I’m a firm believer in research informing practice rather than just personal connection alone. There is the digital infrastructure of Capture One which has been invaluable to my workflow in my career. The Digital Print Bureau will be utilised for test prints of my concepts for exhibition outcomes and the ERC can provide creative knowledge, equipment, and studios to help produce my final outcomes.
Outline Why You Are Applying For This Opportunity
Now is the relevant moment to exhibit Dystopia. Topics of societal control, dystopian representations in media, mental wellbeing, and environmental impact of humanity have all been brought to the forefront of our world perception.
The UK is introducing tighter control with the prospect of digital ID and difficulty stabilising a cost of living crisis, whilst the elite continues to benefit. The project’s core theme is what could happen if this world order pivots in either direction to complete control or complete collapse. Dystopian worlds are usually one of the two and, due to the lack of people and civilisation in my photography, it’s difficult to determine which one I’m warning of. Maybe it’s both…
We are also experiencing a mental health crisis that is failing to be brought under control. People are spiralling closer to suicide through anxiety, depression, and stress amongst others. The decision to completely isolate myself on Dartmoor to create these images and make my subject also appear isolated in the world I’ve created is a conscious decision in response to my own anxiety experience. In my group exhibitions, this perception of the world has been received positively - now, I want to test that in a solo presentation.
The project serves as a warning about our impact on the planet, something that is gaining mainstream traction. Dystopia hints at civilisation's collapse but it also shows the landscape retaking control from the damage mankind has done to it previously, showing that we may have been the problem all along. Progression is often portrayed as advancement for our species technologically but environmentally, we have been corrupted by self-greed. Maybe, for us to move forward, we have to step back?
On a personal level, this is the right time for me to present my findings. My technical skillset and conceptual vision for the project have aligned after 2 years of research, practice and play. It’ll represent a body of work that I wouldn’t have been able to make years ago due to my own mental wellbeing and lack of quality output. It’s a culmination of experimentation, refinement, and lived experience.
Technical Needs
One such technical requirement will be playing sounds out loud. This will be either poetry contributed by Ozzy Welch or dystopic sounds designed to raise anxiety. These will be played on repeat out loud, though if this isn’t possible then the poetry can hopefully be on a pre-determined route around the gallery to assist with the flow of the exhibition. I’m also seeking a way to immerse the setting in low light but not in complete darkness (within reason for health and safety) - this will be heavily reliant on lights to be shone on the exhibits. I identified a black track lighting system at an exhibition at Manor Street Galleries which was effective in lighting exhibits hung on the wall through continuous LED lighting - I’m keen to introduce this to my exhibition. I’m looking at hanging prints on the walls of the gallery which will be of photography, illustration, text and graphic design. The number of prints is still to be determined, though I hope the walls have the capacity to hold the weight of multiple frames of heavy to mid-weight.
South West Showcase Exhibition 2026 - PDF Submission of Dystopia
Pyrrhic Victory - Photography, shot at Okehampton Firing Range (2025)
1. Big Brother - Photograph, shot at Yes Tor (2025)
Inspired by Orwell’s 1984 - We can’t shake the unnerving feeling of being monitored, even if we are physically alone in the world.
2. Expanding Simulation - Photograph, shot at Princetown (2025)
Depicts the mentally ill mind filtering the real world through the fog. They are unable to see the world as anything other than negative.
3. Thy Will Be Done - Photograph, shot at Brentor (2025)
Representing submission to a higher power, only in this case it’s used in the context of subjugation to a world order rather than pledging allegiance to God. Also suggests giving up as well as giving in.
4. The Lonely Tree - Photograph, shot at Arch Tor (2024)
Based on the children’s book of the same title that taught me about loss and change at a very young age. However hard life knocks us down and however lonely we end up, we have no choice but to carry on.
5. Scorched Earth - Photograph, shot at Littaford Tor (2025)
The light is going out. The only glimpses of reality still visible are remnants of beauty rather than the defined article itself - an imitation of what once was, reduced to barely existing in darkness.
6. The Reality War - Photograph, shot on The Wistman’s Wood Circular (2025)
Presents two worlds colliding through experimental photography. The lines between reality and fiction are inconclusive through the observer’s eyes thanks to their perception of the world, trapped in stasis trying to decide which is which.
7. The Powder Mill - Photograph, shot at Arch Tor (2024)
Evidence of mankind’s “development” in a barren land. The chimney of a former gunpowder mill still stands as a reminder that progress isn’t always guaranteed through industrialisation and, eventually, the natural earth will fight back - or humanity’s tendency to destroy ourselves will prevail.
8. No Man’s Land - Photograph, shot on The Wistman’s Wood Circular (2025)
The faultlines of a quiet world. Memories of a lost battle, the land soaked with the blood of human intervention now effectively empty. Only the stone and wooden barricades remain, a reminder of our obsession with control and order in a world that didn’t need it.
9. Initial Concepts and Inspiration for Supporting Illustrations, Designs, and Photography
Will be carried out through research and collaboration at Arts University Plymouth, using the resources available from the university. Planned to be presented in smaller frames - main photographs to be exhibited larger.
10. Documentation of Walked Routes on Dartmoor
Created on location with visual and emotional text to support. (Final map created on Oneplus Watch 2R)
Planning to convert into a more presentable format. Discussion and Testing will be required to determine which direction to take.
