OPEN ECO: Joanne Gibson, For Your Safety?, 2024
This photograph, part of a series exploring human connection to nature through walking, uses foraged ivy to develop the image, offering an eco-friendly alternative to traditional chemicals and integrating the local landscape into the process. It addresses the issue of land access in England, where we’re excluded from 92% of land. We’re led to believe that vast areas used for farming and conservation can only thrive without human presence. However, excluding people from nature only deepens our separation from it. To ensure environmental survival, we must be included in our countryside, recognising our role as integral to the ecosystem.
My practice involves exploring landscape through walking, to investigate how an individual can shift their way of looking at nature, as a meaningful way of addressing the ecological crisis. I am currently completing a series of local walks, using a variety of tactile methodologies to engage with the landscape.
After eight years in the fashion industry, I became disillusioned with its fast pace and transitioned to teaching as a fashion lecturer at Southampton Solent University, with a research focus on sustainable and ethical fashion. I’m currently pursuing an MA in Visual Communication, exploring reconnection with nature through plant-based dyes and eco-photography. My research highlights that humanity’s increasing detachment from nature is contributing to the global environmental crisis, with restricted access to nature in England being a significant issue. My work aims to raise awareness of these problems and encourage reconnection with nature.
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Photo Fringe invited artists to propose a single image to engage audiences and help us imagine a greener, fairer world. Artists were asked to respond to the question “How can photography make a difference to the climate crisis?"
The resulting outdoor exhibition of selected images by nineteen artists can be found on Brighton seafront next to the Upside Down House until 17 November 2024.
See all of the images together here
Created with funding from Arts Council England National Lottery Project Fund and the UK government and Brighton & Hove City Council through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. With print sponsorship from SAS Graphics.
Thanks to our judges Siân Berry, MP and Laura Summerton, Photography Manager, WaterAid.