Still Life Shortlist

According to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the United Kingdom has lost 7.5 million acres of wildflower meadow and flower-rich grassland since the 1930s. Around 1,400 insect species rely on these meadows for their survival, and these plants and insects help, in turn, to maintain a healthy ecosystem. When faced with catastrophic habitat loss, we might ask what can one person do? Motivated to make a small difference, one woman spent 15 years returning three fields around her home to native meadow. These still lives are from a larger series documenting those fields, and the species that have returned to them. Amanda Harman placed material from the fields in direct contact with light-sensitive photographic paper, creating negative images that were then scanned and converted into positives. The original negatives are not fixed and are kept in a dark drawer in the photographer’s studio; they are still sensitive to light and ephemeral like the flowers, grasses and seeds they depict.

I am a photographic artist, based in the South West of England. I work with landscape and place, walking is key to my practice.

I studied photography at West Surrey College of Art and Design and the London College of Communication. I have exhibited in the UK and internationally and my work is held in a number of public collections including the V & A. I have been recognised with a number of awards & have published three books. I was a Senior Lecturer at UWE, Bristol until 2022