Photographer and Visual Researcher working with and alongside women survivors of war, conflict, persecution and displacement towards alternative perspectives in conventional ‘war photography’.

Solo photography work responds to the disproportionate impact of war and conflict on women and girls.

Collaborative projects for self-representation and visible activism result in co-created exhibitions, installations and research towards a broader understanding of how war impacts civilians, especially women and girls.

Academic Research
Visual Researcher and Project Coordinator, Teesside University (AHRC funded) IAA award for Line Time. Principal Investigator Dr Pippa Oldfield (2024).

Researcher, Teesside University (AHRC funded) IAA award for Tomorrow. Principal Investigator Professor Sarah Perks (2023).

PhD Photography and Forced Displacement: Women as Custodians of Memory, Identity and Knowledge. Funded by North of England Consortium for Arts and Humanities (NECAH), University of Hull (2023).

Masters by Research in Journalism She Bought Poppies Not Bandages: Moïna Belle Michael’s Appropriation of the ‘Flanders Fields’ Poppy. School of Journalism, University of Lincoln (2018).

Research assistant, project contributor. AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Challenging the texture of military memorialisation – photography as a tool for remembrance of twentieth century conflicts (2015).

Honorary Doctorate (D. Litt) awarded by the University of Hull (2012).

Honorary Research Fellow, The Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull (current).

Solo exhibitions
UN Headquarters New York; Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, USA; Hargrett Library University of Georgia, USA; The British Council Freetown, Sierra Leone; International Slavery Museum, Liverpool; University of Cambridge; Royal Commonwealth Club, London; Horniman Museum, London; The Senedd: Welsh National Assembly; Museum of Liverpool; York Army Museum; The Ferens Hull; Hull UK City of Culture 2017; Brynmor Jones Library University of Hull and more.

Several Arts Council England Grants for Arts, and St Hugh’s Foundation for the Arts Award.

 

Impetus: during the First and Second World Wars, my birthplace of Kingston upon Hull was heavily bombed. My great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mother and other women in my family survived the bombing raids on the overcrowded civilian streets of working-class East Hull. Their stories and perspectives after the aftermath remained untold and unseen. Olive and Maureen make a cameo appearances in my work. The absence of their voices inspires me to create shared spaces and platforms for invisible or unseen minority voices of war and survival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother and grandmother, Olive May Jordan (née Bertholini) taken in Hull during the Second World War


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