About

Thank you to the women survivors who share their stories with courage and dignity.

Now

Photographer and Visual Researcher. Currently completing PhD in Media Studies through the North of England Consortium for Arts and Humanities (NECAH) at the University of Hull. Working with and alongside women forcibly displaced by war, conflict and persecution to explore the roles of photographic images and photography in self-representation as visible activism.

Before

Began in journalism in 1989 for UK national newspapers, magazines and books. Written and photographic commissions and self-initiated projects undertaken internationally. Since first working with women survivors in Sierra Leone in 2007, I have devoted my visual practice to recording the personal narratives of women survivors, focusing on how women rebuild after the aftermath. Since 2012 working alongside women forcibly displaced and resettled to the UK. We co-create exhibitions, installations and research using non-linear, multi-vocal, visual conversations in which all female voices occupy the space.

Personal

Born in East Hull, England in 1966. Currently living in East Yorkshire.

During the Second World War, Hull was the most bombed city outside of London. My mother and grandmother, Maureen (née Jordan) and Olive May Jordan (née Bertholini) survived the bombing raids on East Hull. They never fully shared their stories, or how they coped after the aftermath. No one asked them. Their herstories remain untold and lost forever.

Olive and Maureen often make a cameo appearance in my projects. The absence of their voices inspires me to find ways to appreciate and create shared spaces and platforms for hidden, unheard, ignored and devalued female voices of war.

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.

Two images held in the New Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge.

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

Awarded Honorary Doctorate by the University of Hull (2012).

Honorary Research Fellow, The Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull (2012-2015).

MA Journalism by Research, School of Journalism, University of Lincoln (2018).