After growing up in North America, South West England and India, I put down my roots in a little village in rural north Dorset. I started my working life in nature conservation, worked in the local woods as a charcoal burner and coppice worker, in environmental engagement and education, as an academic research assistant and spent many years blowing glass in a small rural studio. I currently work as a field sureyor, botany tutor and chair the Dorset Flora Group. My photography is informed by my love of wild nature and explores my path to belonging, healing and finding my voice in the world as a neurodiverse person of third culture.
I’m drawn to the abstract and impressionistic in my photographic work as this helps me to communicate my connection to the natural world in a way that representational photography does not always allow. Though I also enjoy creating portraits of wild subjects especially our native flora. Most of my work is taken within a 15 mile radius of my house, in the ancient woodlands, chalk downland, chalk streams and fields margins around the village, places I revisit year in and year out in every season.
As a photographer I’m self taught, my love of nature and passion for protecting the environment led me to persue academic qualifications in ecology and sustainability. Bringing art and science together, as part of my MSc research I examined how photography can be used as a tool to promote pro-environmental behaviours, calculated the carbon footprint of landscape and nature photography and explored the ecotheraputic effects of reconnecting with nature through photographic practise.
I do all I can to ensure my art has the smallest possible ecological and carbon footprint and is respectful of our wild kin and their habitats. I have always created my imagery locally, using public transport when travelling outside of Dorset and never fly. I follow the RPS Nature Photographers Code of Practise and BSBI Code of Conduct.
Jo Stephen Photography 