Artist Statement
As a photographer, I have a particular interest in different landscapes and the way they are shaped by human activity through agriculture and associated traditions. Working closely with communities and individuals, my work explores people’s relationship to the landscape, often combining text and sound with the photographs.
I work intuitively, responding to people, places and events – my work always has a level of personal response to the individual person or place. It is more about collaboration and letting their story unfold rather than having set ideas at the outset. This is always added to by in depth research about the area. I talk to people a lot, often recording our conversations onto minidisk, which I may or may not use as text or sound as part of the finished work. I am also particularly interested in stories and traditions associated with a particular landscape.
My most recent projects have involved working with various hill farming and rural communities in the UK for exhibitions and publications. Moor and Dale, a commission from Nidderdale AONB to investigate and record the relationship between the area’s landscape, wildlife and people was first shown at The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate in 2004 and also as part of the Hereford Photography Festival in October 2004. In addition to the touring gallery show, a previous exhibition took this work back into the landscape where it was created through an exhibition in a shooting box on Lofthouse Moor. 2 miles from the nearest village, a walking route brought the public to the venue via a series of photographs along the footpath.
I was recently artist in residence on an isolated hill farm in Exmoor National park where I lived and worked with the family to produce work for a series of exhibitions in 2004/5. In Summer 2003, I was artist in residence at the Artist Centre of Inari at Koppelo in Northern Finland where I worked with Saami reindeer herders.
More recently, Green Fingers, an exploration of the National Plant Collections ® uses the greenhouse environment as a metaphor for the investigation of people’s relationship with the natural world and their desired control and ownership of it.
My work draws attention to observing details which we usually let slip by unnoticed and aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the changing nature of rural life in Europe.
Resume
Tessa Bunney, born Bristol, England, 1966. She graduated from West Surrey College of Art and Design in 1988 and completed an MA in Photography at De Montfort University, Leicester in 2004 where she obtained a distinction.
Tessa undertakes commissions and residencies nationally and internationally and runs workshops within the community. She also undertakes portraits and features photography for various magazines.
Previous projects include and Moor and Dale, a commission from Nidderdale AONB to investigate and record the relationship between the area’s landscape, wildlife and people and Eat Better, Eat British, a series of environmental portraits of farmers and small food producers, which was awarded an honourable mention in Leica’s Oskar Barnack Award, 2000.
With support from grants from the European Cultural Foundation and Arts Council England, she is currently working on a project about transhumance and rural life in Romania which will be exhibited at Impressions Gallery, York in 2006.
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