For over 30 years, Tessa Bunney has photographed rural life, working closely with individuals and communities to investigate how the landscape is shaped by humans. From hill farmers near her home in North Yorkshire to Icelandic puffin hunters, from Romanian nomadic shepherds to Lincolnshire flower farmers her projects reveal the fascinating intricacies of the dependencies between people, work and the land.
‘FarmerFlorist’ was exhibited at Oriel Colwyn in 2019 and published by Another Place Press as part of their Field Notes series and in early 2020 her exhibition ‘Otherwise Unseen’, bringing together four series which explore various rural communities in Europe and Southeast Asia was shown at the Side Gallery in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
Recent work includes ‘Made out of Orchards’ which was commissioned, published and exhibited by the Martin Parr Foundation and ‘Going to the Sand’, an ongoing personal project collaborating with Morecambe Bay fishermen which was published by Another Place Press in 2023.
She is the recipient of the TPA/RPS Environmental Bursary 2023 to work with fishermen from the Teesside and Yorkshire coast to tell their story following the devastating wash-up of crabs and lobsters on which their livelihoods depend.
Tessa regularly gives talks about her practice to a wide range of community groups, galleries, schools and universities. She is currently photography lecturer at York St John University.
John and Michael Wilson cockling, Flookburgh, Cumbria, January 2020 ©Tessa Bunney
Paul Chant, Piltown Farm, West Pennard, Somerset ©Tessa Bunney
To make things fair we will only release details of the speakers and tickets for these on a monthly basis.
TALK PHOTO is a fortnightly evening social event in Oriel Colwyn’s gallery space, where invited speakers are here IN PERSON to share presentations and insights about their work or projects, with a friendly intimate audience.
Talks start at 7pm (doors open 6.30pm) with tickets issued on a first come, first served basis.
If you are in a position to contribute towards the talks then please choose a donation option – this will directly help Oriel Colwyn and the continuation of these events going forward.
If you would prefer not to donate, please choose the FREE Ticket option.
Due to space limitations, we will be capping the audience to 30 people and are happy to offer a FREE option to remove any financial barriers to attend.