Research is an integral part of my practice. I work with archives, manuscripts, archaeology, buildings and places, using photography, close observation and visual research to uncover and reimagine material traces and stories. My artistic projects often begin with encounters with historical material — a manuscript, an archaeological site, an archive, a person or a particular place — and expand with in-depth research that informs my subsequent work. Research becomes both a way of looking and a way of making.

Film still: Architecture washing – brickwork and plans of Brock Keep, Reading

Discussion panel at MIX conference 2025, Bath Spa University

​I also present aspects of my research and practice through conference papers, talks and academic collaborations, bringing creative and visual approaches into conversations around history, archives, literature and material culture.

Current research

My current research focuses on medieval manuscript copies of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis. Working with material held in Cambridge University collections, I am exploring the individual characteristics of these objects and the ways in which photography, text and moving image can open up different ways of encountering them. This builds on Illusory Depth, which developed from photographing the excavation of an Anglo-Saxon site associated with Queen Cynethryth at Cookham and my interest in how photography and moving image can respond to material traces of the past.

Presentation at Brock Keep, Reading (OpenHand OpenSpace Studios)

Building history

I am developing a parallel interest in building history, bringing together my experience as an artist and photographer with historical and archival research into buildings and their contexts. This is an emerging area of practice. I am currently undertaking further study and research, embarking on the MSt in Building History at Cambridge University, with a particular interest in the evidence contained in buildings, photographs, archives and other visual sources.