Epha J. Roe Herefordshire, United Kingdom

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I'm an artist and writer who specialises in photographic engagement with the natural world, particularly the cultural significance of heritage trees. I'm currently a practice-based PhD student at the University of Brighton, conducting research on how interaction with the concept of plant intelligence can help deepen creative engagements with trees and the wider natural world.

I am a photographic artist who uses a variety of traditional, modern and experimental photographic techniques, often within the same projects, to explore the limits and flexibility of the medium. A principle focus of mine is the practice of embedding the subject of my creative and research interests within the material, or product, of its representation. For example, my project 'Arboreal Encounters' comprises of six A2 cyanotype prints of heritage oak trees within England that I have toned with tannin extracted from oak bark. These images combine the oak's cultural representation and an element of their organic material into one image, making their physical and conceptual properties indistinguishable from one and other.

I am also interested in photography's relationship to other media as a method to deepen and expand audience engagement with complex themes and subjects. Some examples of this are the inclusion of sound (such as the collaborative audio work 'Our Roots' with sound artist Joe Davin: https://soundcloud.com/aevem/our-roots), sculpture and living plants within the exhibition space to create a sense of immersion.