Beers.Lambert presents a photographic exhibition with work by British photographer Ed Hopley and Australian photographer Clinton Hayden - two artists who question the objective and importance of ‘nature’ photography in a society inundated by ‘the photographic image’.

Although hailing from a background of photojournalism, the works of Ed Hopley begin to engage at a much more subversive level than merely straightforward reportage. Similarly, Clinton Hayden's broad photographic practice includes figurative, still-life, landscape, and even nature stills; here, some of his most direct works prove to be also his most ambiguous. Together, the artists offer a profound insight into the form of so-called nature photography in our highly digitised world where photography has become transformed through its sheer ubiquity. What does it mean to challenge and question such a traditional subject-matter in the photographic medium? How do these artists legitimise and validate the practice of photography? The exhibition seeks to question the nature of the photographic form and the importance of the images created and messages produced therein.

Clinton Hayden : (b. 1978, Australia) Hayden's practice explores ideas of intimacy, alienation and longing. Through the use of personal archive, varied production and printing methods, he works with the understanding of the photograph both as image and object - 'a pseudo presence and token of absence' (Sontag) - engaging with the materiality of the medium to enhance investigations of longing/yearning, subject/object, lover/other, and the subtleties between these dualities. Hayden graduated RMIT University School of Arts Master of Fine Arts program with distinction in 2011. Hayden exhibits in Australia and has exhibited in the UK, Iceland and the USA. He currently lives and works in London, UK.

Ed Hopley : (b. 1971, United Kingdom) Hopley's work examines the interpretation and use of the environment that surrounds us, exploring the relationship between the deliberately constructed, grown, or placed and the subsequent implications upon the chosen location. Through the medium of digital imagery Hopley attempts to highlight the significance of contrived landscapes within the context of the existing natural environment in order to champion both the mental and physical values of our surroundings. Hopley graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Art and Design in 1995 and has spent the past seventeen years travelling the world on commissions for clients such as Christie’s, with his images featuring in publications around the globe. Hopley is the recipient of Gold and Bronze Medals in the Royal Photographic Society's International Print Awards, his photographs have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions and are held in numerous private collections.