Into the Woods is a new exhibition by British photographer Ellie Davies which will showcase work from her new series Chalk Streams.

These waterways are one of the world’s most unique and rare ecosystems, 85% of which are found in the UK. They support a high biodiversity of wild creatures and have been likened to rainforests and coral reefs in their ecological importance, but they are under huge threat from numerous stressors.

In her most recent Chalk Streams and Seascapes series, light from the surface of the sea is overlaid onto forests and rivers. The light represents an ingress on these important ecosystems by the destructive human impacts of climate change, rising sea levels, pollution, water abstraction, farm runoff - the list goes on. The beguiling sparkles hint at the insidious nature of these pressures, the relentless altering and damaging of wild places and the need to protect them.

They are a call for change, and although they reflect a sense of deep concern about the urgencies of the climate crisis, they hold a strong and enduring hope for the future.

This new series will be shown alongside prints from many of her earlier bodies of work created over the past 10 years in UK woodlands, exploring the complex interrelationships between the landscape and the individual. Throughout her practice small acts of engagement respond to the landscape. Using the forest as her studio, fires or pools of light hint at a human presence, whilst starscapes taken by the Hubble Telescope reflect on a fundamental disconnection from nature.

Growing up in the New Forest in the south of England, I spent my childhood exploring and playing in the woods with my twin sister. These images consider my relationships with those places; they become ways to reconnect with the wild landscapes of my youth and to discover if those remembered and imagined places can be found and captured again.

(Ellie Davies)

Ellie Davies (born 1976) graduated from the MA Photographic Degree Course at the London College of Communication (2008). Ellie has won numerous awards for her work, including the 2023 Earth Photo Awards shortlist, the Magnum Photography Fine Art Award, the Aesthetica Art Prize People’s Choice Award, Lens Culture International Exposure Awards and the PX3 Paris Prix de la Photographie Award. Her work has featured in many international publications and was selected for American Photography 33, a curated annual selection of the best in contemporary photography. Her work is held in many private collections as well as The Royal Brompton & Harefield Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital Trust and Imperial Health Charity.