Discover works from Siân Davey’s The garden in a free outdoor exhibition in the Soho Photography Quarter just outside the Gallery.

Starting in 2020, British photographer Siân Davey transformed her abandoned garden over three summers into a vibrant space, filled with wildflowers, birdsong and people.

Together with her son, Luke, Davey cultivated a space rooted in love. They researched native flowers and encouraged biodiversity, sourcing seeds and plants locally.

When the flowers bloomed, they called in the community. Everyone had a place in The garden; the mothers and daughters, the lonely, the marginalised, lovers, the traumatised and heartbroken and those that had concealed a lifetime of shame. The space became an expression of yearning, defiance, joy and interconnectedness.

Everyone has a place in our garden. I am the garden. Those who enter are the garden. Without distinction, without separation.

(Siân Davey)

Siân Davey (b. 1964, Brighton) worked as a psychotherapist for 15 years before launching her career in photography in 2014. She draws on her experience in psychotherapy and as a mother to inform her practice. Her work is in a range of national and international collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, and The French National Collection, Paris. She lives and works in Dartington, Devon.