Josie Purcell

As we are nature, we are water and rivers too. They run through us.

Josie’s PhD research is investigating how abstract, eco-photography and phytoremediation (the ability of plants to remove/reduce toxins from natural environments) can mediate between river health and human need.

She suggests this as ‘photo-re/mediation’ to help people address the challenges facing water resources, while simultaneously acknowledging photography as an extractive process.

Josie’s research, while considering Cornwall-wide rivers with contemporary pollution issues, will focus on the streams close to where she lives on the the north coast of Cornwall. While these freshwater environments carry historic mining impacts, agricultural run-off, septic tanks and sewage overflow issues, Josie is also including pharmaceutical levels in initial research.

When not creating her photographic art, Josie works as the communications manager for a river health charity, Westcountry Rivers Trust.

You can find out more about how to help the rivers of the region at wrt.org.uk

Her practice-based PhD artwork will be shared here and her PhD research journal here from 2024.

The situational images highlight an industrial past informing the present.

Harena Now investigates the global sand crisis through an alternative photographic process and digital manipulation.

It is part of Josie’s wider interest in how humans impact on the world .

Her motivation for this work is two-fold. Firstly, it is to raise the profile of this lesser known environmental issue that is having dire consequences not only on eco-systems but human life too. Secondly, it challenges the response to human-made environmental problems through the use of abstract imagery and investigates if this aesthetic can prompt action.

Some experts predict that due to the booming demand for sand in industries such as construction and beach re-nourishment, sand may run out. That seems impossible for such a ubiquitous material.

It also seems unimaginable that this has also led to a growth in sand mafias, and people have lost their homes, livelihoods, and even their lives.

To minimise her own photographic footprint, Josie has opted to use a camera-less process without chemical solutions, creating abstract images at coastal locations, using sand, sunlight, and sometimes seawater.

Harena is the Latin word for sand. It also symbolises sandy places such as the seashore but also an arena/place of contest. As the developing environmental/humanitarian issues surrounding our use of sand is most definitely a battle, for those trying to survive and make a living, for the wildlife and habitats caught up in the process, for those trying to determine a solution, it is apt that Harena signifies the material (sand) and implies conflict.

The Harena Now images meld various sources of inspiration from the passage of time to geology, the microscopic to the vast, anthropocentric to ecocentric ideologies, and the past to the present.

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth”.
Rachel Carson.

Visit Kiran Pereira’s outstanding SandStories.org for insight about this global issue.

This work has been commissioned by the IMP@CT project and became part of the Of Earth-For Earth exhibition at Heartlands, Cornwall, 9-12 March 2020, as part of an international conference considering sustainable mining practices.

It is inspired by a waveform array sometimes seen in a geological sampling technique, Cathodoluminescence.

It draws on a sense of play and the seemingly collective love of kaleidoscopes to imbue a sense of wonder and beauty to encourage conversations about a challenging topic.

It is created using hybrid lumen/digital processes, combining negatives from cathodoluminescence images and/or sand and earth.

Find out more at oefe.co.uk

You Don’t Belong Here uses ‘weeds’ as a symbol of exclusion from the English countryside due to private, corporate, military, heritage and/or local authority landownership rights.

It explores the right to roam and common ground. There are links to how people from diverse backgrounds access and enjoy the land in which they live. And with 93% of land and 97% of England’s rivers off-limits to the public, it is time we fully addressed this.

Currently a work in progress, this series has materialised through Josie’s involvement with Hundred Heroines. The 2022 Bootcamp cohort is responding to the idea of silent protest or silencing protest.

With a growing interest in our right to respectfully roam the land in which we live, Josie is experimenting with high contrast imagery to create visual ‘loudness’ in a topic that many would rather silence.

We all know that weeds are seen as plants in the ‘wrong’ place, and many a preventative measure is used to deter them, but weeds are persistent and will often return.

It is persistence that will update/change/tear up the CROW Act so the public is not curtailed from accessing nature close to home.

Part of the Patchwork contends with the idea of land ownership, access to land, self-sufficiency, impacts on biodiversity, climate and water resource, and social and cultural histories while reflecting the stories of those who tend to this ‘part of the patchwork’.

In England, 92% of the land is not accessible to ‘commoners’. This seems at odds with how beneficial being immersed in the natural world is for humans. The series lends itself to potential conversations relating to rights of access.

Work will mix non-documentary colourful images and black and white portraits of allotment holders. The former will be created with alternative processes using found objects on-site or artefacts that hold meaning for the person photographed. The latter will be reimagined in plant-based hand-tinting and non-photochemical processing.

Josie originally wrote that this series had been inspired by her love of flowers and their cyclical nature.

That is true. But it is in fact more about ageing, in particular, the time when a woman is facing/going through the menopause.

This can be a challenging moment - just a moment as it does not last forever or define a woman - but it can be scary and feel lonesome.

Even now, it seems openly admitting you are menopausal is still taboo (especially in work situations).

There is still a propensity in our (UK) society to idolise youth rather than to celebrate all ages. Women of all ages can feel pressured to be a certain way or look a certain way, but when your body begins to change during menopause, it can amplify insecurities.

The images are created using flowers that are dying, capturing their vitality, and reinventing it in a new way.

If we are lucky, we all live to a ripe old age. This series celebrates life changes and encourages women not to lose themselves during this time. Some images have an X-ray effect to signify how fragile we can feel at this stage of our lives, how some women say they feel invisible or perhaps seen through, but the strong colours demand attention and signify this passage of time is not the end rather a reinvention.

Seeing the flowers in this new way relates to seeing yourself in a new way - you are not invisible.

This series intertwines stories of mythical goddesses of nature with the story of plastic.

The innocence of a child’s plastic doll seems incongruous with the impact we are having on our planet through our over reliance on this material.

It seeks answers to why, with the knowledge we have, we can not lessen our usage on a global scale.

This is my lovely friend, Carly.

A year ago she learnt she had triple-negative breast cancer.

She has inspired everyone around her through her subsequent treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, lymph node removal) and said: “After all the hard work from my Cancer team and the support from my family, friends and my workplace, I am one of the lucky ones who gets to call herself a Cancer Survivor.

“I’m very aware that this is not the case for everyone and you get a feeling of guilt when you know others are not so lucky.

“Because of this, I have a determination to do life right, a second chance, a rebirth if you will and I will continue to shout from the rooftops how early detection can save lives, because this is the reason I’m still here - I caught it early.”

Carly is encouraging everyone to “check yourselves, ask your friends and family to check themselves, and to contact your GP if you find anything that isn’t normal for you”.

Although I don’t often create portraits, Carly has been my ‘muse’ since we met about 20 years ago and I’m honoured and humbled she was up for this latest photo session in recognition of her experience.

As being immersed in nature has given her solace, respite and hope during this time, she wanted a portrait to reflect this.

And so these images are created outdoors, with some encapsulating her in a #chlorophyllprint through the science and magic of nature.

Thank you, Carly, you rock 💚📷💚

For help and info, visit:

coppafeel.org

breastcancernow.org

Josie is passionate about alternative photographic processes, particularly the cyanotype.

The images below show a mix of residency, commission, and personal creations using techniques such as cyanotype, anthotype, and instant film lifts.

Her paper cyanotype flowers have been created through the 985 BLUE series. This work is inspired by the historic craft of paper flower making and Josie’s interest in repurposing cyanotype prints in new ways.

It is understood that paper flower making originated in China thousands of years ago and became part of ceremonial offerings.

This work is influenced by two women from history. The first is Anna Atkins, the botanist behind the first cyanotype photographic book, and Mary Delany, who from age 72 created 985 cut paper flower “mosaicks” before her death.

It also acknowledges the working-class families in London who made numerous artificial flowers for the well-to-do women of the day.

This section also includes some portraits and film work.