Creative Retreat Scholarship Photographer Profiles
Three scholarship places for our recent Creative Retreat were offered free of charge, reflecting our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
We are very proud to showcase the work of these three photographers here.
Anna Maria Nabirye
I’m a British Ugandan interdisciplinary artist. I would describe myself as an emerging photographer as although I have worked with photography since college, it has always been part of multi-generative projects. It’s only now in my early 40s that I am fully celebrating the wholeness of being a multidisciplinary artist and naming all the mediums I work with rather than just the medium I studied in.
I come from a refugee, working class background and grew up in London- photography has always been present- archiving and representing my family life, making our presence known to the London and the Ugandan parts of us respectively - bridging the parallel worlds that I come from.
Feeling the pangs of not being seen in culture has always hit deep and my work whatever the medium has always been to seek celebration, to make known what I see and experience. The work I make is for the hungry curious 6 year old me- who didn’t see herself or her experiences growing up. My practice is steeped in community, vulnerability and softness that is not always afforded to marginalised folks.
Retreating with the Peter Marlow Foundation to the magical place of Dungeness to focus on a golden thread that has been present in my work since teen-hood feels very special. I will be focusing on forthcoming work ‘The Funnest Room In The House’. The work is a portal back to ancestral homelands of the Black diaspora, celebrating the kitchen as an archive charting the many journeys of the diaspora to the UK. Traveling through time, exploring a mythical Black British kitchen, collected from many pasts. Intimate spaces that were individual to each family’s life but were also a performance of collective culture, containing expressions of ancestral homelands and nostalgia for back-home, mashed up with British culture. This slice of social history is quietly disappearing, for the most part unrecorded, with kitchen renovations filling skips around the country, the gentrification of inner-city areas dispersing communities and links to homelands feeling further and further away as elders pass on to become ancestors.
Jadine Wells
Jadine is a photographer based in Kent. Jadine’s work explores the relationship between people and place within family histories, incorporating image, text, and mixed-media into artist photobooks.
The End of The Grove is a mixed-media photobook which explores the fear of loss rooted in generational trauma. The early passing of men, shaped by disadvantaged upbringings and risk-taking, amplifies our fear of loss. Set against the backdrop of Gravesend industrial park and the Kent marshland, our lives are moulded by the flow of the river.
Inspired by Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations, The End of The Grove is a quest for redemption amidst insurmountable odds, expressed through visual and written art. It stands as a testament to our pursuit of a better life, even when our fate seems written in the land. Reeds are monoprinted, archive images are gel plate printed, and scenes are salt printed, blurring a diaristic narrative between truth and fiction.
We are very proud to showcase the work of these three photographers here.
Anna Maria Nabirye
I’m a British Ugandan interdisciplinary artist. I would describe myself as an emerging photographer as although I have worked with photography since college, it has always been part of multi-generative projects. It’s only now in my early 40s that I am fully celebrating the wholeness of being a multidisciplinary artist and naming all the mediums I work with rather than just the medium I studied in.
I come from a refugee, working class background and grew up in London- photography has always been present- archiving and representing my family life, making our presence known to the London and the Ugandan parts of us respectively - bridging the parallel worlds that I come from.
Feeling the pangs of not being seen in culture has always hit deep and my work whatever the medium has always been to seek celebration, to make known what I see and experience. The work I make is for the hungry curious 6 year old me- who didn’t see herself or her experiences growing up. My practice is steeped in community, vulnerability and softness that is not always afforded to marginalised folks.
Retreating with the Peter Marlow Foundation to the magical place of Dungeness to focus on a golden thread that has been present in my work since teen-hood feels very special. I will be focusing on forthcoming work ‘The Funnest Room In The House’. The work is a portal back to ancestral homelands of the Black diaspora, celebrating the kitchen as an archive charting the many journeys of the diaspora to the UK. Traveling through time, exploring a mythical Black British kitchen, collected from many pasts. Intimate spaces that were individual to each family’s life but were also a performance of collective culture, containing expressions of ancestral homelands and nostalgia for back-home, mashed up with British culture. This slice of social history is quietly disappearing, for the most part unrecorded, with kitchen renovations filling skips around the country, the gentrification of inner-city areas dispersing communities and links to homelands feeling further and further away as elders pass on to become ancestors.
Jadine Wells
Jadine is a photographer based in Kent. Jadine’s work explores the relationship between people and place within family histories, incorporating image, text, and mixed-media into artist photobooks.
The End of The Grove is a mixed-media photobook which explores the fear of loss rooted in generational trauma. The early passing of men, shaped by disadvantaged upbringings and risk-taking, amplifies our fear of loss. Set against the backdrop of Gravesend industrial park and the Kent marshland, our lives are moulded by the flow of the river.
Inspired by Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations, The End of The Grove is a quest for redemption amidst insurmountable odds, expressed through visual and written art. It stands as a testament to our pursuit of a better life, even when our fate seems written in the land. Reeds are monoprinted, archive images are gel plate printed, and scenes are salt printed, blurring a diaristic narrative between truth and fiction.
Jess Bootes
Jess Bootes (b.2004), is a documentary photographer based in Kent. Her work predominantly is in a documentary style, encompassing both portraits and landscapes. Currently completing her BA (Hons) in photography At Canterbury, Christ Church University. She is working on a project that explores the Isle of Sheppey, exploring the rich history and its transformation into a marginalised seaside town.
I am a University student (last year) and at this stage in my career, I never thought I would have the chance to apply, let alone get accepted into a scholarship place for a retreat like this. The fact they opened it to all a range of ages and experience in the photography field, I think is amazing as it allowed me to see the different avenues of work and learn from the other participants. I also thought it was inspiring to see the team (Shannon, Emma, Kalpesh, Lynda and the rest of the Peter Marlow Foundation team assisting), so connected and so friendly with each other, it helped me believe in a sense of community in the field. From the beginning to end, I thought that there was a perfect balance of relaxation and down-time away from work, and a range of activities planned so that we left feeling inspired and educated. I thought that the PMF beliefs and their mission as a foundation, were evident in the retreat, as mentioned before, it was open to a range of participants, including people who have yet to fully start their business.
Jess Bootes (b.2004), is a documentary photographer based in Kent. Her work predominantly is in a documentary style, encompassing both portraits and landscapes. Currently completing her BA (Hons) in photography At Canterbury, Christ Church University. She is working on a project that explores the Isle of Sheppey, exploring the rich history and its transformation into a marginalised seaside town.
I am a University student (last year) and at this stage in my career, I never thought I would have the chance to apply, let alone get accepted into a scholarship place for a retreat like this. The fact they opened it to all a range of ages and experience in the photography field, I think is amazing as it allowed me to see the different avenues of work and learn from the other participants. I also thought it was inspiring to see the team (Shannon, Emma, Kalpesh, Lynda and the rest of the Peter Marlow Foundation team assisting), so connected and so friendly with each other, it helped me believe in a sense of community in the field. From the beginning to end, I thought that there was a perfect balance of relaxation and down-time away from work, and a range of activities planned so that we left feeling inspired and educated. I thought that the PMF beliefs and their mission as a foundation, were evident in the retreat, as mentioned before, it was open to a range of participants, including people who have yet to fully start their business.
