Zennor Wildfire - an exhibition with the National Trust

And a real National Trust poster with my photograph on it.

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Now on to this week’s musings…

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You haven’t time travelled. It is in fact Monday evening, not last Wednesday when this letter would normally have arrived. I decided to postpone my newsletter as I had something exciting happen at the end of last week and knew I wanted to share it with you.

I have written a few times about a project I started last July, recording the recovery of Zennor Head after a devastating wildfire. The last time I wrote, after my 13^th visit to the headland, I said I was having a small self-funded exhibition this November. Since then, gloriously, things have changed. After speaking with Simon Hocking, one of the local National Trust rangers who fought the fire, I was put in touch with Kate Evans. Kate is a Senior Visitor Experience Officer for the NT in West Cornwall. Together, we have planned and plotted, and my small exhibition has become something wonderful.

Botallack Count House

This Friday Kate, Simon and I installed the photographs in the first leg of what is now a two-part exhibit. It will be on show for a month at the Botallack Count House Café, a listed building in the care of the NT situated above one the most beautiful ruins from the Cornish mining industry. It will then move to the St Ives Society of Artists for a week in November, where we will host a night in celebration of the rangers and firefights who saved the coastline.

As my conversations and plans with Kate grew, we knew we would need funding and so we applied to FEAST, a local arts funding organisation supported by Cornwall Council and the Arts Council. When they approved the funding, my heart leapt for joy. To have the support of a Cornish organisation, one that focuses on supporting and strengthening arts programming for the county is an exceptional feeling. I love living here, and this exhibition truly feels as though I am planting my creative roots deep into Cornish soil.

Installing at Botallack

Installing at Botallack

With the funding in hand my job became about editing the photographs. With 13 months’ worth of images, it wasn’t a job I could do on my own. Thankfully Lauren happened to visit and was generous enough to spend hours helping me. I spent hours more whittling it down my final choices, staring at the walls at Botallack and the floor plan at the Crypt Gallery. I am thrilled with the results and can’t wait to share them with people.

Editing with Lauren, getting help from Finn at Botallack, and over lunch at the Tinners Arms

I can’t quite believe I get to share them with the support of the National Trust. It is genuinely a dream come true. The NT are an incredible organisation. What they do to protect the English Countryside cannot be underestimated. They have been, and remain, an enduring part of my life. Visits to National Trust properties, walks through National Trust land, and lunches in National Trust cafes are some of my fondest memories. Walking the South West Coast Path the importance and power of the NT in preserving our natural environment could not be clearer, as you cross from denuded farmland into rich heathland owned and cared for by the trust. They aren’t perfect. No organisation of their size can be. But they are staffed by amazing people who passionately do their best for our countryside.

I am honoured that they have come on board to help me share the story of the Zennor Wildfire. And giddy to have a National Trust poster featuring my work! If you are in West Cornwall in October or November, please come on down and have a look.

As a side note for regular readers, the van came home this weekend with working electrics that mean I can turn on the lights, the fridge, and the fan. Plus, the water system is plumbed in and ready for me to add taps. It’s getting colder here so finding days to work on it will be harder, but I am going to find a way. If I could just afford the gas system in, I could turn on the vans heating to keep me warm! Until that day I am thrilled to be making such progress. I will keep you updated.

Finn modelling the new electrics and water system!