Discover more about photographer Tessa Bunney following her recent exhibition at the Dock Museum, featuring poetry by Mark Ward

Doors: 5:30 - SIGNAL's new exhibition, Plain Sight, will be open to enjoy before the talk.

Talk & Poetry Reading: 6-8pm

FREE

Tessa Bunney

For over 30 years, Tessa has photographed rural life, working closely with individuals and communities to investigate how the landscape is shaped by humans. From hill farmers near her home in North Yorkshire to Icelandic puffin hunters, from Romanian nomadic shepherds to Lincolnshire flower farmers her projects reveal the fascinating intricacies of the dependencies between people, work and the land.

Recent work includes ‘Made out of Orchards’ which was commissioned, published and exhibited by the Martin Parr Foundation in 2023, ‘Going to the Sand’, an ongoing personal project collaborating with Morecambe Bay fishermen which was published by Another Place Press and 'Farm / Mill / Bake' which was commissioned and exhibited by Ryedale Folk Museum in 2025.

She was the recipient of the TPA/RPS Environmental Bursary 2023 to work with fishermen on the Teesside and Yorkshire coast following the devastating wash-up of crabs and lobsters on which their livelihoods depends.

Tessa has since travelled along the North Sea Coast and beyond meeting and photographing a wide range of inshore fishermen from those using a J-net to catch sea trout in Yorkshire to crab potting in Norfolk and from herring fishing in Suffolk to oystering in Essex.

Mark Ward

Mark Ward has published several books and pamphlets including three poetry collections: Thunder Alley, The Visitor’s Book, and Night Bus to Monte Carlo (Penniless Press Publications) along with two non-fiction books A Guide to Historic Haworth & the Brontë’s (Hendon Publishing) and The Lost World of Langdale & Other Stories (Penniless Press Publications). He has worked and collaborated with a several individual artists and organisations including sculptors Kate Davis and David Moore, The Wordsworth Trust, The Bronte Parsonage Museum, Signal Film & Media, The Lakes Arts Collective, Lancaster & Morecambe City Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council, Moving Mountains and ARC Refugee & Asylum Centre. He was a founder of the Haworth Festival of the Arts, and wrote and project managed the exhibition Lodestar, at the Bureau Centre for the Arts, Blackburn. He has appeared on TV and radio including Made in England, BBC1, Lakes on a Plate, Channel 4, and Accents, ITV Granada Reports. The poem Meridians, based on his attempted solo row across the Irish Sea, was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and featured on the programme A Line in the Water.

Description supplied by the event organiser.