Airborne is an ongoing immersive audio, visual & sculptural art installation looking at the impact of air pollution on the health of children in London/England, linking to wider questions about climate change globally. Air pollution accounts for nearly 1/10 deaths in children under 5 worldwide. The work has been exhibited by Friends of The Earth London, and The Ella Roberta Family Foundation. Contributors/collaborators include The Ella Roberta Family Foundation, The Natural History Museum, Dr Abigail Whitehouse at Barts Hospital, Kings College London and the London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. https://www.airborne.london/

Isolation experiments in lockdown 2020. With the onset of lockdown due to Covid 19, I turned the camera on myself and my surroundings. These images are a visual diary of my experience in quarantine, keeping in mind the relationship between human beings, animals and the natural world. London March - June 2020.

Portraits and documentary photography focused on the experience of motherhood through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.

In the darkness of 3.30am on the Stade beach in Sussex, Paul Joy and his crew prepare to set out to sea cuttle-fishing. Engines grumble, wood creaks and the boat skids over shingle into the black water. Even at daybreak in summer, the damp air of the English channel is cold and biting and the work physically tough. For Paul and hundreds of other small fishing communities around the UK, it’s a way of life going back nearly a thousand years. But they say they’re struggling to survive, and if things continue as they are, they won’t last much longer. In 2006 the European Union imposed strict fishing quotas, partly to protect “white fish“ stocks. But UK allocations are said to be imbalanced in favor of larger operators, leaving “inshore” fishing boats (boats under 10 meters long) with access to around only 4% of the total fishing quota. These small fishing vessels account for 77% of the UK’s fishing fleet, and provide 65% of full-time employment in the industry. Coastal communities rely on fishing, and the jobs and tourism it brings to survive. The Stade beach in Hastings has been home to fishermen for centuries and currently holds 29 of 339 small fishing boats in the south east region who are permitted to access around 30% of the regional quota. The remaining 70% is controlled by 9 larger vessels. “We’re in a situation now where we can’t make a living. Smaller boats are losing their right to fish, being pushed out and decimated by larger vessels. We’ve got a long heritage of sustainable fishing. Quota is the lifeblood of the community, if you take our quota away, we die.” If the given quota is exceeded at sea, fishermen can’t legally bring the fish ashore or sell it in the market, but are forced to throw catch overboard as “discard” so that they aren’t penalized with fines. “We’ve got quota on cod which is 42 kilos a month, which equates to half a fish a day, and that’s for four people. It’s impossible to make a living on that and we’re having to throw fish back in the sea dead.The swim bladder ruptures and 99% of the fish die. It’s heartbreaking” An unlikely union of fishermen and environmental groups including Greenpeace have joined forces to try and challenge the current system which they believe unfairly supports big industrial fisheries. Greenpeace say that The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) set in place in the 1970’s has “utterly failed” and “desperately needs fixing”. “It’s about money, it’s about business, it’s about the right to fish, who holds that right and who financially benefits from that right. It used to be about coastal communities but it isn’t any more.”

India’s planned power expansion depends overwhelmingly on coal, with over a hundred huge new generation units planned by 2030. Sarah Stirk reports on the nightmare the dash for coal is bringing to once peaceful rural communities. The Ecologist/Link TV