EXHIBITION WORK

“Skeletons of Waste”

ongoing Series 2021 -

This is a black and white series of images at 10x10”, based on images related to waste found in and around Chichester Harbour. The images speak to our increasing need to think harder about how we use our resources and what happens to them when we are done with them, planned or inadvertent.

It is a work in progress. These images are on Instagram under Ali Warner Photography.

"Found on the Strandline”

The Chi Art Trail Exhibition 2022

Environmental awareness and Chichester Harbour remains a focused theme of mine. The issues are not going away. The problems connected to eutrophication, micro-plastics, harbour sewage and over-building locally are challenges I feel the need to express through my photography. This year I have spent much time with items I’ve found on the strand line, and worked with studio backdrops with a strong macro theme. I caught Storm Eunice on camera which gave me both enormous excitement and a chance to see local seas under wild conditions. I’ve been thinking about the various kinds of strand line, and how people find themselves on the strand lines of society, economically, socially. My finds at Stonepillow locally reflect this, through discarded glass jelly moods and tourist souvenirs.

“Out of the Blue”

The Chi Art Trail EXHIBITION 2021

This last year or so has had a concentration of focus. The Harbour, always precious, has been gifting me ideas, inspiration and subject matter.

“Out of the Blue’” refers to the changes in our lives that came from nowhere. The deep Prussian Blue of Cyanotype printing. The blue skies and seas of Chichester Harbour. A path to cheer ourselves up.

The subject matter has intersecting points, overlaps in theme. The Harbour is the fulcrum. At the outset, the estuary, physical in various forms, readily distinguishable. Her inhabitants: jellyfish, harbour dandelions, trees, floating boats, roses in our gardens that go down to the sea. Moon jellyfish.

And then we have the finds I pick up on walks and bring back to the studio to photograph, quietly, finding myself absorbed in tiny details picked out by close-up observation and lighting. The cuttlefish. I’ve been spotted all winter managing two dogs and handfuls of cuttlefish.

Exquisitely formed and deeply fragile, it is rare to find one intact. I love the fact they are the descendants of fossily squid called Belemites, and that they blend into their environment with camouflaged skin that changes according to location and activity. Their ink sacks have been used for millennia to make sepia for drawing and printing. Clever, interesting beasts. They take their final swim with me in the studio, as a print washing in my Belfast sink.

And finally, the plastics, the waste, the junk that floats and ends up on our strand lines and in our waters. This too I photograph, finding beauty in the form. I’d rather not be photographing plastic.

The star of this exhibition is in fact Chichester Harbour. And the cuttlefish which I adore. I worry that building more and more houses on the fringes of the Harbour in Bosham and Southbourne and Emsworth will bring yet more eutrophication to the waters, changing the chemical structure of the sea and bioaccumulating in the squid and fish.

“Out of the Blue” is also a moment to reflect on what the Harbour means to us - collectively and individually.

We are as much a part of this ecological community as the squid. I’m speaking out, visually, for the plankton and the jellyfish.

Exhibitions & Residencies

The Summer Isles - personal Highlands Residency August 2021

Polzeath to Trebetherick - personal Cornish Residency June 2020

Chi Art Trail 2019

Everyman and his Dog - Solo Show, Everyman Cinema Winchester 2016

Competions

2023 Global Monochrome Awards, Fine Art Category. MoonMoth had an Honorable Mention.

MoonMoth references the critical position our nocturnal insects find themselves in with light pollution.

Monochrome Awards 2021: Cuttlefish, Honourable Mention in the Nature Category

Monochrome Awards 2021: Fungi Family, West Sussex, Honourable Mention in the Fine Art Category.