I've had the pleasure of working with the wonderful team at Discarded Nut Theatre Co. on the photography for their production of Othello. Having seen the dress rehearsal this week I'm certain it's going to be a quite extraordinary run and for those of you who are in proximity to Winchester, find out more and book tickets here.
Stem&Green Flower Farm - 2026 Residency
At the start of the year I was invited by my friend James to document the evolution of his flower farm in Winchester through the year. I have made two trips so far, an hour or so each month to capture life on the farm as the seasons change. You can keep up to date as the project progresses on my instagram page.
30th December 2025
As I do each year, on 30th December I went out to take pictures on the anniversary of my father's passing. Usually we are away with family, but this year we were at home, so I took our puppy Lottie for a walk around the local nature reserve and was able to capture some early morning moments with her in tow. As the years pass the poigniancy of the act feels less profound, but as so many of my projects have been, the act of taking photographs allows me to be intentional in my emotional processing and acknowledge what has been and what is here in the present moment.
PhD Update
It has taken me a while to adjust to academic life, but I feel I've had a fruitful start to the year, in particular exploring the archive of a local photographer who documented the villages of Hampshire in the early 1990's, hand developing and printing his photographs and presenting them in 220 handmade books. Some of his work features the location in Horton Heath that my research is focussed on, so since I came across his work at the county records office I have been trying to establish who he was and why he undertook such a mammoth task in the space of just five years. It's been a wonderful exploration of both fact finding and speculation and I'm exicted to see how it informs the next phase of my research,
The Art of Letting Go
I appreciate it’s been a while since I wrote, and amidst my business, I’ve had to try and take care of myself, to consider where my energy is going and how tightly I am holding onto things. Back in advent my friend Brian Draper wrote about the idea of ‘standing down the soldier’, the notion that when we feel ourselves carrying negative emotions and rising to a situation to take a breath and ask ourselves why we might be responding in such a way. For me, that usually involves looking inward, to consider why my capacity is more depleted and what I can do to find some restoration and clarity.
This reminded me of the concept of ‘Inscendence’, a philosophical concept coined by Thomas Berry. Rather than transcendence, which is the idea of rising above something, transcendence is embracing the impulse to go into something and focus on its core, to find deeper connection within the immediate reality. It’s an invitation to tune into our intuitive self to explore our place within the world.
Each of us will find different things when we tune into that intuition, but for me it helps to consider the things which might carry me towards that place, the things which aid me to ‘stand down’, to help me see a fresh perspective on my life and aid my to know and express who I am.
For me, it’s about engaging with the things which make me feel ‘softer’ - art, music, conversation, nature, certain people, spaces, architecture, to embrace them and know that I am more likely to resonate with myself and others in these environments. This in itself is an act of inscendence, to think about what your body tells you, to ask what life might look like you if we let your body lead, rather than our brains, which are so susceptible to exterior demands.
It may be that in this exploration we feel the need to express it but don’t know how. Maybe we can’t always tell someone how we feel, but we can play how we feel, paint or photograph how we feel, write it in abstract words, shapes, scribbles. Walk how we feel, dance it, shape, fold, craft or bake it.
Many of us have an expectation of steadiness, of stability. The idea of being comfortable is a concept which doesn’t even have a word in other languages. As we grow softer in heart, we stand on firmer ground, knowing that we are better centred in ourselves, and in being softer, we are more prepared for life in an unsteady world.
So in moving forwards I gently ask two questions of myself, which you are welcome to ask yourself....
What are the things that you already do that make you feel ‘softer’
What are your daily expressions of self? - Perhaps they are built into daily life and don’t feel separate from your other responsibilities. Or perhaps you have to be highly intentional to include them in your every day.
Remembering Martin Parr
I was deeply saddened to hear the news of the passing of Martin Parr.
I was aware that he’d been ill for quite a few years, and had taken time to say hello when I’d seen him in London, Bristol or Paris, but he’d not let his illness slow him down too much, continuing to work hard and make pictures. He will be greatly missed by so many individually as well as the whole photography world and countless others will have similar stories to mine of feeling supported through Martin's passion to encourage other photographers.
I was fortunate enough to work alongside Martin as his creative producer in 2018 for his commission from Manchester Art Gallery, which resulted in the show Return To Manchester, a collection of his work made in the city over his illustrious career. As daunting a prospect as it was, it was a huge privilege to arrange access to all of the various locations and spend so much time with him visiting them together, ranging from BBC Media City, Manchester United v Liverpool, Pride, Irish Parade, through to Levenshulme Market (where he got spotted more than anywhere else we went), the local mosque, yoga classes, Bury Market, Afflecks Palace and the Graphene Institute. His favourite place, however, was Mackie Mayor, the Northern Quarter’s new food hall, of which I have a large print that he made during our visit and he selected for the book cover.
He had a relentless desire to make great pictures, and a confidence and sense of engagement with his subject that I’ve never seen in any other photographer. He was almost addicted to taking pictures. On some nights in Manchester, I would drop him back at his hotel after dinner after working all day, only to find out upon picking him up at 8am the next morning that he’d been out taking pictures the night before, into the clubs on Canal Street or at some sort of function he’d found his way into.
That year, 2018, was the most significant of my life for many reasons. At the start of the year I’d decided to leave my job managing a coffee house to go freelance full-time, and then began working with Martin in early spring. It was during one of our trips together, parked up at a leisure centre in East Manchester that as we sat in the car working out how to get to our next destination, that I received the call from my mum to let me know that my sister Jess had passed away. Martin was very gracious, taking the time to ask me about her, and in particular whether she had a faith.
A couple of months later we welcomed the arrival of our first daughter Tilly, but by the end of the year I’d also lost both of my grandmothers. Somehow, amidst that all, I had the capacity to help the curator to select the images for the exhibition and I recall the opening night, Martin had a lightness to him, he delighted in Tilly, who was only a few months old, an he carried a sense of ease at a job well done, different to the Martin I knew when working hard on location, focussed and searching for the next picture.
I reflect on that time with Martin, to have played a small part in his story and contributed to the creation of his images is something I will always regard as a huge privilege. He is a true great of the medium.
I just wonder who is going to document the remnants of British culture now that he’s not here?
A few words from Martin, taken from a recent Guardian article about his biography….
I have had a wonderful life with photography. From North Korea, to a vicar’s garden party in Somerset, or shooting Mar del Plata beach in Argentina – what a privilege it has been to see the world and record my response. I had a funny one in Morecambe last summer. I was taking photos and this couple came up and said, “That’s a nice camera. What are you doing around here?” I replied, “I’m documenting Morecambe.” They said, “You mean like Martin Parr?” I said, “I am Martin Parr.” They were rather surprised.
I’ve been taking photos for almost 70 years, and in that time we’ve seen the amazing transformation from analogue film to the digital era, and I’ve got a lot older. We live in a difficult but inspiring world, and there is so much out there I want to photograph.
FT x The Glenlivet
In September I was invitied by the creative team at FT Studio to go up to Scotland to capture a story for the release of a 56 year old whisky from The Glenlivet, who commissioned artists Fredrikson Stallard to create a unique sculptural artwork to be presented alongside this one off bottle.
After an 11-hour drive north, my vidoegrapher Joel and I were treated to a wonderful array of locations across the distillery and surrounding landscapes, as well as documeting the artists and their sculpture. The resulting two stories have just been published and you can view them in full at the following links:
PhD at Winchester School of Art
I've been offered the amazing opportunity to undertake a fully funded PhD Studentship at Winchester School of Art, alongside Eastleigh Borough Council & John Hansard Gallery in Southampton.
I'll be engaging with communities around the Horton Heath area of Eastleigh, inviting them to document their surroundings and considering the ways in which people meet, gather, create and consider their home environment.
As someone who didn't feel like they really flourished at university the first time around, I'm really excited to get my teeth stuck into a three year project and build a body of research and images, but I've got a lot of reading to do before I start making anything. Wish me luck!
Searching Beneath The Silence - New Book Dummy
I have always been drawn towards churches. There is something so uniquely special about pusing (sometimes forcing!) open a huge ancient wooden door to enter what can feel like a completely different realm to the one you have previously been in.
So many are still left open for passers by to enter for a moment of contemplation, in search of quiet, solitude, solidarity or a sense of something more. Each is unique, often adorned with magnificent architectural details, sculptures and fine artefacts in place, all pointing towards the presence of something greater. Yet amidst their differences, they each house an atmosphere of timelessness, a continuity. Each building, for hundreds of years, has welcomed visitors, some regularly, some only once, and each footstep on stone, turn of a door handle, each brush along the pews has left its mark. The church itself left worn, evidence of the presence of friends and strangers.
Historically, the English parish church has been a crucial focal point for small communities across the country. As society embraces the age of individualism and the church-going population ages and declines, the necessity for these collective religious spaces has been stripped away in the space of a single generation. Many of these beautiful buildings are falling into disrepair, being sold off to private developers and stripped of their intended purpose. It feels only right to take the opportunity to document these spaces whilst we still can.
Through placing myself within these spaces, I am enabling myself to explore, largely subconsciously, asking questions of my religious socialisation, experiences of loss and my emotional response to the idea of something greater than our collective selves. My search is for the connection between not only my interior world and the exterior world before me, but also the spiritual realm for which these buildings were created to inhabit.
As I seek solace in these places, I take comfort knowing that countless others have done so before me. I wait for clarity, for answers that may never come, with questions that I don’t know how to ask but through making pictures.
Now that the kids are back to school I’ve had some time in the studio and have put together this book dummy. Previously the work has incorporated a broader selection of subject matters, but I wanted to experiment with presenting just the images made within the church spaces, taken all across the UK, and in doing so allowing me to present images which haven’t previously been included in the project’s various prior presentations.
Covers - Triple card covers with Matte-printed Tip In - G.F. Smith Colourplan Cobalt 350gsm Stucco Hammered & Harvest 350gsm
Paper - Munken Print Cream 70gsm
Spine - Tan Leatherette
Binding - Hand-glued French/Japanese Fold
Printed at Sarsen Press, Winchester
Hand bound at Southern Bookcrafts
If you’d like to see a PDF of the whole dummy, just drop me a message.
'The Child Is The Father of the Man' - Handmade Photobook Dummy
'The Child Is The Father of the Man' originates from the poem "My Heart Leaps Up" by William Wordsworth, an expression of hope that he might retain the joys of youth.
I made this series of photographs in the year or so after moving back to my hometown of Winchester after over 15 years away, chronicling the spaces in which I spent my childhood, in which I now invite my own children. The images consider the idea that we are all a product of the habits and behaviours that we establish in our youth and through various 'chapters', explores the notions of origin, permanence, fatherhood and returning.
I constructed the book at the end of last year at the culmination of my introductory course in bookbinding and was so pleased to be able to develop the project from start to finish, resulting in this one off dummy.
Covers - Casebound wrapped in Cream Linen with Silk-printed Tip In
Paper - Munken Print Cream 70gsm
End Papers - G.F. Smith Colourplan Harvest 350gsm Stucco Hammered
Binding - Hand-glued French Fold
Printed at Sarsen Press, Winchester
Hand bound (by me!) at Southern Bookcrafts
You can see the full selection of spreads from the book on my website here.
The Phone of The Wind
The Phone of The Wind
After the loss of my sister back in 2018 I spent many many hours developing ideas for a series of art installations with the intention of inviting the viewer into a multi sensory experience of the emotional rollercoaster of grief. Many of my ideas were complicated, layered and required an awful lot of development, but one really stood out to me. My intention was to create a space in which we could talk to those who are no longer here, designed as a safe and sound proof environment, almost like a confessional booth, but as the only person in the room, you would have the chance to verbalise, converse, listen and wait. Perhaps participants would believe that they could be heard by those who have departed this life, perhaps it was more about the letting go, the catharsis of opening one’s mouth and verbalising all that felt trapped inside. It was a space that one would be able to ask questions and consider what the answer might be.
Well. Like all the best ideas, it’s already been done, and achieved in it’s beauty and simplicity in Japan by Itaru Sasaki, a man who utilised an old phone box to invite people to speak to those they had lost after the 2011 earthquake.
“People who are grieving can close their hearts and shut themselves off from the world – not seeing anyone or talking to anyone, not leaving the house. They end up in a state where they lose all motivation to do anything,” Sasaki says. “But by opening the door just a little, in doing something as small as going to visit the Phone of the Wind, they connect with the impetus to move from doing nothing to doing something to recover from grief.”
His original ‘Wind Phone’ has welcomed over 50,000 visitors and pilgrims, and has been duplicated with over 350 now existing all over the world.
“Compared to the eternity after death, life is unquestionably brief. It is therefore of great significance that we not only maintain a kizuna – a bond with others – while we are alive, but also an enduring connection even after we die.”
More often than not, discovering that someone has beaten you to what you initially thought was a truly unique idea can be disheartening, but in the this case, Sasaki’s version feels so perfect it cannot be improved upon. It also saves me having to go to all the effort of making my version!
You can read the recent feature in the newly presented Observer here
This article is taken from my May Mailout which also features some of my latest news and cultural highlights.
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In Response to Silence
In Response to Silence
Over the Easter break I had the chance to catch up on some reading and was very glad to have found Pew by Catherine Lacey in a second hand bookshop a week or so beforehand.
The narrative invites us into the world of ‘Pew’, so named because they are found sleeping within a church and then invited into the community to be cared for. However, Pew isn’t able to remember anything about her life, they can’t even confirm their name or gender and therefore chooses to remain silent to the majority of people that she is introduced to. Pew’s silence is hugely unnerving for the community, they have no means to categorise or placing them within their usual confines and their relationships become increasingly strained.
To me it was apparent that Pew’s silence was acting as a mirror, reflecting the characters back to themselves. Without a response, characters felt the the need to keep justifying their stance, decisions or life story to Pew, who’s silence to them felt like a rudeness, a stoic act of defiance, but regardless of the reason for the silence it meant they had to listen to themselves, to their own constructions of their narrative realities.
It was then up to the various characters to decide whether they held firm in what was being reflected back to them by continuing to justify themselves, or allowed the presence of Pew to instigate some questioning and self-reflection (although this wasn’t an avenue which was explored explicitly within the book).
It made me wonder who and what elements of my life reflect myself back to me, my family, the children, the dog (already!), the passing of the seasons, my artwork, God, and how I respond to those moments in which I can hear myself clearly or have a trait revealed that I wish was different. Sometimes it prompts an opportunity for an apology, sometimes it’s a moment to learn and apply myself differently next time, or perhaps it’s a question which I ask of myself and others.
As an artist, I have seasons of clear introspection which then find my way into how I make, share and present my work. Often I will begin by creating instinctively, then through observation I’ll begin to load the work with the narrative that it is revealing to me, and then I strip it back in order to present enough to the audience without them being spoon fed, but which frames my intentions.
Perhaps this is all an exercise in listening, an invitation to say less and instead receive the world around us.
This article is taken from my April Mailout which also features some of my latest news and cultural highlights.
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Searching Beneath The Silence - Audio Narrative Piece
A companion piece to the photographic series ‘Searching Beneath The Silence’ - a search for solace and beauty through the exploration of sacred and natural spaces.
‘It is only in the silence that you can hear God’s voice. Maybe.’ - Jon Fosse
Written & Produced by Simon Bray
Recorded at St. James’s Church, Hunton and St. Cross Chapel, Winchester.
Best experienced with headphones!
Frankenstein for The Nutshell
I recently had the privilege of taking a series of promotional photos for the recent production of Frankenstein at The Nutshell.
Working with actors is always such a rewarding endeavour, building a rapport and shared energy to find ways to represent the character’s presence.
Nobody has limitlessness
“…he's a man who disappoints himself with his need of firm ground. He needs stability inside and out, and to simplify his life lest it overwhelm him. There are people like him (so he says) who complicate their inner lives by feeling too much all at once, by living in knots, and who therefore need outer things to be simple. A house, a field, some sheep for example. And there are those who manage somehow, by some miracle of being, to simplify their inner lives so that outer things can be ambitious and limitless. Those people can swap out a house for a spaceship, a field for a universe. And though he'd give his leg to be the latter, it's not the kind of thing you can trade a leg for, in any case who'd want his leg if they already had limitlessness? Nobody has limitlessness, she'd said.”
Taken from 'Orbital' by Samantha Harvey
I enjoyed reading Orbital so much that I purchased it for multiple people at Christmas. A short novel exploring life on the International Space Station, the awe at which it’s inhabitants view the world and the regret they feel over leaving their domestic lives behind. Ascending and descending, revolutions and rotations, and time to reflect.
Sometimes we can look at others and ask ourselves how they have managed to find so much success, momentum, money or power. How have they pushed beyond the limitations that we all feel to realise a dream or overcome all the obstacles to complete what they set out to do.
Initially, we need to escape the sense of comparison, we are meant to be our own selves and that alone. We arrive in this world on different terms, with different platforms, expectations and priorities, there is not sense in comparing.
Secondly, if you are jealous of someone else's situation, what is that telling you about your situation? It doesn't mean theirs is objectively better, it just seems that way based on how you are valuing what they have. Ask yourself whether you have taken time to value what you have? Any frustration you may still feel can be pointed towards something life giving that will energise not only you but the world around you.
Also, sometimes we all need simplicity and the circumstances we find ourselves in require us to seek restoration. Sometimes we feel like we can take on the world, but in order to take on the world we need to engage with the world. To open up a conversation with it and its inhabitants, to ask questions, search for answers, find the gems of beauty and meaning and be open to the synchronous (coincidental?) happenings in life which only seem to occur if we are willing to knock on its doors. For some of us, taking on the world will take us out of this world, to float in space only to wish we could return.
This article is taken from my March Mailout which also features some of my latest news and cultural highlights.
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Talk - Artists at The Arc - 1st April
As well as presenting the exhibition, I've also been invited to speak about my work at The Arc on Tuesday 1st April. This will be a fairly informal look at how I approached making the work within the exhibition, how I used different mediums to explore single ideas and allow them to evolve.
The event is free, but booking is required. Find out more here: Simon Bray - Artists at The Arc
Exhibition - Searching Beneath The Silence - The Arc, Winchester
I'm absolutely delighted to be exhibiting a series of photographs and artworks in my hometown this spring. This body of work began back in 2019 and has taken on an incredible amount of iterations, edits and book dummies since then. That's not to say that this version feels at all 'complete', but I hope is a testament to it's creation through a period of births, deaths, lockdowns and relocating.
None of this work has previously been exhibited, in fact it's almost 10 years since I showed any landscape work. A set of new images will sit alongside others which have already appeared in the handmade artist book I made last year.
I'm also very glad to be including a small selection made in Winchester over ten years ago from my 30th December project, in which I make photographs on the anniversary of my father's passing. There will also be a couple of non-photographic inclusions, namely a sculpture and audio piece.
Find out more about the exhibition here: Searching Beneath The Silence at The Arc
You are very welcome to attend the Private View: Thursday 3rd April - 18:30 - 20:00
Register you attendance here
Photography Workshops at The Colour Factory, Winchester
Throughout 2025 I’m running a series of photography workshops with the wonderful team at The Colour Factory in Winchester.
Spread across the four seasons, each session will explore a different theme designed to encourage and enhance how you see and capture the world with your camera.
For more details and to book on, visit my online shop here: Photography Workshops at The Colour Factory
If you have any questions, please email: simonj.bray@gmail.com
Falling, Fallen, Fell EP
Falling, Fallen, Fell EP
Everything we are is a vase.
Sometimes our vase gets knocked off the table.
We might have the fortune of anticipating the impact,
allowing us to try and soften the blow,
but we cannot stop it from falling.
On occasion though, the impact is so quick and forceful that our vase is shattered
into so many fragments that piecing it together feels impossible.
We can spend years picking up pieces that we think will fit,
only to find they don't sit together.
The process is painful,
but deep down we cling to the understanding that with each step
we learn more about ourselves and the world around us.
The stress of finding our way through our pile of fragments
can manifest itself in many different ways.
As we grow to understand the grief we have for our losses
and the tension we carry for the future,
we can choose to find spaces in which we can slow our pace,
listen to our bodies,
breathe deeper
and rest,
even if just for a few minutes.
Stream / Bandcamp (includes option of limited edition print)
Falling, Fallen, Fell EP - A3 Artwork Print
I'm also offering a limited edition print of the EP cover photograph, which is for sale now on my Bandcamp page. I took the photograph in a recording studio a few years ago and as it never quite fitted into other projects, it's been sat in a folder on my desktop of images that I really like but aren't sure what to do with! For me the image is a conversation between form and fragility, something that I aim to explore within my music.
The print features the following text, which I have adapted from David Byrne’s ‘How Music Works’:
Music is a cosmic telegraph that links us to a world beyond ourselves, drawing us towards that which science can’t explain, the magical and unexplainable parts of the world.
It invites us into an enchantment with the unspoken things that affect us, emanating from the mystery. An offering of transcendence.
Edition of 10
Printed on 250gsm Unicorn White Art Paper
Photograph taken by Simon Bray
Each order comes with a digital version of the EP. Find out more and purchase here.
New track 'Falling, Fallen, Fell' on BBC Solent
The lovely guys at BBC Solent were kind enough to play a track from my new EP, ‘Falling, Fallen, Fell’, which I’ll tell you all about in the new year.
It’s the final track of the show and if I do say so myself, a lovely way to round off a wonderful collection of music from artists from across the south coast.