Leonora Saunders – Photographer
I’m a photographer and artist, whose work is focused on exploring themes of diversity, gender equality and the representation of women. My work has featured in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Evening Standard as well as The Royal Photographic Society Magazine and other photographic journals. I have exhibited at museums, galleries and universities across the UK as well as in London and New York.
Major projects include These Four Walls (2018) in collaboration with Dr Helen McCarthy and funded by the British Academy and Queen Mary University London. This portrait series explored the different meanings of home-based work for women in Britain since the early nineteenth century and was first shown at the British Academy Summer Showcase. Helen’s academic research on the subject was expressed through the nuanced details of the portraits and the exhibition was part of a wider series of lectures and events, provoking discussion and conversation through a creative approach. Another project, Raising Horizons (2017) was developed in collaboration with Trowelblazers, an organisation founded to highlight the contributions of women in the fields of archaeology, palaeontology and geology. Working closely with archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes I created a series of fourteen portraits of ‘trowel-blazing’ women working in the geosciences over the past two hundred years. Each portrait was posed by women working in similar fields today, with an emphasis placed on the importance of ensuring the visibility of women working in male dominated professions. The exhibition launched at the Geological Society, Burlington House before touring the UK for two years, exhibiting at York University, The Lapworth Museum, Birmingham, The Grosvenor Museum in Chester and The Oxfordshire Museum, amongst others.
My latest project - sadly halted by the pandemic - is focused on the Bluestockings. The Bluestockings Society was an expansive network of women sharing intellectual ideas and shared values of support and encouragement. At a time when women were considered inferior, this was an effective platform for their voices to be heard and celebrated in wider society. Whilst well known and celebrated in life, some of these women have faded into obscurity with even familiar names appearing as isolated figures in the historical landscape.
I have enjoyed a long term residency at the Harris Academy in Bermondsey where I worked closely with teenage girls over several years. From founding the school Feminist Society to running a series of fundraising supper clubs across London; career networking events at the Geological Society and hosting workshops at the DfE; the students were actively involved in both These Four Walls and Raising Horizons.
The themes explored through my work and projects aim to bring women and other marginalised groups to life and into public consciousness. My work aims to restore the imbalance of historical depiction through imagery and symbolism as well as highlighting the professional contribution of women across all ethnic, social and cultural groups. As we look to future progress, we should remember and appreciate the women who have, in part, made this possible. Developing and researching these projects offers a unique set of challenges; working to an accurate historical context, often from minimal sources; sensitively and perceptively portraying real people whilst keeping a creative interpretation; engaging with new networks in order to find project participants, and devising an accompanying narrative that engages and inspires a contemporary audience. As an image maker and creative with a huge passion for history and the emotional connection that it can bring, the medium of photography has always been a brilliant way to engage people viscerally; exploring emotions and nuance, societal bias and cultural impact. Diving into our historical past using a creative approach can be a sensory experience, and an important challenge to how people experience these histories.
https://www.leonorasaunders.com/