Exhibition comes to Moors Valley (Sept 2019)

The Earth Photo 2019 competition and exhibition developed by Forestry England and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) offers a series of stunning and thought-provoking images of the planet.

Moors Valley is only one of four locations around the UK to be lucky enough to host the exhibition. Located on the Play Trail it includes 22 large scale, captivating photographs focusing on four key themes – People, Nature, Place and Changing Forests, a brand new category for this year which encourages photographers to explore what a changing forest meant to them.

The images have been carefully selected by a panel of experts from over a thousand submitted for the Earth Photo competition. They include stunning images from the Arctic exploring the impact of climate change, rare insights into communities living amongst huge landfill sites in Indonesia, striking images of forest fires in Catalonia and poignant pictures of wildlife having to adapt to more urban environments.

Closer to home David Green’s image ‘Old Hedge, Venton Wood, Devon’ the winner of the Changing Forests category explores the survival instinct of our forests. It displays a long-forgotten boundary hedge which has grown free of the barbed wire surrounding it.

Linda Laker, Forestry England’s Recreation Manager for Dorset, said: “We are delighted that Moors Valley has been chosen to host this exhibition. It is one of only four places across the country where you can see these amazing photos. As many of these images show, climate change is an issue that people and nature are dealing with right across the planet. Our forests are no different and we are working hard to ensure they can adapt to this changing climate and continue to thrive.”

ENDS
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Editor’s notes:

The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is the UK’s learned Society and professional body for geography and geographers. It has charitable status and is also a membership organisation with over 16,000 Fellows and Members. The Society is one of the largest – and recognised as the most active – scholarly geographical societies in the world.

Photography has been at the heart of the Society’s work for over 130 years, led by John Thomson, FRGS, who was the first photo-journalist in modern times, a photographer working in a documentary style and bringing awareness of the people and places of the Far East, and later street London, to nineteenth century audiences for the first time. Earth Photo will draw on the Society’s photographic heritage of over 500,000 images held within its Collections, from the earliest daguerreotype image of 1851 to the latest work by contemporary photographers.

Parker Harris is an independent organisation creating, managing and promoting visual art projects. Established in 1990 Parker Harris run some of the largest and longest running art projects in the UK in partnership with organisations which include trusts, foundations and corporates. Parker Harris have been advisors to the Natural History Museum on projects including the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and on press, marketing and audience development and have been project managers of the Environmental Photographer of the Year. Parker Harris will project manage and lead on press and marketing for Earth Photo, working closely with the project partners and sponsor.