Belfast Photo Festival Awarded Grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to Visualise Northern Ireland’s Natural Heritage

Thanks to National Lottery players, four photographers will work with conservation groups and local communities on a new natural heritage project highlighting themes including Lough Neagh, peatland, marine areas and the wider Belfast Hills. The new narratives and co-curated images will be showcased and discussed at exhibitions and events at the Belfast Photo Festival and across Northern Ireland this June.

Belfast Photo Festival will foster creativity, exhibitions, meaningful connections, lasting public engagement and positive impact around the vital natural heritage stories across Northern Ireland and help protect the environment.

We are commissioning four amazing photographers to explore and address a crucial gap in awareness around the most important environmental stories in Ireland. Co-designed with our expert partners this is a rare and urgent collaboration between the arts, creativity, conservation and science with an enormous opportunity for public engagement and lasting impact.

- Toby Smith, Director of Development at Belfast Photo Festival

‘Blue-green algae clings to the shore, Washingbay.’

Chad Alexander is an artist born and based in Belfast and will be working closely with local nature conservation charity Ulster Wildlife and the An Creagan Centre to document the rejuvenation of Haughey’s Bog outside Omagh. The area is a thriving demonstration hub for peatland restoration – the first of its kind for Northern Ireland - where restoration and rewetting of the degraded habitat will help bring nature back, improve water quality, reduce flood risk, and tackle climate change. Chad will also work with local landowners and the community to share the rich archaeological and natural heritage of the area.

Joe Laverty’s long term project on Lough Neagh will be debuted at Queen’s University Belfast’s REACH festival in April before a second exhibition on the Lough’s shore in June. Entitled, ‘Shallow Waters’, Joe’s project investigates the way myth and tradition sit alongside heavy industry and how closely connected they are, despite being at odds with each other. Joe will use photography to explore the Lough’s people, landscape and traditions, whilst examining pollution, most visibly realised through the blooms of toxic blue-green algae. Joe is consulting with a number of the Lough’s community groups with additional support from Professor John Barry.

‘Mary, a wild swimmer at Cranfield Point.’

‘Dairy processing plant in Cookstown.’

Polly Garnett is a Belfast-based, community artist, and educator and will be documenting conservation efforts and the connections of young people with the landscape of the wider Belfast Hills. With a socially engaged and participatory approach Polly will use polaroid and digital photography as a tool for dialogue including relationships with the Belfast Hills Partnership, the National Trust and grass roots community and conservation groups.

Yvette Monahan is an Irish research-based photographer and artist with a practice that delves into the intangible aspects of external and internal landscapes. Yvette will be continuing a long term interest and practice in marine and coastal environments with exclusive access to the research vessels, laboratories and personnel of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

Thanks to National Lottery players we’re pleased to be able to back this creative project which explores our changing climate. Photographers, conservation organisations, and local people, will collaborate to produce a snapshot of Northern Ireland’s natural heritage.We’re committed to ensuring that digital heritage projects are open, accessible and discoverable. The legacy of Belfast Photo Festival’s project is that over 500 digital images of our natural heritage will be posted within a free, open-access digital image library.

- Dr Paul Mullan, Northern Ireland Director at The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Emissaries of the Third Ray 3, Sea Photography, Northern Ireland

‘Bishop’s Pool.’

‘Emissaries of the Third Ray 3.’

Our 2024 festival edition reached over 115 million people worldwide in the press and on social media whilst drawing record physical audiences of over 100,000 in Belfast. This is an incredible opportunity for Northern Ireland and for our organisation to showcase and exhibit both the opportunity and risks to our amazing Natural Heritage.

- Michael Weir, CEO of Belfast Photo Festival

Arts & Business NI is a creative membership network bringing together cultural and commercial businesses, helping them grow stronger together through the power of partnership.

The Belfast Hills Partnership (BHP) is an independent charity which seeks to improve how the hills are managed.

An Creagán is a superb site with a range of facilities and activities for families, couples, individuals and groups. Located between the historic town of Omagh and the market town of Cookstown at the foothills of the majestic Sperrin Mountains.

The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) is a leading provider of scientific research and services to government, non-governmental organisations and commercial organisations.

Arts Council Ni, the funding and development organisation for the Arts in Northern Ireland, distributing Public and National Lottery funds.