Lucy Saggers photographs the stories of rural life, looking particularly at themes of community and belonging through the threads connecting people, their landscape, past, present and future. She is interested in the impressions we leave on each other, on the land, and in turn the marks a place leaves on us. Informed by her background in nature conservation and rural development, Lucy works collaboratively with the people she photographs to build understanding, dialogue and to allow natural authenticity into the pictures. Using a handheld camera and available light to reach into the shadows of the natural world, or dark domestic and agricultural interiors, she likes to remain as unobtrusive as possible. From her studio in North Yorkshire she makes limited edition prints on heavyweight, fine art paper, often working in black and white seeking to abstract emotion as well as to blur the space between past and present.
Lucy combines commissioned and personal work for publication and exhibition.
Please give her a call 07899 977199 or email to enquire about visiting, commissions, prints, talks, workshops, collaborations, to receive her occasional newsletter - or anything else!
Exhibitions, Talks, Awards
Awards & Nominations
2023-2024 Arts Council England DYCP funding, Developing photography skills, integrating archive photographs & oral histories
2022 Ford of the Sorrel (Bluecoat Press, 2021) shortlisted Belfast Photo Festival
2019 Second round British Journal of Photography Portrait of Humanity
2019 Nominated for Royal Photographic Society Hundred Heroines
2018 Shortlisted Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition 161
2017 Highly Commended Bowes Museum 'Only in the North' photography competition to accompany 'Only in England' Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr exhibition
2017 Commended Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
2016 Finalist Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
2015 Second round Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize National Portrait Gallery
2015 Winner Craft Photographer of the Year
2015 Finalist Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Publications, Features, Seminars, Blogs
2022 Power of Place for Peer to Peer UK:HK with Redeye, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool & WMA, Hong Kong
2021 Ford of the Sorrel Bluecoat Press
2019 All in the Detail Art Rabbit
2019 Fotospeed: Lucy Saggers on black and white photography
2018 Fotospeed: Shedding light on the daily moments of life
2018 'What a year' by Sarah Mason Photography
2018 'Broken Ground' by M. R. Peacocke, photographs by Lucy Saggers, Shoestring Press (ISBN 978-1-912524-14-3)
2018 ‘Of Life and Land’ with a foreword by Ian McMillan, funded by Ryedale District Council Creative Economy Commission ISBN 978-1-78808-439-0
2018 Fotospeed: Of Life and Land interview
2018 Yorkshire Post The Photographer capturing life in one Yorkshire village close up
2017 Moorsview Landscape & wildlife photography seminar, featuring Lucy Saggers, Joe Cornish, Steve Race & Robert Fuller
2017 Edge of Humanity Magazine 'Daily Life in the Village of Ampleforth'
2016 Yorkshire Art Journal Earth and light: Lucy Saggers Photography
Professional Development
2023 Re-Framing Culture training programme, North East Photography Network: to explore the potential value and impact of socially engaged photography.
2021 LightBox Online collaborative career development course with Redeye
Selected Solo Exhibitions (past)
2022 All in a Day's Work, Great Yorkshire Show
2022 All in a Day's Work, 27 portraits of Yorkshire women in farming at Ryedale Folk Museum The series was commissioned by Yorkshire Agricultural Society with support from NFU and the Prince's Countryside Fund
2022 Ford of the Sorrel, exhibition of selected work at The Garden Rooms at TennantsLeyburn, North Yorkshire
2022 All in a Day's Work, Ripon Cathedral, North Yorkshire
2021 All in a Day's Work photographs of Yorkshire women in farming, Great Yorkshire Show, commissioned by Yorkshire Agricultural Society with support from NFU and the Prince's Countryside Fund
2020: Artist of the Month Rural Arts, Thirsk showing work from my project documenting the stories of ordinary life in my rural North Yorkshire home village of Ampleforth.
2019 Another Beginning, final exhibition with Peter Spafford, writer, as Artists in Residence for Scott Creative Arts Foundation Ornhams Hall, Boroughbridge
2019 Of Life and Land, Brewery Arts Kendal
2018 Of Life and Land The Witham Barnard Castle, County Durham
2018 Lotte Inch Gallery 10 Bootham, York YO30 7BL
2018 Of Life and Land Ryedale Folk Museum Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire
2017 Landscapes and Lives Scampston Hall, Malton, North Yorkshire
2016 Rural Life Rural Arts The Old Courthouse, Thirsk
2016 Lucy Saggers Forestry Commission Dalby Forest Visitor Centre, Pickering, North Yorkshire
2015 Evocations of rural life Helmsley Arts Centre North Yorkshire
Selected Group Exhibitions (past)
WORK SHOW GROW The Power of Play 3-4 June 2023, Court House - County Courts, Cleaver Street, Kennington, London
2022 Photo Fringe Online Bees (and other species)
2022 Power of Place Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022
2022 Bees (and other species) showing at LOOK Photo Biennial, Open Eye GalleryLiverpool
2021 Bees (and other species) Ink a photography collective formed via Redeye's Lightbox 2021, showing at Diffusion - Wales International Festival of Photography
2021 Imagining an Island virtual exhibition in association with Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
2021 Art from the Heart Zuleika Gallery Woodstock, Oxfordshire
2020 Shutter Hub YearBook 2020
2019 All in the Detail, Lotte Inch Gallery 14 Bootham, York Art Rabbit review
2019 109 Miles exhibition at Inspired by...gallery Moors Centre, Danby, North York Moors National Park
2019 North Yorkshire Open Studios Ford End House, Ampleforth
2019 The North York Moors at Ryedale Folk Museum Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire
2018 Ryedale Folk Museum Figuratively Speaking with Peter Spafford and Scott Creative Arts Foundation
2018 Impressions Gallery Photobook Fair Impressions Gallery Centenary Square, Bradford
2018 HIP Fest Open Exhibition HIP Gallery Creative & Cultural Space 6, Level 3, Princes Quay, Hull
2018 Watermark Gallery 2 Royal Parade, Harrogate
2018 Watermark Gallery Summer Exhibition Harrogate, North Yorkshire
2018 Living North Live York Race Course, Tadcaster Road, York
2017 Moorsview Inspired by...Gallery The Moors National Park Centre, Danby, Whitby
2017 'Wish you were here, Postcard from Woodend' Woodend Scarborough
2017 Moorsview Exhibition Joe Cornish Gallery Northallerton, North Yorkshire
2017 Ryescape Ryedale Folk Museum Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire
2017 Watermark Gallery Spring/Summer Exhibition Harrogate, North Yorkshire
2017 The Hepworth Wakefield Print Fair Wakefield, West Yorkshire
2016 Teesdale Christmas Art Fair The Witham Barnard Castle, County Durham
2016 Cambridge Art Fair The Guildhall, Cambridge (represented by Watermark Gallery)
2016 Lucy Saggers Weetons Food Hall Harrogate, North Yorkshire
2016 Art for Youth Queen Mary's School, Topcliffe, Thirsk, North Yorkshire
2016 Great North Art Show Ripon Cathedral, Ripon, North Yorkshire
2016 Platform Open Morphets of Harrogate, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
2016 Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Award Mall Galleries, London
2016 ZwartWit Kunsthuis Gallery, Crayke, North Yorkshire
2015 Great North Art Show Ripon Cathedral, Ripon, North Yorkshire
2015 Summer Exhibition - The North and Beyond Grassington Festival Grassington, North Yorkshire
2015 North Yorkshire Open Studios Ampleforth, North Yorkshire
2015 North Yorkshire Open Studios Taster Exhibition Pannett Art Gallery, Whitby Museum, Whitby, North Yorkshire
2015 Craft Photographer of the Year The Prince's Foundation, London
2015 Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Award Mall Galleries, The Mall, London
2014-2015 Winterscape - scenes from a rural life Saltbox Gallery, Helmsley, North Yorkshire
2014-2015 Luminous Rural Arts, The Old Courthouse, Thirsk, North Yorkshire
2014 Crafted by Hand Masham, North Yorkshire
2014 Art for Youth Queen Mary’s School, Topcliffe, Thirsk, North Yorkshire
2014 Lineage The White Room Gallery, Preistleys at No. 36, York
2014 Saltaire Makers Fair Saltaire, West Yorkshire
2014 Great North Art Show Ripon Cathedral, Ripon, North Yorkshire
2014 Aspects of the Moors Inspired By…, The Moors National Park Centre, Danby, North Yorkshire
2014 Moors and Coast Taster Exhibition Woodend, Scarborough, North Yorkshire
2014 North Yorkshire Open Studios Ampleforth, North Yorkshire
2013 Gallery Beyond, Nunnington North Yorkshire
2013 Ryedale Open Art Exhibition The Milton Rooms, Malton, North Yorkshire
2013 Yorkshire The Old Grammar School Gallery, Otley, West Yorkshire
Talks (past)
6 February 2023 The Arts Society, Helmsley
7 February 2023 Talk for Gallery Photogroup, Middlesbrough
7 December 2022 Talk for York Photographic Society
6 November 2022 Keynote Speaker, Lancashire Monochrome
7 April 2022 Ford of the Sorrel talk and book signing, White Rose Books Market Place, Thirsk
17 November 2020 Zoom Talk for Halifax Photographic Society
12 February 2020 Talk for Hebden Bridge Camera Club
Monday 2 December 1pm Talk at Photo North Festival, Harrogate Convention Centre on behalf of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year.
20 November Talk for York Photographic Society
May 2019 Talk for Masham Camera Club
April 2019 Talk for Connected Exhibition at Patchings Art Centre, Nottingham
October 2018 Gosforth Camera Club, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
October 2018 Sheffield University for Redeye, The Photography Network
October 2018 Harrogate Photographic Society
September 2018 Kirkbymoorside Camera Club, North Yorkshire
September 2017 Moorsview, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire