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The

Artist

Nominated in
2025
By
PhotoIreland
Lives and Works in
Edinburgh
Zoe is a photographer from Co. Antrim, now living in Edinburgh. She co-founded the Belfast Photo Factory, a photography collective providing equipment and support for emerging photographers. Zoe is interested in the relationship between humans and the environment, as well as the systems of classification that we use to make sense of the world around us. She works on long term photographic projects, drawing on scientific and historic research as well as lived experience to tell a story about a place or subject. Her background research has been informed by photography’s history as a tool of imperialism and this is something that she works to recognise and subvert within her photographic practice. She currently teaches the Stills School, an alternative education programme for young people and is a visiting lecturer at Queen Margaret University. She has received funding from Edinburgh City Council and the Richard & Siobhan Coward Foundation Zoe participated in PhotoIreland's New Irish Works III between 2019 and 2021.
Projects
2024

Primary Succession

Primary Succession is a series exploring what we can learn from the landscape as a collaborator rather than subject, challenging colonial traditions of exploitation by seeking a new way of relating to a place as a living entity. The shale bings of West Lothian were created by Scotland’s oil industry in the 19th Century, towering man-made heaps of spent oil-shale dotted across the landscape. Once seen as eyesores, they are now recognised as unique habitats that harbour endangered species. I am interested in what we can learn from this transformational cycle, and how we can approach nature on its own terms. Inspired by the era of the bing’s creation (1860’s-1930’s) I have been using cameras from that time, embracing the unpredictable results and giving up much of my control over the final image. I have also been exploring other ways that I can reduce the separation between human and non-human by testing plant and earth-based chemistry made from material found on the bing, burying negatives there and investigating other ways to allow the bing to influence the project. I’ve been working to reduce the environmental impact of the series by using found, donated and expired film and paper, all of which also invites uncertainty and loss as part of the process.
Zoe Hamill
was nominated by
PhotoIreland
in
2025
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Each year every member of the FUTURES European Photography Platform nominates a set of artists and projects to become part of the FUTURES network.