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'Just outside'

 

A garden operates as an interface between the private interior of the home and the wider living world, regardless of its size. In Britain, gardening is a deeply embedded cultural practice through which individuals engage physically and emotionally with natural processes, seasonal change, and ecological responsibility.

 

Just Outside documents local residents of Leicester and their relationships with the gardens they tend, positioning these domestic spaces as sites of connection rather than isolation. The diptych format pairs portraiture with close observation of the garden, linking each person to a landscape shaped through sustained care, attention, and time. These cultivated spaces become both personal refuges and active participants in broader ecological systems.

 

Through small, intentional acts, planting for pollinators, allowing areas to grow wild, creating micro-habitats & the work highlights how everyday gardening connects individuals to global environmental cycles. The project reflects on gardening as a quiet but powerful form of engagement with the world, where care for a small patch of land becomes an act of connection, responsibility, and coexistence.

 

The 'human impact' here may seem small, in this project, but it is huge to the people who use their garden as an escape, a hobby or retreat. These homes are on the edge of the city, their gardens, some big some small, impact on the world and its habitat on a vast scale. A community connect by a passion.