Emma Bowater

Full Circle is an artistic collaboration between Emma Bowater and James Millichamp.

‘We have always shared a fascination for the built environment, and particularly urban decay and dereliction. Over the past two years we have been working together to exploit this theme through various processes, cross-pollinating and stimulating each other’s practice. We endeavour to capture the atmosphere of a space or object, alluding to the history lost through the process of decay. A disused building can act as a symbol for the temporaneous nature of man’s achievements, or as a metaphor for emotional abandonment. Through the works, we seek to document the vacant and transient environments of architecture, spaces and things. Empty spaces, devoid of human life, freeze and reaffirm human existence. Detailing remaining relics of human presence, the images emphasise a sense of isolation and abandonment; echoing the emotional anxiety of absence.’

Emma has exhibited in group shows in Aberystwyth, London, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Based on her own artistic and teaching practice, Emma wrote a research paper on the educational applications of the process of cyanotype for the Merchant Taylors’ Company and continues to explore its properties as a means of photographic recording. She holds a first-class honours degree in Fine Art. Emma is Head of Art at Wolverhampton Grammar School, where she runs her own exhibition programme at The Viner Gallery.

As well as exhibiting, Emma and James run workshops and lectures on a variety of specialisms and also offer courses for art teachers.