Artist Weeknotes week 6 recap: Laia Abril’s talk made me reflect on research and storytelling. While working on Canto, I’ve gathered so much material but struggled to shape it. I need to step back, let key themes emerge, and handle stories with care. I'm inspired to revisit my work with fresh focus.

Artist Weeknotes: Week 5:
A visit to Aspex Gallery seeing my partner's show opening marked 20 years since I began my Photography BA in Portsmouth. Its vibrant music scene shaped my early career in ways I couldn't have predicted. Here are a couple of my early Bloc Party photos from when it all began.

Jan 17th Artist Weeknotes recap: I read about things falling apart. Rosie Spinks examines living with the reality of collapse, while Grant Slatton’s Nobody Cares argues that systems fail because no one fights to fix them. Both explore late-stage capitalism’s exhaustion and the struggle to find hope.

Last week's Artist Weeknotes recap: January is a time for ideas. Watching Jesse Eisenberg’s 'A Real Pain' and 'The Double' explored themes of self-worth and comparison. They’re a reminder, especially for creatives, to value our unique perspective and not get lost in self-doubt or unfair comparisons.

The first week of 2025 marks my fourth weeknote, reflecting on work, media, and politics. Revisiting 'Dehumanising Headlines', I critique the Telegraph’s anti-immigration framing and aim this year to explore counterarguments, fostering thoughtful dialogues on migration in my practice.

According to Companies House it's just a mechanism for Robert Bates to spout his hatred

- 'Ring Out, Wild Bells' by Alfred Lord Tennyson: To see out the year I'm going to share a poem I always revisit at this time of year, written 174 years ago. It feels contemporary and is a hopeful reminder of what the future could hold.

- Chemigrams: It's been three months since I took part in a chemigram workshop run by the amazing Sayako Sugawara. It was a really enjoyable workshop - utilising everyday materials such as toothpaste and honey along with plant based developer was a rollercoaster.

Starting the new year with, as promised, sharing the highlights of my first Artist Weeknotes.
- Developing Canto: In 2025 I will be looking at how we can begin reframing the narrative, and expand Canto to look past the current rhetoric into the future and what that looks like.

Particularly inspiring to me during my time were the writings of Rebecca Solnit and visiting the abandoned slate mine at Aberllefenni. The time and space at the residency has generated ideas that will come to fruition in time, and that to me is as valuable as anything else.

We spent time exploring the local area and landscapes. I took photographs, spent time at the house reading and researching in-between chats with Jake and Scarlett. Watching spring bloom and the hourly fascination of the ever-changing estuary, sparks of ideas were found and contemplated.

Before going, I knew I would be interested in the industrial past of the area and what the future might hold in terms of climate change, but there are so many stories and histories to be told about the area. Even the story of how the very house you are staying in came to be is a fascinating one.

I'm bidding farewell to 2024 while reflecting on the two weeks I spent at the Mawddach Residency. Getting out of the routine of everyday life and immersing myself in a new place and atmosphere was a rewarding and eye-opening experience.

Despite the recent change in government, the political and media discourse around migration remains entrenched, showing that little has truly shifted. As I continue working toward new projects in 2025, I’m looking at how we can begin reframing the narrative beyond the same old rhetoric.

..."Canto forces us to face the politics at play when it comes to issues surrounding migration and how spaces and places can be used as a ploy to either draw attention to or distract from what the real issue is".

Anne Alagbe, founding editor of 'No! Wahala Magazine', left this wonderful review: "Canto explores the pressing migration ‘crisis’ within the East Kent border of the UK and takes a deep dive into the realities of the landscape showing years of neglect and deprivation"...

It's Canto's first year out in the world! This time last year I self-published a small run of 100 broadsheet newspapers. ⁠⁠Since its release Canto was selected as one of @lensculture.bsky.social Favourite Photobooks 2023. The publication was edited by the amazing Tomasz Laczny.

As the year winds down, I’m embarking on something new, a practice I’ve been meaning to start for a while - Artist Weeknotes. I'll be sharing what I’m working on, what’s inspiring me and everything in between. The first one is up on my website to read now: www.stuartleech.com/artist-weekn...