Since we last spoke, your work has continued to evolve in both tone and subject. How has your approach to photography changed in recent years, and what are you exploring creatively as we move into 2027?

That’s lovely of you to notice and I think it is simply by staying true to the things I love. Hopefully my work evolves along the same lines, for both personal projects and commissioned photography. Commissioned work is often all about a client brief - quite rightly! - but I try to stay close to the things that drew them to me in the first place and make sure that is the thread that runs through all my photography, both for clients and myself.

Bland Badger has grown into a real community for people seeking a creative, more hands-on way of living. How do you see the retreats developing in the next couple of years, and what new ideas are you and Ros excited to bring to them?

The retreats are one of the biggest joys and surprises! Back in 2018 Ros and I formed a plan to create an experience based around things we love - antiques markets, making beautiful objects and learning new creative skills; stepping away for a bit and reconnecting with creativity in a beautiful and relaxed setting - in the hope that other people might love them too, and they did!

But they have become even more than that as the connections made on the retreats ripple out into the world. People are not only drawn to the variety of workshops and the things they can make and experience, but also the time spent with like-minded people. Chats over coffee or afternoons by the pool are so fruitful and many friendships are made between tutors and guests - we really are one big house party! It is very special and makes me so happy to see alerts pop up on our retreat message groups with photos of guests meeting up all over the world.

We used Falcon enamelware in all our 2025 workshops, in spring and autumn at lovely Villa Pia in the Umbrian countryside, when we had sessions from fantastic tutors and experts in their field, including: Amy Fielding of JamJar Edit, who taught flower pressing, for which we gathered wildflowers and learned how to press them; Caroline Kent of Scribble & Daub, who taught us how to use dip pens and vibrant inks to create illustrated stationery; painter Lucy Kent, who led a wonderful session of plein-air landscape painting overlooking the rolling hills; and florist Nadine Gibbon of Spinney Cottage Flowers, who led the most fun headdress-making workshop.

In 2025 I also introduced a Bland Badger Food Writing retreat, co-hosted with writer Lucy Brazier. It’s something that grew from a tiny idea I kept coming back to, rooted in my photography work in the cookbook world but tied to autumn and how gathering writers in a beautiful location with incredible local harvest produce, plus the space and time to write, felt very Bland Badger and something that could be appealing to guests.

Lucy and I have worked together over the years, collaborating on the book Christmas at River Cottage, and joined forces to introduce writing to the Bland Badger retreat programme - and that tiny idea worked! We had a fantastic week with an incredible group of writing guests, so much so that we are bringing it back with wonderful writing tutors Felicity Cloake and Molly Wizenberg for a week of collaborative writing workshops, with food as the catalyst whether writing a memoir, a cookbook, a Substack newsletter, or a novel.

More people are craving real-world, tactile experiences after years of digital overload. How do your retreats and your photography respond to that cultural shift towards presence and simplicity?

By staying true to what we have always done. We created the retreats to share things that we love and it’s the same for my photography. I shoot the things I’m instinctively drawn to and only share imagery that I really love, regardless of how an algorithm may display or rate it. My biggest love is to shoot everyday life, something I’ve done since childhood. It’s no secret that the small, everyday moments are often the big things worth recording and whether that’s a morning coffee at home or a glass of wine overlooking a beautiful view on a retreat, the need to document it is similar!

You have been using and living with your enamelware for years now within your photography and the retreats, what have you enjoyed most about using it over the years?

I love the versatility of my enamelware, that some items are created with a certain purpose but how really, they have multiple uses. And I’m not averse to the odd chip! I love how it blends in with my other tableware and cookware. Oven to table really is a joy, with the flash of a red rim on an oven dish and how it matches my old French torchon tea towels, with their signature red stripe, that I use to take things out of the oven and how they often end up in my photos together. A red flash on a table is very pleasing visually to me, but it is also practical as, like enamelware, those torchons are hard wearing and last for years. And they are something I’ll be stocking up on at the brocante on the 2026 Bland Badger retreat.

We've also loved using Falcon enamelware throughout many of our workshops. The square red roasting tins have held everything from collage paper and scraps of fabric to the materials used in Ros' silver clay jewellery workshop, while the tumblers have been used to hold water and as pen holders in Lucy and Caroline's workshops, as well as for displaying small bouquets during our foliage workshops. And of course, those beautiful Falcon jugs, always arranged around the villa, each one filled with seasonal foliage in stylish, natural arrangements.

As we head into 2027, what feels most exciting or essential for you — a project, a way of working, or perhaps a new rhythm you are hoping to find?

This year was a year of new horizons for Bland Badger. After 7 brilliant years in Italy, we are taking the retreats to the south of France - the same creative house parties, just with a different view.

This autumn you will find us in the Roman market town of Sommières, midway between Nîmes and Montpellier. Our home there is a stunning 17th Century mansion house hotel in the heart of Sommières, a little oasis, tucked away but in the centre of the town with a magical courtyard and rooftop pool. With an outstanding, weekly brocante and produce market to explore, and the beautiful environs of the hotel to relax in, it’s a fantastic place for a house party and we are thrilled to share it with our guests.

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