Water Salad on Monday is a book and an on-site, immersive experience of cinematic photographs that tenderly pick their way through the special natures of Elm Tree, a working farm staffed by adults with learning disabilities.
‘Water Salad on Monday is different. Its pictures – a poignant mix of unguarded portraits, captured moments, still lives – are chanced upon in unexpected places around the farm on which they were taken. In an orchard, a pig sty, pinned to a straw bale, hidden in a barn, peeped at through a high window and the effect is resonant, lingering, multi-layered. Context floods in through ears and nose. There’s such a closeness to the photos. Tender, acutely observed. A deeply-felt love letter to care and the land’. Mike White, Boneshaker.
Esther was in situ for twelve months to witness animal birth and death, mud and blood, community and care while clicking analogue cameras. Portraying the life-affirming hotbed of care and graft, the exhibition was a treasure trail of sensory pleasure. The show pasted, stapled and hung vast monochrome portraits and fleeting moments onto walls, hay bales and sheds at the farm, holding still life for a single moment, surrounded by its living, breathing muses in resplendent Autumn light.
‘There’s love in these photos.’ Darren Shepherd, photographer
‘I can’t recommend this enough. A wonderful, immersive exhibition. If I’m honest, it blew me away.’ Lifestyle District
‘I genuinely don’t know how Esther does what she does – the photos are remarkable, relevant, heart-felt and important‘, Adam Laity, cinematographer
‘Amazingly beautiful, grounded, unpretentious‘. Dave Howell, Fatcat Records
‘An utter delight, beautifully produced’. Black & White photography magazine
Water Salad on Monday was kindly supported by The Arts Council of Great Britain.
