The National Park Visitor Centre at Princetown is hosting a special exhibition celebrating a 25-year collaboration between local photographer Carol Ballenger and poet John Powls.
The exhibition will also mark the release of the new enlarged and updated version of Carol and John’s book Dartmoor Dreams.
Alongside the Dartmoor Dreams – Early Work exhibition at Princetown, a parallel exhibition called Dartmoor Dreams – New Work will run at Make Southwest, Bovey Tracey, from July 16 until August 23.
Dartmoor Dreams – Early Work opened on Tuesday and will run until September 1 showcasing the partnership between the two artists whose photographs and poetry have been shown widely in this country and abroad.
Carol is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a founder member of Arts Live who promote exhibitions, performances and workshops, often combining photography, music and poetry. Inspired by nature, Carol's work is in collections in this country and abroad and she has exhibited widely including for the National Trust, The Royal Photographic Society and the Edinburgh Festival.
John is an established writer and landscape poet with a considerable body of published and exhibited work. His poetry is influenced by the Romantic tradition and Dartmoor, seascapes and his native North East of England.
Carol's early photographs, scanned from original darkroom prints, and recent digital photographs, are presented in the two exhibitions as fine art prints together with John's poems.
Photographer and poet respond to Dartmoor’s ancient woodlands, granite, weather, moonlight, standing stones, rivers, snow and ice. Being a true collaboration it is also about their responses to each other's work.
Rebecca Martin, Dartmoor National Park Authority’s visitor services manager, said: ‘We’re thrilled to hold this two-part exhibition and we hope visitors are inspired to visit both.
‘We’re proud to promote Dartmoor’s beauty and help improve understanding of its special qualities; art is a fantastic way of doing this.’
Designated in 1951 Dartmoor National Park is the largest and highest upland in southern Britain and was one of the first National Parks. It is of international important for its Bronze Age archaeology, blanket bogs, upland heaths and oak woods, and of national importance for its valley mires, Rhôs pasture and grass moor.
With 734km public rights of way and 46,000 hectares of open access land it is home to a variety of wildlife and habitats. It’s particularly noted for rare lichens, butterflies and insects, some of which are so rare they’re only found on Dartmoor.
Dartmoor National Park Authority runs three National Park centres at Princetown, Haytor and Postbridge where people can learn more about this special landscape, whether that’s first-time holidaymakers or residents.
The exhibition is free to attend. For more information about John, Carol and their Arts Live colleagues visit artslive.org.uk