We were quite blown away to receive a letter from the Royal Geographical Society with news that we have been awarded the 2023 Cherry Kearton medal and award. In their words, we have been recognised for our ‘discipline-crossing work, aiming to shed light on the seldom-seen and seldom-heard in the context of rural landscapes’. This is one of five medals that are awarded annually ‘in recognition of those who have made outstanding contributions within the sphere of geography’.
Wow … we feel totally honoured. We take this recognition as a strong nudge to continue doing what we’re doing, using our creative practice in ways that cross and blur disciplines, situate important conversations in ways that feel grounded and meaningful, and work to include a range of voices in these conversations. And make sure there’s plenty of room for wonder, love, and connection.
At the awards ceremony in London we were reminded, as if we needed to be, of just how broad the field of geography is, and the inquisitiveness, ideas, courage, kindness, stamina and sometimes dogged persistence that geographers bring to the work they do around the world. We were completely absorbed in the speeches given by the other medal winners. Rob handed Harriet the baton to deliver our speech, with a succession of his images on display. You can watch the speech through this link if you’re curious. We come in at 39min:20sec, with president Nigel Clifford announcing the medals. Being first up on the stage wasn’t at all nervy … no!
The speech will be published in the Geographical Journal later this year, but if you’d like to read it, we have included a transcript below.
As for the shoulders on which we stand Yorkshireman Cherry Kearton (1871-1940) was a photographer and a naturalist. He worked with his brother Richard and in 1895 they published the first UK natural history book to be illustrated by photographs. They went on to co-produce many books, and also produced the first phonograph of birdsong, took the first photographs of London from the air, and developed innovative wildlife-watching hides (including a hollowed-out ox and a stuffed sheep). Since the creation of the Medal in 1967, recipients have included Sir David Attenborough, Simon King, Sebastiao Salgado, Andy Goldsworthy and Tacita Dean.
For more about the RGS 2023 medals and awards and the recipients whose experience ranges from working in rainforest canopies to engaging young people in the outdoors and redressing economic injustices, follow this link: https://www.rgs.org/about/medals,-awards-and-prizes/medals-award/2023-awards/.
The last speech was given by Founder’s Medal recipient, Andrew Mitchell, whose final words provided seeds for animated discussions after the ceremony: ‘If we do not reimagine the movement of money, we will finance ourselves into extinction’.
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Speech given on the Receipt of the RGS Cherry Kearton Medal and Award, 2023
“We are honoured and humbled to receive the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award. There are so many people to thank, that if we named you all, we’d have no time to say anything else – so to all the people who’ve been part of our journey to this point, thank you.
We formed our practice, somewhere nowhere, in 2011, and began studying hillfarming in Cumbria. We started with a superficial – perhaps romantic – view, but soon discovered how complex hillfarming and landscape management are in the uplands: a mix of value systems, demands, aspirations and concerns. Since then, and in numerous locations, we’ve continued our exploration of rural landscapes through a variety of lenses.
A friend once shared a phrase, attributed to Queen Victoria: “Beware of artists. They mix with all classes of society and are therefore most dangerous.” We like to think we’re not dangerous – but we are curious. Learning from a huge range of people is a massive privilege: in the past twelve years, we’ve had close to one thousand interactions, spanning farming, academia, land management, environmental sciences and other disciplines. There are always crossovers between specialisms, and expertise comes in many forms. What everyone has in common, though, is the Land; and a love for it.
This love is part of a host of feelings – Data of the Heart, as we call it – that connect us all to place, to one another, and to other-than-human species, and help us better understand landscapes and our place in them. Personally, we collect our own Data of the Heart, and contemplate all we are learning, through extended periods outside: walking, or being still and quiet, in all seasons, all weathers, night and day.
We believe feeling and knowing are entwined. Through our work, we hope to inspire others, and we aim to bring different perspectives into an ongoing conversation: How might people work better together in more equitable relationships with the land? Too often, land is done to, exploited. We’d love to see this change.
In 2021, we founded the PLACE Collective at the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas, at Cumbria University, to build a community of artists who work in inter-disciplinary environmental research. We were asked what success might look like, and answered with a poem:
here we stand, wind-bitten
taking in the view of the past
that has led us to here
looking over threadbare land
a hanging-on of fragments
linked by remnant strands
and the beginnings of repair
what might our view be
from the highest hill
in five, ten, a hundred years’ time?
could it be –
this tattered land, healed,
through acts that begin
with the practice of listening?
Creative practice within Geography carries listening forwar
d to learning and, ultimately, to change; the Cherry Kearton Award is a recognition of this. Art, in whatever form, may not provide solutions; but it can stir emotions, foster connections, and motivate action. Art is vital in making a stand for more wholesome relationships between us all, and with our shared, beautiful world, where love, wonder and concern continue to drive us on.”
Harriet Fraser and Rob Fraser, 2023
