Discover our offer of courses for different training and skill levels
Building connections in the Lammas Eco-village
In 2009 the Lammas Ecovillage in West Wales became the first legal low-impact settlement in the United Kingdom. The people involved in the project moved to land that had been predominantly pasture, and started to re-shape the landscape into productive land that was able to meet most of their basic living needs.
In post-industrialised times, where we are apparently disconnected from the origins of the things we consume, and how they and our actions impact the environment, people in Lammas are building meaningful connections with their surroundings while producing food and building shelter.
Using photography, soundscape recording, and photo elicitation interviews, this work aims to represent the relationships people are creating with the environment, buildings, animals, market and people around them as they optimistically build an ecological way of being in response to the socio-material conditions of climate change.
When we first moved in, I felt like every step I was taking was like a thread and I was actually sowing my footsteps into the ground and sowing myself into the land. There’s still that feeling of being, of embedding myself into this piece of land and into this garden. And there is the responsibility of it. It is possibly not as strong now or maybe it is just more ingrained.
Melissa Holloway, Lammas resident
The full project, including more photographs and sound recordings, is available at joseluisfajardo.com.mx
related works
After The Rains Came
Seven short stories about objects and lifeworlds among the cow herding Samburu people of Northern Kenya. My original intention had been no explore the biographical nature of Samburu bodily adornment, but there was a twist: this region had been suffering a long drought and it did not feel appropriate to make a film about beads while people were just trying to survive.
Video
MA
2006
Work and the Environment in Burkina Faso
Six short films exploring work and the relationship of Sambla people of Burkina Faso with their environment. Shot and edited in the field, they are conceived as audiovisual essays on the interplay of human-produced sounds and modifications of the environment.
Sound, Video
PhD
2012
Heritage, Herd, Horizon
A photo essay that explores the lives of crofters on the Isle of Harris, located in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It examines the intricate relationships between crofters and their sheep, highlighting how these bonds have been shaped by the crofters’ experiences in sheep farming.
Photography
MA
2025
The Rhythm of Uist
This film is a lyrical meditation that takes the audience to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, immersing them in the sphere of life for three young adults who have grown up on the Isles of Uist. Through focusing on the stories and everyday mundane activities experienced by each protagonist it aims to provide a new way of understanding and experiencing island life.
Video
MA
2021
Air Pressure
A collaborative project exploring the heard world of one farming family whose organic holding is now encircled by an international airport in Narita, Japan. The project went on to become a CD-book, a touring film and a gallery installation.
Sound, Video
Staff
2011
Where the Beach is Made of Bones
This project uses photography, sound, and mixed media to transport the viewer to the Salton Sea and its surrounding communities of Bombay Beach and Slab City. The communities exist within a conceptual blank space in inland California. In this corner of the Mojave Desert, Individuals have gravitated to this space over time, booming and busting in regular intervals. It has been known for brief moments to the outside world, as a tourist destination, has occasionally been featured in films like ‘Into the Wild’, or brought to prominence when people flood into Coachella for the music festival.
Photography, Sound
MA
2016