The research, created by Liza Dracup, photographer and Senior Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University, imagines the impact of climate change on nettle, dandelion, creeping buttercup and couch grass and questions whether they could thrive or disappear from our landscape altogether. 

Featuring as part of the Bradford 2025 City of Culture celebrations, a selection of photographs from the project, entitled Future Flora, will be on display on the big screen in centenary square from Thursday 26 June until Sunday 31 August.  

The photographs are taken using experimental camera-less methods which sees the plants positioned on paper, then scanned to make them digital.  

Liza explained: “As well as the creative process being environmentally friendly and sustainable, as it avoids ink, the project invites the public to reflect on negative attitudes towards weeds and gain a new perspective on their environmental significance and their contribution to local culture and biodiversity.   

“The photographs imagine a time of transition with more climatic change predicted, by placing our natural world in an unpredictable future. The impact on these common place plants could mean they thrive or disappear from our landscape altogether.”    

In addition to being featured in a new public facing solo exhibition, aspects of the new research have also been shared with local Bradford schools, to inspire grass roots interest in the arts and the environment.  

Liza explained: “This practical approach aims to improve pupils’ connections to the natural world through workshops, leave a legacy of accessible photographic processes for curriculum development, and contribute to teaching practice.  

“I recently delivered a photographic workshop at Skipton Girls’ High, where students were introduced to making photographs without a camera and prompted to reflect on their own relationship with nature. We discussed the environmental message of my wider research and how photography can prompt questions and visualise ideas that speak to climate change and its effect on the local environment.” 

Liza is an established photographer and senior academic whose experimental methodologies continue to underpin her photographic practice and research. Her photographs place emphasis on the extraordinary properties of the ordinary, leading to a more informed and comprehensive perspective of the northern landscape and its natural history.  

She said: “Building and establishing wide-ranging connections through my photography has always enriched the work in many ways, inspiring people to question their own ideas and relationship with photography and the natural world.”  

Mr Marcus Dryland, Art Teacher at Skipton Girls’ High said: “We are developing our climate change adapted curriculum across the school and are asking ourselves how each subject's knowledge and methods can bring different perspectives on environmental issues. Liza Dracup’s photography session, delivered to our Year 10 GCSE Photography students, has been an inspiration to us all, as it fits in with our departmental agenda around climate change.  

“I feel art can help mitigate climate anxiety by allowing pupils the time, space and opportunity to reflect on their connection with the natural world, but also to imagine different possible futures. Liza’s workshop encouraged the pupils to think about how they felt when making art outside, and how it ties in with climate change theory learned in science lessons. I have shared Liza’s work with other art teachers and school CEOs and engaged them in the same activity, showcasing in practice how this contributes to our climate change adapted curriculum.”