About

My art practice draws together the intricate patterns of everyday life with nature's cyclical rhythms to explore memory, domesticity, and the passing of time.

The shifing seasons, light, and shadow shape my visual language; morning sun on discarded cereal bowls, autumn rays through a canopy of leaves, the flat tones of a grey January day. 

Like the cycles of nature, the family home, forever in flux, is central to my work. I document the endless rotations of household tasks, collect debris and record the noise and stillness within the house. The rhythms of daily life become materials in my work, transforming the domestic into a site of reflection and ritual.

In the spirit of economy as well as personal storytelling I am a constant presence in the work, both behind and in front of the camera, easel or microphone. I appear as a charcoal self-portrait, a voice listing daily tasks, a figure lying in tall grass. Through my body in relation to the landscape I explore my maternal Finnish heritage, drawing on past experiences of love and loss. 

With intimate and ordinary details, I explore broader feminist issues of domestic labour and ecological matters concerning waste and altering seasonal patterns.

Solo Shows

2024 - The Seen and the Unseen, My Front Room, Oxford

2001 - Parks and Rooms, Context Gallery, Derry

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025

Cold, Wet, Humid Growth, Catalyst Arts, Belfast

Seedlings Film Festival, Up Close Cinema, London

2024

- Cinematographie, Fox Yard Studio, Stowmarket

- Micro Acts 18, Film screening, London

- Who Cares? Fringe Arts Bath, Bath 

- Art-sauce exhibition, Common Ground, Oxford 

- 22 artists, Magdalen Art Space, Oxford

2023

- Air Open 2023, Manchester - online showcase

- The Power of Play, Courthouse Projects, London

- 18 Artists, Magdalen Art Space, Oxford

-For Women by Women lll, Rona Painting Gallery, Oxford

- Inspirational Women Artists, A Space Arts, Southampton

-Latent, Photo Oxford Festival, Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford

2022

-Open Studio, Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford

-Fourteen, The Mill Arts Centre, Banbury

2021

-Fourteen, Photo Oxford Festival, The North Wall Gallery, Oxford

2011

-ArcheTime:Cross-Disiplinary Film Festival, New York

-Bus Stop Cinema, Elysium Gallery, Swansea

2010 -700IS Reindeerland Experimental Film Festival, Egilsstardir, Iceland

2009 -Short Shorts, 42 New Briggate Gallery, Leeds

Education

2009 MA Photography (distinction) University of the Arts London, LCC

2005 PGCE Secondary / Art and Design, University of Greenwich, London

2000 BA/Hons Fine Art (2:1) University of Ulster, Belfast

Publications

Simmonds, Emma, ‘Still Life’, The Big Picture, Issue 8,2010

Source Photographic Review, Issue 24 -Autumn, 2000

Fellowships, Residencies & Awards

2025-Transformative Funding, a-n Artist’s Bursary

2022 -Work Show Grow, Colehayes Park, Devon

2021 -ArtsLab: Women and Photography participant, The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford

2010 -Shortlisted for Film of the Festival award, 700IS Reindeerland Experimental Film Festival

2001 -Support for the Individual Artist, Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Teaching and Arts Education

2022/25 -Camera Club, The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford /photography workshop facilitator

2024 - London Metropolitan University/ Artist’s talk for BA Photography&Fashion Photography

- Asylum Welcome with Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford/drawing workshop

2021 -Pegasus Theatre/ Photo Oxford/photography facilitator

2011/2021 -d’Overbroeck’s, Oxford / Subject Co-ordinator - photography 

2005/2010 -Wheatley Park Specialist Media College, Oxford / Teacher - art and photography

2008 -Warner Bros, Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire / Art tutor to Emma  Watson