Thames Festival Trust | Foragers of the Foreshore

Millefiori (‘mosaic’) Trade Bead, c. 18th century | Courtesy of Florrie Evans

Animal Teeth | Courtesy of Kirsten Downer, Thames21

Art Deco Moulded Glass Buttons, c. 1920s-1940s | Courtesy of Florrie Evans

Clay Pipe Bowl, Slave Head; c. mid-19th century | Courtesy of Susie White, Curator, The National Pipe Archive

Medieval Pilgrim Badge, c. 1300-1500, depicting the martyrdom of Thomas Becket (Archbishop of Canterbury) | Words & artefact courtesy of Tony Thira

Fossilised Infant Wooly Mammoth Tooth (mammuthus primigenius) | Ice Age (Pleistocene Epoch, around 2 million years old) | Courtesy of Alan Murphy

Millefiori (‘mosaic’) Trade Bead, c. 18th century | Courtesy of Florrie Evans

Animal Teeth | Courtesy of Kirsten Downer, Thames21

Art Deco Moulded Glass Buttons, c. 1920s-1940s | Courtesy of Florrie Evans

Clay Pipe Bowl, Slave Head; c. mid-19th century | Courtesy of Susie White, Curator, The National Pipe Archive

Medieval Pilgrim Badge, c. 1300-1500, depicting the martyrdom of Thomas Becket (Archbishop of Canterbury) | Words & artefact courtesy of Tony Thira

Fossilised Infant Wooly Mammoth Tooth (mammuthus primigenius) | Ice Age (Pleistocene Epoch, around 2 million years old) | Courtesy of Alan Murphy

It is not the pursuit or portrayal of ‘treasure’ that fascinates Hannah, but the transformative journey these objects have taken from being every-day pieces of rubbish, that can hint at even a small tale of the city’s past, to becoming highly cherished items for the finder. Hannah presents the artefacts suspended in air, affording them the space to speak of their own significance.

Hannah is a London-based, self-taught photographer with over 10 years experience. Her Mudlark project has created some fabulous opportunities for her, including exhibitions at both Tate Modern and the British Museum, a huge outdoor display on the Southbank and of course the commission by The Thames Festival Trust to photograph London’s mudlarkers for Foragers of the Foreshore.

hannahsmiles.com

Foragers of the Foreshore Portraits

Check out a series of portraits Hannah produced of our mudlarks.

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Supported by:

Ashleigh Fisk

After thousands of years of submersion, the Genius Loci has formed from the mud and debris of the river, archiving the material history of London in his…

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Chris Orr RA

These still-life photographs were created by Hannah Smiles and are from her 2018 still-life project, Mudlark.

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Ed J Bucknall

Ed practices as an architect in London, whilst mudlarking, sketching and painting for pleasure.

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Irma Irsara

Monster Soup 2019 uses samples from different locations along the river to create projected time-lapses of melting frozen Thames water, embedded with…

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Jacqui Wise

As a London-born artist and mudlark, Jacqui re-imagines the journey of each object she has found.

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Johnny Mudlark

These are to-scale reproductions of the pages of Johnny’s mudlarking journal.

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Julia Fullerton-Batten

Fullerton-Batten spent most of her childhood in Germany and the USA before moving to the UK in 1986. She started her career in 2000 and soon began to…

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Micah Moore

London-based Multimedia artist Micah Moore was born and raised in Alabama, USA.

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Nicola White

Nicola was Mudlark-in-Residence at our Foragers of the Foreshore exhibition at Bargehouse.

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Raewyn Harrison

Raewyn makes porcelain collections based on journeys she takes along the River Thames and the North Kent coast.

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Susi Arnott & Crispin Hughes

Still obsessed with Thames tides, this pair of artists present a raft of new work.

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