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From early Victorian times through to the early 20th Century it was a common sight to see groups of dirty, ill-clad, barefooted young boys and the occasional girl foraging on the muddy, slippery foreshore of the Thames at low tide. Moving on calloused feet they scavenged for anything brought up by the river that they could sell. They were aptly named the Mudlarks. Their booty might be merely wood, coal, rope and bones, but, if they were lucky they would sometimes and something of higher value. They came from the poorest among society, homeless orphans or children of large, destitute families. Better clothed and well-shod modern-day Mudlarks still explore the muddy, shoe-sucking shores of the Thames to and relics and artefacts of interest to them.
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 gain accolades as a fine-art photographer. She has accomplished 13 major projects and published two books. Hyper-realism and cinematic settings are characteristic descriptions of Fullerton-Batten’s images. They are often set in unexpectedly surreal settings with dramatic lighting, communicating simultaneously both tension and mystery. Mudlarks is one of the images from her popular large scale Old Father Thames project.
‘Old Father Thames’ has featured on BBC News, The Telegraph, Photo London, Italien Vogue, Creative Review, RPS Contemporary Photography, PH Museum, Zoom Collecting Photography, Noblesse China Magazine, El Pais, Corriere della Sera news, London News, BBC Radio Jo Good Show, Aesthetica ArtYork Gallery, Aperture Gallery in NY.