Environmental awareness sees Dr Yan Preston win major photography award
Dr Yan Wang Preston, the University of Huddersfield’s senior lecturer in photography, has received a prestigious award from the Royal Photography Society (RPS).
She has been given the RPS Award for Environmental Responsibility, the first time that one of the world's oldest photography societies has presented an award "in recognition of sustained excellence or a notable use of imaging that highlights or contributes to demonstrable improvement in public awareness of environmental issues."
Dr Preston has taught at Huddersfield since 2018, and earlier in 2023 her display Here and Now at the University of Manchester reflected the Chinese community's place in British society.
Study Photography at the University of Huddersfield
Her first major project as a photographic artist was Mother River, an epic-scale series of shots of the Yangtze River taken at 100km intervals of the river’s 6,211km length.
Dr Yan Wang Preston
Senior Lecturer, Department of Music & Design Arts
Yan is an award-winning practicing artist with long-term interests in the contested definitions, myths, politics and ideologies of nature in contemporary societies.
With Love. From an Invader (2020-2021) saw her photographing the same rhododendron bush on a South Pennines moorland every other day for an entire year. It produced a four-panel visual-audio installation with a 38-minute soundtrack written Monty Adkins, the University's Professor of Experimental Electronic Music.
"I was quite surprised as I never really saw myself just as an environmental photographer," says Dr Preston. "As the RPS is the oldest photography society in the world, for them to create a new award and make me the first recipient it is quite weighty.
One of Yan Preston's photos from Here and Now, which was taken by a reservoir in West Yorkshire
9/6/20, 43 out of 182 walks, From With Love. From an Invader. Burnley, UK (17/3/20-16/3/21) ©Yan Wang Preston
4/12/20, 130 out of 182 walks. From With Love. From an Invader. Burnley, (17/3/20-16/3/21) ©Yan Wang Preston
Egongyan Park, Chongqing, China, 2017. From Forest series (2010-2017). ©Yan Wang Preston
"It is a wonderful feeling to be recognised for your work because as photographers and artists we often work alone. You put your heart and soul into it, and you someone wonder what you are doing it for. It is good to know there are people out there who appreciate the work and can see what I am doing.
"It has made me reflect on what I have done with my photography in the 18 years since I moved to the UK, and whether I am an environmental photographer or not. My sense of the environment is associated with identity, not just as a passive setting for our lives."