Wales: The Landscape Project explores different aspects of the Welsh landscape, where nine photographers worked closely together making images and joint editorial decisions. Themes within the collective project include, the Welsh quarry landscape and surrounding chapels, a small off-grid community, a journey into some of Wales deepest caves, a North Wales hospital and asylum, a response to the myth of the white lady, and a walk across an ancient and largely forgotten pilgrimage trail.

Link To The full MAP6 Collaborative Project

Heather and Aaron collaborative project (Hiraeth)

Heather and Aaron began their research using a website called Diggers and Dreamers, a comprehensive database that documents a wide range of off-grid communities across Wales and the wider UK. The platform is designed as a resource for individuals interested in alternative and communal living, allowing users to explore communities by region and gain insight into different off-grid lifestyles.

Using this directory as a starting point, Heather and Aaron reached out to several off-grid communities, initiating conversations with individuals who expressed interest and were willing to participate in the project. Establishing these relationships required significant time, patience, and persistence, as gaining the trust of close-knit and often private communities was an essential part of the process.

Once visits had been arranged, Heather and Aaron travelled from London and Guernsey to Wales to meet the participating groups in person. They journeyed extensively throughout South and Mid Wales, embarking on what became a true Welsh odyssey. Along the way, they met, stayed with, and learned from people living off-grid, immersing themselves fully in the environments and rhythms of these communities.

The journey was both physically and emotionally demanding, marked by challenging weather conditions, unexpected obstacles, and occasional false leads. Nevertheless, through determination, resilience, and a measure of good fortune, Heather and Aaron were ultimately able to bring their vision to life, culminating in the creation of the Hiraeth project.The Mushroom Man

The Mushroom man lives and works at Coed Talylan, which is a 70-acre woodland on the western edge of the Brecon Beacons in Wales. The Mushroom Man is working towards the creation of a woodland to enable a co-sufficient, low-impact mushroom cultivation within the One Planet Development framework.

The Mushroom Man grows the Turkey Tail mushroom on old damp hardwood logs. This particular mushroom has a longstanding traditional use in Asia. Over the last 40 years, concentrated polysaccharide extracts have become one of the most widely used immune-modulating drugs. It is sold dried as a medicinal mushroom for making water-based extracts and has become increasingly popular in the UK over the last few years.

Daz & Lizzie Tille & Splog

Daz & Lizzie, live on a plot of land surrounded by the Welsh countryside and were New Age Travellers. New Age Travellers were often referred to as crusties in the media and used to travel between free music festivals and fairs, prior to an aggressive crackdown by the Police in the 1990s. New Age Traveller also refers to those who are not traditionally of an ethnic nomadic group but who have chosen to pursue a nomadic lifestyle. Daz & Lizzie now live a simple life, they have settled down and live in a converted lorry and have recently married.

Elliot & Jodie Stockdale

Elliot & Jodie Stockdale are part of a off-grid community, who live within Owensfield which is close to Swansea. Jodie and Martin felt it the perfect opportunity after living in the area for 10 years. The family want to become as self-sufficient and sustainable as possible without completely isolating themselves from the world. Owensfield are chalet fields of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, originally dating back to the decades before the Second World War that saw similar “hutting” and “plotlands” developments across Britain. The chalets were holiday homes and weekend retreats for “weekenders” from south Wales including the nearby city of Swansea, but over time they have become people’s full time homes. Both chalet fields are adjacent to Bishop’s Wood Nature Reserve which leads down to the coast at Caswell Bay and its beach,

Tina and Gina delves into a private and personal environment of a symbiotic relationship. The siblings live in a small wooden shack, which is part of a very small off-grid community in Wales. Living with no heating and no hot water and extremely basic amenities. Gina and Tina live a very eccentric and simplistic lifestyle, where they have created their own self-sufficient world.
Their cabin is surrounded by shadowy woodlands and cliffs facing the sea. The Twins have retreated from societies contemporary and overly hectic modern world. We can observe their personal space, filled with simple domesticity objects and life’s little memories.

With **Hiraeth** (a Welsh word implying a deep longing for home)
Aaron Yeandle and Heather Shuker give us a glimpse into a small off-grid community maintaining its connection to the Welsh land. Photographing together, directing and lighting each other’s images, they delved into the forest, capturing the personal environment of three individuals who live in a small caravan and a wooden cabin.
The three have a simplistic lifestyle with basic amenities. Their cabin is surrounded by an ethereal woodland. The occupants of this ancient woodland have become one with the landscape.
Heather Shuker : Website Link

As part of the outcome from Wales: The Landscape Project, MAP6, commissioned the publisher Iain Sargeant of Another Place Press to lay out and design the four zines.

The launch of the set of Zines was held at the Photo book café in London