After completing a PhD about Tropical Forest Biodiversity in 1996 at the University of Leeds, I worked for 3 years with Raleigh International and Conaf flitting between London and Chilean Patagonia to manage a Biodiversity Research project in a the Laguna San Rafael National Park and UNESCO Biosphere reserve; an incredible area of glaciers, temperate rainforests and inhospitable terrain.

This was followed by a further year’s research, this time focused on the Peruvian Amazon with the University of Leeds and IIAP, and then I worked for Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) for 3 years setting up and getting funding for humanitarian projects in places as diverse as Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea.

After three years of a dreadful carbon footprint and dodgy hotel rooms, I took a job with the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site in Dorset and East Devon, where I remained for 15 years, managing the Site for most of it and becoming the first CEO of the Jurassic Coast Trust in 2017.

Throughout all of this time, I have taken photos, but never really had a clue about what I was doing. So in making one of those 'life-changing’ decisions, in 2019 I stepped away from the rat race and took on a part time MA in Photography at the excellent Arts University Bournemouth.

As part of the course, I needed to decide on a project, and after reading Issy Tree’s amazing book Wilding, I was hooked. The concept of rewilding brings together my experience and love of nature conservation and wild places, my love of photography and my innate inquisitiveness. I still have no clear idea where this will lead me, but that is one of the exciting things about it.

Please do have a look at my main photography website samrose.uk for more about the other work I make.

In addition to my photography, I am currently a freelance consultant in the environment and charity sector (website to follow), and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter