Pulling in nets outside of Newlyn Harbour, September 2023

Martin Parr Foundation is collaborating with photographer Jon Tonks for We Feed The UK, a project from The Gaia Foundation using the transformative power of positive storytelling to grow support for nature-friendly food production. Read on for details of how to support the ongoing project through purchasing one of the first signed prints available from this new body of work.

Ten photographers and poets have been commissioned to document ten stories from around the UK, featuring regenerative farmers, urban growers, sustainable fishers and grain rebels: the UK’s custodians of soil, sea and seed. Their works will be exhibited nationwide with ten arts partners and Martin Parr Foundation will be exhibiting the work of Jon Tonks in 2025 in collaboration with We Feed The UK.

Cadgwith Harbour, April 2024

Oceans have nourished us for thousands of years, but the bounties of our blue planet are ebbing. In this body of work, photographer Jon Tonks is spending a year documenting this world and with those trying to fish sustainably along England’s south coast.

Martin Parr Foundation and Jon Tonks are offering a special limited edition signed print of an image from this work for those who support this project. For pledging £100 you will receive:

A SIGNED PRINT by Jon Tonks – 10×10” print made with archival pigment inks, signed, captioned and stamped on the reverse.
YOUR NAME (if desired) will appear as one of the project supporters, both in the gallery during the exhibition and online.
UPDATES from Jon Tonks as the project develops.

There are a maximum of 50 opportunities to support this project, and each person will be able to choose between one of three images for their print.

Portloe Harbour, August 2023

Supporting this project will allow for the continuation of the work, it will buy Jon time documenting the fishing communities, funding additional camera film and picking up a pastie along the way, allowing the work to broaden as much as possible and raise further awareness of this important topic.

The answer to how we better sustain communities of life, on and off shore, might be murky, but Jon’s honest insight exposes a system sunk by human greed, and floats ideas for turning the tide.

All funds raised will support the continuation of this project, raising awareness of sustainable fishing practices and supporting the photography community.

Support the project here.

Sponsored by Hahnemuhle; all prints are on Hahnemuhle Natural Line paper: Agave – 70% of this unique, environmentally friendly FineArt inkjet paper is made from sisal fibres. Thank you to Hahnemuhle for the kind support.

You can learn more by watching Hot Poet Chris Redmond perform ‘Enough Fish Enough’ below. Chris is one of the ten spoken word artists commissioned nationally for We Feed The UK.