Dr Epha J. Roe has been appointed Postdoctoral Fellow in Photography, Nature and Ecology at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, in collaboration with the Hasselblad Foundation. Over two years, Roe will develop the practice-based research project Traces of Inflorescence, which explores the significance of lavender in photographic history, queer culture, and ecologies.
The postdoctoral fellowship is part of an established collaboration between HDK-Valand and the Hasselblad Foundation, aimed at strengthening and developing research in photography. The joint postdoctoral initiative focuses on artistic and photographic practices that engage with nature, the environment, ecology and climate-related challenges.
Epha J. Roe is an artist, photographer and writer whose research-based practice operates at the intersection of art, science and history. Roe’s practice explores the cultural history of plants, the materiality of photography and the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world. Roe completed a practice-based PhD at the University of Brighton in 2025, in which the English oak was central to an investigation into how plants can be understood as active co-authors in photographic processes.
On the opportunity to continue their research at HDK-Valand, Epha J. Roe says:
“This fellowship provides a unique opportunity to deepen my interest in the embeddedness of plants in both photographic and queer histories. I am particularly excited by the postdoc’s cross-collaborative framework and look forward to drawing on Gothenburg’s rich ecosystem to inform and root my project’s practice-based research.”
The new research project at HDK-Valand has the working title Traces of Inflorescence: Photographic Encounters with Lavender and Queer Ecology through Material, Theory and Practice. Using lavender as a material, symbol, and active agent, Roe will explore how nature photography as a genre can expand into a multisensory medium. The project takes as its point of departure traces of lavender in early photochemistry, including its relationship to Nicéphore Niépce’s photographic processes from 1826, as well as the plant’s later significance within queer culture.
Using queer ecology as a theoretical framework, Roe will work with lavender-based photochemistry, cyanotypes, plant-based paper, scented photographic materials, portraiture and still life. In doing so, the project asks what a nature photograph can be: not simply an image of nature, but a material, sensory and historically charged meeting point between plants, bodies, technologies and cultures.
“ As part of our work to promote and support artistic research in photography, the Hasselblad Foundation is delighted to welcome Dr Epha J. Roe as our new postdoctoral fellow in collaboration with HDK-Valand. By bringing together botany, queer theory and photographic history, Roe’s project opens up new perspectives on photography’s relationship with nature. At the same time, the project connects with our ongoing research into the relationships between technology and ecology, and with how nature photography as a genre can be understood and developed today.Louise Wolthers, Head of Research at the Hasselblad Foundation
The project connects with the ongoing research collaboration Plants & Symbiosis: Expanding Photography between HDK-Valand and the Hasselblad Foundation, as well as HDK-Valand’s research cluster Environment: Ecology and Climate Challenges. Roe will also explore potential collaborations with local and regional partners.
During the postdoctoral period, Roe will undertake archival research, material experimentation, image-making and public presentations. The project is also planned to include workshops on sustainable photochemistry, allowing the research process to be shared with the research community and students, as well as through public formats such as exhibitions and research publications.
Niclas Östlind, Vice Assistant Head of Department for Researchat HDK-Valand:
“Dr Epha J. Roe’s postdoctoral project explores the role and significance of lavender in early photography and queer culture with a curiosity and breadth of perspective that contribute to deepening and expanding our knowledge of photography. The project’s combination of artistic methods and theoretical perspectives is also fundamental to the international research and educational environment in photography that HDK-Valand and the Hasselblad Foundation have established and continue to develop, with Gothenburg as its base.”
About Epha J. Roe
Dr Epha J. Roe is an artist, photographer, researcher and writer. Roe holds a practice-based PhD from the University of Brighton, an MA in Art History and Museum Curating with Photography from the University of Sussex, and a BA in Photography and Video from De Montfort University. Since 2025, Roe has taught on the BA Photography programme at Hereford College of Arts and has previously taught photography at the University of Brighton. Roe’s research and artistic practice address photographic theory and history, plant intelligence, queer ecology, sustainable photographic processes, and relationships between humans and plants.