Photos of NFFN Champions and the landscapes in which they work are going on show in Yorkshire as part of the Swaledale Farming and Film Festival.

Joanne Coates, a talented photographer and NFFN Champion has travelled the length and breadth of the UK, vividly documenting her fellow Champions at work. From the rugged Welsh uplands to woodland pastures and arable farms in Lincolnshire, ‘Custodians of the Soil’ captures the broad spectrum of people, landscapes, and businesses that are at the forefront of the transition to nature-friendly farming.

Joanne, who works on her partner’s family farm in the Yorkshire Dales, believes “that telling the stories of nature-friendly farming is vital” as we “don’t often see farming and the issues within it documented or from the perspective of people’s lived experiences”.

As such, Custodians of the Soil captures the intimate relationship between people and the land. While the ‘rural idyll’ is a well-worn trope in art, Joanne’s focus on nature-friendly farming represents something fresh and important in documentary photography, and a celebration of food production in harmony with wildlife.

Sam Beaumont, an upland farmer from Cumbria and an NFFN Champion featured in the exhibition says that “Jo’s photos are absolutely beautiful”, while simultaneously highlighting that it’s, “not all doom and gloom and bad practice in farming, even though it can sometimes look that way”.