Browsing photographer Naomi Saunders’ projects

Creative Naomi Saunders has experience in many fields. Day-to-day, she works as Creative Team Leader at Galeri Caernarfon. She’s also an analogue photographer, musician who’s played in many bands, including Gwenno’s, and by now, spends a lot of her time growing food and chatting about houseplants.

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“The Lyra Film project began around a year ago. I’ve been taking photographs forever, but I decided to get a 35mm camera last year to better my skills and understanding of photography, and to better get to know myself. I began an Instagram page with my partner, Alex Morris, as we often tend to create work together.

I’m grateful in a way for the travel restrictions that have been in place over the last year as it’s forced me to discover my own square mile, and to look at things I see every day in a new light. Usually, I would grasp any chance to escape North Wales, but by now, I take pride in the fact that I can create art from home – it’s been a valuable opportunity to practice, research and work towards finding my style.

Nature is a very important part of my work, but I’m hoping to combine it with people a lot more once restrictions have lifted. I really enjoy combining things that conflict, but that hasn’t found fruition in my work yet. I have so many ideas in my head, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to realise these in the near future.

I’ve been collecting house plants for 5 years by now. The first plant i got was the ‘Montsera Deliciosa’ which was popular in the 70s and is now seeing a revival. At the time, it only had 3 leaves, but is now bigger than me. As the Monstera grew, so did the collection – the last time I counted I had around 100 which is a bit silly! But I really enjoy looking after them, from doing the research beforehand, browsing online to find a special plant, to taking small clippings to create more plants and sharing them with the community, it’s worth every second.

I also enjoy helping people with their plants and so I spend (a lot!) of time on different Facebook groups and also help people on my own Instagram page.

In addition to houseplants, I also grow my own fruit and vegetables, so the two things go hand-in-hand and having an understanding of one is a big help for the other.

Growing plants truly is beneficial to you, and for anyone that is suffering with their mental health, having something to look after and keep you busy gives your day structure, and I’ve found that to be a massive help over the last year.

There’s not much work around houseplants in the Welsh language, which is a challenge sometimes, but I’d like to research into the possibility of changing this. It’s a fashional subject and is gaining more and more attention at the moment, including the Welsh, so it’s about time it got some attention.”

Read issue 4 here.
Follow Naomi Saunders on Instagram.