Clare Hewitt is a photographer and archivist based in Birmingham and a Senior Lecturer in Photography at The University of the West of England, Bristol.

In her most recent body of work, Everything in the forest is the forest, Clare has worked with a community of twelve oak trees at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR FACE) to understand how their interconnected lives might inspire greater connection within human communities. Supported by Arts Council England and Impressions Gallery, Clare collaboratively created a biodegradable photobook, working with mushrooms, oak gall ink and spun linen thread. The book was available to borrow-and-share in a national community driven distribution system.

Everything in the forest is the forest is currently being presented as an Impressions Gallery solo touring exhibition throughout the United Kingdom, including at MAC Birmingham. The project was also featured at Peckham 24 (2025), in New Scientist (2025), Photoworks (2025), Aesthetica (2026), at Landskrona Foto Festival, Sweden, (2022), and Ostuni Foto Festival, Italy (2026).

In her archival practice, Clare has catalogued and organised the collections of Vanley Burke, Lisel Haas and Grete Bermbach, Armet Francis, Eileen Perrier, and True Form Projects.

Clare is the co-recipient of the Pete James Collection Prize 2026, alongside art historian and curator, Rodrigo Orrantia. In 2019 she received the GRAIN Bursary Award. Her wider practice has been selected for awards including the Earth Photo Award, the Royal Photographic Society’s IPE, and the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain. Clare’s work has also been exhibited at venues including The National Portrait Gallery, The Palace of Westminster, and The Royal Albert Hall, amongst others. Her clients include The Guardian, The New Yorker, and New Statesman.

Shane Shambhu is an interdisciplinary artist, performance maker, writer, curator and Creative Director of Altered Skin. His artistic journey began with bharatanatyam, a South Indian performing art form.

 His performing career expanded bharatanatyam into differing contexts working with: BBC TV and Radio, British Council, Complicité, Royal Opera House, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance, Srishti Dance (Place Prize 2006), Icon Theatre, Menagerie Theatre, Theatre Ad Infinitum, and collaborations with Vayu Naidu, Choman Hardi, and Nigel Planer.

 His bharatanatyam-derived artistic methodology developed in his role as Associate Lecturer at East 15 Acting School. This led to his acclaimed solo production Confessions of a Cockney Temple Dancer which toured across the UK and internationally. Since, he has created a new solo, Fatherhood and a dance-theatre duet When We See Ourselves, touring in Spring and Autumn 2028.

 As Movement Director, credits include Conundrum (Young Vic), Game of Love & Chai (Tara Arts), Axiom of Choice (Prof. Marcus du Sautoy), and Outside the Box (Commonwealth Games 2022). He  is director of internationally touring production Hebridean Treasure, and curator of BrownTangle for Akademi.

Shane has presented talks on his practice and methodology at the Grotowski Institute (Poland), Les Repérages (Brazil), North-Western University (Chicago), Goldsmiths College, Centre for Asian Theatre & Dance, Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity, and features in the Old Vic’s Inside Guide to Physical Theatre.

 He is a Bonnie Bird Choreography Award winner, Birmingham REP Foundry alumnus and a One Dance UK Future Leader.