‘Where the Wild Returns’

Room to Recover: A documentary photo essay exploring rewilding projects across Dorset.

Where the Wild Returns is a research-led photography project that documents rewilding and nature recovery efforts across Dorset. It explores how land, once used intensively for agriculture or industry, is being returned to nature, and how people are learning to work with the land in new ways. These sites, at various stages of restoration, contribute to ongoing conversations about ecology, biodiversity, land use, and our evolving relationship with the natural world.

At a time when the climate crisis and environmental degradation dominate headlines, this project offers a counter narrative. Rather than focusing on loss, it looks at regeneration. When ecosystems are given the chance to recover, whether through active intervention or by being left alone, there are signs of return: insects, birds, pollinators, and native plants beginning to re-establish themselves.

The work examines not just the landscapes, but the people behind them: conservationists trialling new approaches, farmers moving toward regenerative models, landowners creating space for natural processes, and volunteers maintaining habitats and monitoring wildlife.

It also asks broader questions. What does it mean to let go of control? What role should humans play in shaping or stepping back from the land? What can we learn from places that are being allowed to change on their own terms?

At its core, Where the Wild Returns is about listening, to the land, to those working with it, and to the quiet signs of renewal that often go unnoticed.