Amber Banks Brumby is a photographer and educator based in rural Staffordshire, West Midlands. Her practice explores environments, people, and nature, focused with a documentary approach to photography. She graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2014 with BA (Hons) in Photography.
With a passion for angling and a 45% rise of female anglers in the UK, Amber has set out to help change the demographic profile of fishing within a male dominated sport, addressing barriers and changing mindsets. This rise still only contributes to less than 20% of total anglers in the UK in comparison to 80% of men, women are still the minority, this needs to change.
So far, Amber has captured an abundance of inspirational women anglers across the country, hearing their stories and connecting with nature in so many immersive ways. Angling is proven to boost emotional well-being and is now prescribed as a treatment on the NHS. The therapeutic value of angling is bigger than ever, yet many women have still never considered it for themselves; visualising this change in stereotypes will only help this recreation grow and reach more people.
Through interactions and Amber’s own experience, she found that angling increased women’s wellbeing through contact and connection with nature and the landscape. It has helped them escape or recover from stress, trouble, or illness, to gain social communities, to feel present, it has even saved lives. Amber’s aim is to empower these women, and to raise awareness of the beauty of the recreation, to change the image of ‘fisherman’, to let women know that there is a type of angling for everyone, regardless of gender, age, demographics, and knowledge. Nature is always present and will welcome anyone to its waters.
In 2020 Amber’s series Peacocks Cry was published by Out of Place Books, which offers a personal and intuitive exploration of rural life in a tiny hamlet in Staffordshire. The series takes place on her family farm in the English countryside where daily life, and death, play out to the backdrop of changing seasons.
Amber has been teaching photography for eight years. Her work has been shown most recently with: RBSA Gallery Photography Prize 2023, FORMAT Festival, East Meets West Master Class 23, Shutter Hub, 120×120 – Singapore, RBSA Gallery Photography Prize 2021, No Go Press, Print Magazine and Black River Magazine.
