Jo is a Hertfordshire (UK) based alternative process film and darkroom photographer. Her photographic practice focuses upon constructed realities approaches to construct and capture photographic moments or stories. Print making and alternative processes are integral components of her creative practice and image construction. Jo is an active member of London Independent Photography Network and Shutter Hub and has exhibited her work in the UK and internationally. She has twice been a recipient of the Analogue Photography Grant from the Richard and Siobhan Coward Photography Foundation.

Recent exhibitions and activities include:

February 2026 - Artist in Residece at Mawddach Residency: https://www.mawddachresidency.com/blog/jo-stapleton

Radiant Aberration and zone 5 group exhibition: Enchantment -Chemigram Waterfall www.radiantaberration.com/enchantment April 2025

Griffin Museum: online Blue Outtakes Cyanotype exhibition: https://griffinmuseum.org/sow/blue-outtakes - Cyanotype Jelly fish (March 2025)

London Independent Photography annual open exhibition: Espacio Gallery London. Exhibited ‘two cyanotype jelly fish with photogram string’ and two lith prints from the ‘rewilding’ series.  (January 2025)

Photo Fringe 2024. Online solo exhibition 'rewilding', a series of lith print photograms of weeds and images of classical sculptures shot on film: https://2024.photofringe.org/exhibitions/rewilding

Photo Fringe 2024. Curated LIP London and Beyond satellite group online exhibition ‘common ground and different ground’  https://2024.photofringe.org/exhibitions/lip-london-and-beyond-common-ground-and-different-ground

Shutter Hub 2024/5. Group exhibitions:  Your Lens Your Truth (Shutter Hub X Sailsbury Centre,  3.10.24 to 3.1.25), Return to the Sea (Worthing 12.10.24 to 12.10.25), Shutter Hub Year Book (2024) and Shutter Hub Open (Alison Richards Building, Cambridge 13.1.25 to 21.3.25).

Previous exhibition highlights include:

Photo fringe 2022 solo online Exhibition: Foreign Bodies – Lith print photograms of decorative glass objects:  https://2022.photofringe.org/exhibitions/foreign-bodies

Photo Fringe 2020 solo online exhibition ‘reanimate’ – a series of alternative process images featuring flying dresses and other objects: https://2020.photofringe.org/exhibitions/transformations

April 2020 Fleur and Arbor, online magazine feature ‘Dolls House Drama’ series. http://www.fleurandarbor.com/home/2020/4/21/jo-stapleton-dolls-house-drama

March 2020 to June 2020. Shutter Hub ‘Postcards from Great Britain’ Hotel Lion d’Or,  Haarlem, Holland. Group exhibition. 3 Lith print images selected from the series ‘the train people’ a series of images featuring the miniature figurines that inhabit model railways.

January – March 2020. Reclaim Photography Festival, international Exhibition ‘Beauty in Imperfection. Light House Media Centre. Wolverhampton. Two Lith print images from the series ‘found objects’ selected for exhibition

5 October 2019. London Independent Photography Network. Delivered interactive workshop session to coincide with annual members’ exhibition - DO TRY THIS AT HOME - alternative processes without a darkroom - Cyanotypes, Anthotypes and Chlorophyll printing - a one hour practical introduction to a range of lo-fi alternative photographic processes that can be produced at home.

May 2019 to February 2020. RPS Heroines Hub ‘Representations on the Line ‘(Un)framing our identities’. Group touring exhibition which travelled from Chelsea, to Blackpoll and Doncaster.  A series of 6 C-prints from the series ‘small world in colour’ included in the exhibition.

29 September 2018: Reinventing, rethinking and representing the menopause: beyond the interdisciplinary paradigm. Art at the Alison Richards Building (Cambridge University) Online exhibition. ‘Purpose’ and ‘Wrapped’ Lith prints (produced from paper distressed negatives), included in the exhibition. www.arbart.crassh.cam.ac.uk/rethinking-the-menopause-exhibition/

July to 31 August 2018/July to November 2019 ‘Because we can’ Group Shutter Hub exhibition at Pil’ours, Festival international de la photographie pour les femmes photographes professionnels, France. Four original chemigram prints included in the exhibition (2018) Two lith print images from the ‘Dolls House Drama’ series included in the Pil’ours, Festival international de la photographie exhibition (2019).

Publications:

·       Newspaper Club self-published zine 'foreign bodies' - lith print photograms of decorative glass objects exposed through projected histology transparencies (2023).

·       The Blue Box. A limited edition series of postcards and handprinted original cyanotype prints incorporating a range of alternative process printing techniques and photograms (2024).

INTO THE TREES (publication date Jund 2026) published by Shutter Hub. INTO THE TREES is an expressionist photographic account of Jo’s interactions with trees and woodland, later remembered

and reimagined in the darkroom using a range of alternative processes and techniques. - https://shutterhub.org.uk/shop/into-the-trees-by-jo-stapleton/

Funding Awards:

Coward Photography Foundation analogue photography grant recipient

2018 and 2022

Memberships:

Shutter Hub Member (2018 to present day)

London Independent Photography (2015 to present day)

As a member of LIP, I run two satellite groups: Alternative Processes and London and Beyond (an online monthly Zoom meet-up for LIP photographers based across the UK and internationally)

Recent alternative process workshop sessions:

March 2024 to November January 2025 London Independent Photography Network – (delivered a range of alternative process workshop session for LIP members including cyanotype, cyanotype toning techniques, salt printing and Vandyke printing)

June 2023 Associate Artist – The Museum of Homelessness – delivered a commissioned cyanotype photo collage workshop for museum guests

January 2023 Homeless Arts Festival (Old Diorama) – delivered two cyanotype printing workshop sessions for festival guests.