Stillness in the Seasons- Rowen & Wren

Stillness in the Seasons: A Conversation with Alice Tatham for Rowen & Wren.

A recent interview for Rowen & Wren sharing about my day to day life, my love of nature & the seasons & my photography journey. Featuring beautiful pieces from the Rowen & Wren range photographed where I live in Dorset.

In a corner of Dorset, where sea meets sky and hedgerows bloom with seasonal rhythm, photographer and storyteller Alice Tatham finds her inspiration. A lifelong creative with a background in textile design, Alice has turned her lens towards the natural world around her, capturing fleeting moments of beauty through her evocative imagery. From the softly falling light on a May evening to the muted tones of an autumn hedgerow, her work is a quiet meditation on time, nature and noticing.

This is a glimpse into the slower, deeply considered life Alice leads - one shaped not by schedules but by the elements and guided always by the light.

The seeds of Alice Tatham’s story took root on the other side of the world, camera slung over her shoulder as she travelled through Australia, New Zealand and Asia. There, she quietly captured the colours, textures and shifting light of landscapes far from home – photography becoming, at first, a way of simply collecting moments. ‘A hobby I really enjoyed,’ she recalls. But somewhere between the shutter clicks and the seasonal shifts, something deeper began to take root, enchanting followers of the beautiful scenes she shares on Instagram as @thewildwoodmoth.

Though her creative trajectory began in textiles – sketching surface patterns inspired by botanical forms – it felt, somehow, as though photography had always been in the wings, waiting. ‘I suppose in my mind I’m still a designer,’ she reflects, ‘but now I tell stories through light and colour rather than fabric.’

And yet, despite that early globetrotting spark, it is here – back along the Jurassic Coast, where cliffs roll down to the sea and hedgerows flicker with seasonal change – that the landscape has truly captured her imagination. ‘I’ve travelled to some beautiful places,’ she says, ‘but my heart will always be in the West Country.’

It’s a sentiment that runs like a thread through the images that form the backbone of her career as a photographer and visual storyteller – gentle compositions shaped by the changing seasons, the soft golden light of May, the hush of autumn, the everyday magic of a walk among trees. Her lens, soft and observant, captures the passage of time not in grand gestures, but in the pale bend of a flower’s neck, the slant of afternoon light on a windowsill, or the still hush of an early morning.

There is, then, a quiet, unwavering line running through Alice’s life and work: a reverence for nature, for the small and seasonal, and for the act of noticing. ‘Life has always gently revolved around the seasons,’ she says of her childhood, spent in a rambling country house filled with art, music and animals – a place where she first learned the rhythms of the year.

Today, it’s those same rhythms that continue to guide her work, with May and October quietly vying for favourite-month status. ‘A May Spring evening in the countryside or on the coast path here in Dorset is hard to beat,’ she says. ‘The light is extraordinary.’

Alice lets the weather guide her days, weeks, months and years organically as they unfold. ‘I shoot when the light is good,’ she says simply. ‘It’s all quite intuitive.’ That intuition – leaning into instinct and trusting the moment – informs everything she does, whether editing in her studio or pausing to photograph a peach-hued dusk on a hillside. ‘The art of noticing is such a gentle practice,’ she adds, ‘and one I find helps me slow down.’

Etta Terracotta Pot, Agni Terracotta Bowl, Ledbury Lloyd Loom Side Table and Ledbury Lloyd Loom Armchair, featured

Even as she dreams ahead – of creative workshops, climbing roses, and a long-awaited return to printmaking – Alice continues to find joy in the simplest things. A good walk. A pattern of petals. A photograph that tells a quiet story.

‘I hope that people see peace in my photos,’ she says. ‘That’s what I try to share. A sense of the season. A kind of stillness.’

Interview by Nancy Alsop for Rowen & Wren

A huge thank you to Rowen & Wren for such a lovely feature, and to Nancy Alsop for the beautiful words. Pr-Gifted items featured.