Nicholas J.R. White is a photographer based on the Isle of Skye in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. His projects are centred on uses of landscape, community and the ways in which we interact with our natural spaces.
Black Dots
‘Black Dots’ is an exploration of mountain bothies and bothy culture throughout the United Kingdom.
Far from civilisation and mostly accessible only by foot, bothies are secluded mountain shelters scattered across the British Isles and tirelessly maintained by volunteers from the Mountain Bothies Association. Unlocked and free to use, they provide a refuge from the vast terrain that surrounds them and have become an iconic feature of the British landscape over the past sixty years.
‘Black Dots’ is the result of almost three years spent traversing our most remote landscapes in an attempt to understand better what these buildings are, where they’re located and the culture that surrounds them. Drawn not only by the primitive beauty of the bothies and the landscapes they sit within, the work also investigates the human element to the bothy story, capturing the faces of those who trek for hours to temporarily inhabit these spaces, many miles from the nearest settlements.
‘Black Dots’ was published by Another Place Press in two editions, and has since sold out.
Elmwood: Pictures from Dartmoor
Elmwood: Pictures from Dartmoor is a series of Large Format colour photographs made on Dartmoor National Park, Southwest England, towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nicholas grew up on Canford Heath, one of the largest housing estates in Europe. Each year, his family would escape the enclosure of the estate and head for Dartmoor to holiday with Nicholas’ grandparents at their home, Elmwood. When his father’s business collapsed, the family was forced to relocate. Hopscotching between communities and occasionally living apart, Elmwood remained. It became the confluence of family life, and an embodiment of belonging and home throughout prolonged instability. Elmwood was eventually sold, but the landscapes of home remained and so did the habit of returning to them.
Nicholas eventually relocated to Dartmoor.
Elmwood: Pictures from Dartmoor is the result of that return. Made across multiple seasons, the photographs follow paths walked since childhood – over hopped fences, along river valleys and up to the granite tors of the high moor. These are pictures made slowly, at the edges of the day, in morning mist and the half-glow of dusk. The Large Format process demands patience and deliberateness, a way of seeing that compliments a project rooted in memory and attention.
The work sits at the intersection of landscape and autobiography. It is about connection, loss, familiarity and surprise. These are photographs about what it means to belong somewhere, about the paths we keep walking, the meaning of home and the persistent power of memories that makes us belong.
Although the work began as an ode to returning, it simultaneously became a slow farewell. In 2024, Nicholas relocated his home and studio to the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.
Selected photographs from Elmwood were shown alongside the work of Garry Fabian Miller for his survey show, Adore at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol in 2023 and were later exhibited at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum for their group exhibit Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape in 2024-2025.
During my time on both residencies I became intrigued by the elemental nature of the landscape, the everchanging weather and the quality of the light. It rained a lot in both places and water seemed to be ever present and significant in forming and shaping the landscape. I visited the Elan Valley in Wales, and the series of Victorian dams built there, and saw the large volumes of water and the powerful flow across the dams. I also explored the karst limestone landscape of the Burren and found sanctuary and peace in its wilder areas.
In many ways I used these residencies as an opportunity to experiment and return to first principles in terms of subject matter and photography. I made some pictures using homemade pinhole cameras with an exposure time equal to the duration of the residency.
