Photo || Drone
Community & Destination Photography
Telling the story of seven neighbourhoods making up one town
Ramsgate Pride in Place
a government-backed regeneration programme unlocking £20 million for Ramsgate
Endorsed by central government in March 2024, Ramsgate’s Pride in Place programme provides the framework to unlock £20 million of investment for the town, structured around five core priorities: Open It Up, Clean It Up, Light It Up, Raise It Up, and Join It Up. When the Ramsgate Neighbourhood Board in partnership with Thanet District Council commissioned me to create the destination photography to launch this programme, the brief was ambitious.
And one that I was deeply invested in delivering, because of the direct impact for my hometown. Fifty images spanning all seven neighbourhoods, capturing the authentic character of a town that is so much more than its harbour and seafront. Imagery described in the brief as “gritty and realistic but also passionate, joyful and proud.”
Born and raised here, I’ve watched Ramsgate change across four decades. I carry the stories of multiple generations who were born and raised here too. This really felt like it was the project I was made for.
“The style and content of these photos must meet the aesthetic outlined in the Vision Narrative pack: authentic, gritty community realism.”
Thanet District Council Brief
The Approach & Planning
What makes this community destination photography project interesting was seeing somewhere familiar, but meeting it with fresh eyes. I approach all my shoots with a beginner’s mindset, researching, asking questions, wanting to know why, understanding the story sits in the nuances, the liminal moments. Planning a shoot across all seven neighbourhoods meant working across the full arc of light from sunrise to sunset. Combining drone and ground-level photography to build a collection rich enough to carry a ten-year vision for the town.
So often, photography used to represent the town of Ramsgate gravitates toward the Royal Harbour and seafront, facing outwards. This project is built to represent the whole town and to do that we needed a fresh perspective, one that looks inwards. But inwards in a way that was expansive, celebrating the diversity of Ramsgate. Its people, its parks, its streets, its community life. The Town Centre and High Street. Ellington Park and its café. Jackey Bakers with its running track and sprawling sports community. The allotments beside and the heart of Newington, where much of my own family grew up.
In my early years, we lived near Ellington Park. I went to school at Ellington and St Laurence. I know those streets from childhood. Yet this destination photography commission took me into parts of my own town I’d never properly explored. Seeing Ramsgate through a refreshed lens in 2026, four decades of belonging behind me, bringing the kind of knowledge that no visiting photographer could replicate.
The project was officially launched in April 2026 and the images are now an integral part of communicating it. Forming the visual foundation of a regeneration plan that will shape this town for a generation.
Outcomes & Impact
Our shoot date also coincided with the first day of sustained sunshine after a long stretch of difficult early spring weather. As a result, the conditions aligned perfectly with the ambition of the project. Wind speed, light and logistics all came together at exactly the right moment, allowing us to deliver the full schedule across all seven neighbourhoods as intended. In turn, this created equal time and space within each area, ensuring fair and thoughtful representation of Ramsgate as a whole through all seven parts.
The impact of this programme will be felt directly by the people of Ramsgate. Twenty million pounds of investment flowing into the town, shaped and communicated through images that show the whole of it. Not just the harbour-facing postcard, but the parks, the streets, the community, the neighbourhoods where real lives are lived. To be the photographer capturing these images, for my own town, fills me with a quiet and profound pride.
created in community
A collaborative vision for Ramsgate
Through a series of consultations across community groups in Ramsgate, the team have placed storytelling at the heart of the vision for Ramsgate. An inclusive approach to understanding the stories of people who live across all seven neighbourhoods and placing Ramsgate’s story at the heart of the becoming of this 10 year project.
‘Our vision for Ramsgate’ launched across the community in a series of events and online campaign. I adore the branding assets that the team at Hai have created for this project.
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Project gallery
Reflections
Having studied geography, I’ve always felt drawn to the relationship between people, place and planet. The ways communities shape a place and, equally, how a place shapes the people who inhabit it. A coastline and its coastliners. This thread weaves through everything I create.
Still, I never expected that journey to lead me here. To a commission rooted in the streets where I grew up, the parks I walked as a child and the neighbourhoods where my family has put down roots across generations. Bringing together my perspectives as a geographer, visual storyteller and Ramsgate native on a project that will help shape the future of this town feels deeply meaningful, and something I truly cherish.
This is what it means to work at the wild edges of earth, sea, sky and self. Sometimes the most significant edge is the threshold of reminiscing of what once was, while holding the vision of all that is yet to emerge.