In a collaboration with artist Brett Evans Biedschied, Sheffield photographer Tracey Welch’s latest portfolio of work is inspired by the canal system and the characters who make it their home. 

Born and educated in Sheffield, photographer Tracey Welch has been capturing magical moments for the past 20 years. Her recent collaboration with fellow photographer, illustrator and filmmaker Brett Evans Biedscheid, explores the beauty of British canals in a series of images titled ‘Echoes of the Water’. 

Bringing together Tracey’s photographic expertise and unique artistic vision, and Brett’s expertise in storytelling through illustration and constructed images, ‘Echoes of the Water’ is inspired by the canal system and the characters who make it their home. 

Brett explained: “It was Tracey’s idea, she suggested we do something together and that was interesting to me because I’d always just worked completely on my own, so it’s been great to work with somebody else and get a sort of different view… Working with her is a real departure for me, because I normally just take all of my own photos.” 

Tracey added: “I think the collaboration works really well from both of us, with the skills each of us have, it really makes the work.”

The project, now shortlisted for ‘Portrait of Britain’ and ‘Shot Up North’, was inspired by Tracey’s lifestyle, living on and around Britain’s waterways. 

“I live on the water and I know all the people that work and live in the area. Over lockdown I moved my boat, so I documented a lot of that, photographed different people, different events, and the surrounding areas where I am. I’d got all this material, that wasn’t going anywhere, that’s why I suggested to Brett that he could put his magic onto the imagery and see where he went with it,” the artist said. 

The series of images sees the community, wildlife, nature and rich heritage of the waterways brought to life by the pair’s collaborative creativity, with Tracey’s ideas and unique vision brought to life in her photography. Mix in Brett’s passion for storytelling and constructing images, you’ve got a powerhouse artistic collaboration on your hands. 

Currently moored down on the Oxford Canal, Tracey enjoys the sense of freedom that comes with her lifestyle. 

“I’ve been here for about three years, but I was in Leeds for ten years before that. I’m back and forth to Sheffield quite a bit, it’s my hometown and my home half of the year, I must be there every single month at least, I flip between. It’s great being here, because if I get work in London, it’s only an hour on the train,” she explained. 

Before moving to the UK, Brett studied fine arts at The University of New Mexico, where he’s originally from, exploring analogue photography and experimental film. Coming to the UK to do commercial work and music videos, he decided to do a Masters at the University of Derby, focusing on photo montage and storytelling, leading him into his current work. 

“I darted around lots of different mediums, I wanted to focus on something I was most passionate about, even if it was not the most financially lucrative path to take, it’s just because I love doing it. I care about storytelling and that aspect of art, and that blended in well with Tracey and what we discussed, which has now blossomed into the project we’re working on,” he elaborated. 

His previous series of images, titled ‘Leave to Remain’, were captured during his MA at Derby, during the various stages of the pandemic. 

“It tracked my degree, but it also tracked COVID as well, so it goes through different stages or episodes. I think the first one, you weren’t allowed to hang out with any people because of lockdown. There were lots of sheep and animals around in the rural area, so I was like, I’ll use them to help the story along. They’re all self-portrait based but also based on cautionary fables like Aesop’s fables. In a lot of those stories, there are often animals that are wiser than the human participants, or they seem to be, and that’s something I have carried over into what I’ve been doing with Tracey, there are animals there that seem like they’re more clued in on what’s happening around them than the human participants,” he explained. 

Having little experience with collaboration prior to ‘Echoes of the Water’, Brett’s individual work has been featured in a range of exhibitions and film festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe, the RENDER International Music Video Festival and the Surrealism Film Festival at the BFI. 

Having now been working in the industry for 20 years, Tracey first learnt photography from her uncle, using film. Her two big passions, music and photography, combined allowing her to go on to be known for her captivating signature music photography. Having worked for BBC, Channel 4, Q Magazine, The Guardian and many more, Tracey has captured names like YungBlud, Johnny Marr, Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender, Noel Gallagher, Morrissey and many more with her camera. The photographer has even taken portraits of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and was invited to shoot the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2023. 

But the fabulous events and A-listers, while entertaining, are not what’s important to her. With all the financial complications that come along with a career in photography, Tracey emphasises: “You’ve got to do it because you’re passionate about it, that’s it,” putting the art above all else. 

Based on his experiences with film, Brett agreed that prioritising passion drives his art forwards, saying: “There’s not a huge amount of money in doing music videos, you do have to do it because you want to do it.”

The ‘Portrait of Britain’ awards, run by the British Journal of Photography, is the UK’s biggest annual photography exhibition. Established as an exhibition by the people, for the people, the awards see 100 winning images from the year exhibited up and down the country, in a month-long digital screen display. The 200 shortlisted are published in the ‘Portrait of Britain’ Book, with this particular collaboration securing a published place in Volume 7. The book is a powerful testament to the resilience, strength, and unity that define the people of the United Kingdom, expressed through the incredible photographs honoured throughout. 

The ‘Shot Up North’ awards have a proud history of promoting the best professional photography outside of London, discovering, celebrating and rewarding the very best photography in advertising, design, editorial and fashion since 1988. 

On being shortlisted for both prestigious awards Tracey said: “We did quite well this year, being shortlisted, people buying the imagery, everybody I show the portfolio to is really interested, so it’s obviously going in the right direction. The collaboration is just made up of what both of us do, and it works perfectly.”

First exhibited through September and October 2024 at The Mill Arts Centre in Oxfordshire, the photographic series had a very positive reception from the public, having four sales in the very first exhibition. “

Some guy actually came in just for a coffee. He didn’t know anything about the exhibition or anything, and ended up buying all of these prints,” said Tracey, pleasantly surprised at the response to her artistic vision. 

After finding an incredibly rewarding collaborative working relationship, the pair are hoping they will get to combine their respective skills even more in the future, on top of searching for new opportunities and spaces to show ‘Echoes of the Water’.

On another potential collaboration, Brett said: “I think we’re going to continue to work on another series of this work, maybe vary it up a bit, we’ve been doing some studying on folklore of different British waterways, and maybe intertwining those into next year’s work. We’re just in the initial planning stages for that.” 

Excited to see where their work takes the pair of them next, Tracey added: “It’s honestly endless what we could do.” 

To see more of the work, click here.