THE latest project by the North Yorkshire photographer Tessa Bunney has taken her from the dangerous legacy of unexploded bombs to the delicacy of British blooms.

FarmerFlorist is an exhibition of photographs following the yearly cycle of growing and the realities of long hours and seasonal challenges, including the weather.

It opens on Saturday, June 15, in the art gallery at Ryedale Folk Museum and will coincide with British Flowers Week.

Over a period of two years Ms Bunney photographed individuals employed in the cut-flower industry. This followed a three-year stint in Laos, The Corridor of Opportunity, which ended in 2017.

For this she documented the teams of women who set out to locate unexploded bombs dropped by the US during the Vietnam War.

At least 20,000 people have been killed or injured since the war ended, and in total, between 1964 and 2011, more than 50,000 people have died or been injured as a result of unexploded ordnance incidents. The Financial Times magazine published this series of photographs.

FarmerFlorist – though entirely different in content – also focuses chiefly on the work of women.

It follows from a collaboration with the not-for-profit organisation, Flowers from the Farm, and is the latest project in her 25-year fascination with rural life and how people influence and are influenced by landscapes around them.

She visited 20 farms and growers, both large-scale and artisan, across the UK, and the exhibition will raise awareness of the new movement for fair trade in flowers as well as celebrating domestic growers past and present.

"I’ve always been fascinated by people who grow things," said Ms Bunney.

"My parents are both green-fingered, as were their parents before them. My father has grown fruit, vegetables and flowers on his allotment for 50 years. As a child, I remember my mother creating a beautiful cottage garden in what was not much more than a basic rectangle of lawn."

She first heard about Flowers from the Farm at Hovingham farmers’ market when she came across farmer and florist Rachel Wilkes.

Ms Bunney was at that time preparing to move back to North Yorkshire from Laos and knew she would soon be looking for a new photographic project.

"This new movement in British fairly traded flowers seemed to have appeared while I had been living overseas," she said. "Most artisan growers are women, many of them enjoying second careers in growing flowers and floristry."

To mark the start of British Flowers Week on Monday, June 18, two of the women who feature in the photographs will run a flower-arranging workshop. Suzie Rush and Clarey Wrightson are part of the re-emergence of the British flower industry – Picked at Dawn (Thirsk) and the Manor Garden (near Darlington).

They will talk about challenges and joys of flower growing, give ideas and tips and speak about the importance of supporting locally-grown flowers. Workshop participants will be guided through making an arrangement which they can take home. Details of costs and booking are available through the museum website.

Tessa Bunney is also showing flower portraits in Hit The North – Northern Photographers · Northern Photographs at Manchester Central Library (to June 30) at the Joe Cornish Gallery in Northallerton (to September 30) and will exhibit at Partisan during York’s new Bloom festival (July 5-8).

Previous projects involved working with Icelandic puffin hunters, Finnish ice swimmers, Romanian nomadic shepherds and, closer to home, North Yorkshire hill farmers.

FarmerFlorist continues until Sunday, July 16. Opening times are daily, 10am-5pm, with free entry to the art gallery.