Duck inside Stills on the bustling Cockburn Street and the noise subsides. Minds overstimulated by the feverish Festival outside can find a quiet spot here; a room filled with images of body and nature intertwining, lush green leaves, wildflowers upon wildflowers, a mother embracing her child. A safe space, a refuge: a garden. Made during a time of ‘deep family crisis,’ The Garden is Siân Davey’s photographic portrait of love, loss and connection, grown (literally) over three years in the Devon garden she shares with her son, Luke. Davey captures the poignancy of this garden immaculately; grass and colour strewn with bodies, stories and shared secrets. The exhibition itself unfolds like a gentle wander; the photographs are framed by expanses of verdant green (Farrow & Ball are sponsors, after all), and some are tucked away, rewarding the curious viewer.

What began as a domestic lockdown project blossomed into something communal. Friends, neighbours, strangers stepped into this organic paradise, allowing themselves to be seen in moments of raw joy, grief, fragility, intimacy. One unforgettable image captures a trans woman mid-laugh, barefoot in a pink dress: part Courtney Love, part Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker. The wildflowers curl around her like protective cocoons. The Garden is an exhale, a quiet, bold dedication to humanity: to mothers, to revolutionaries, and ‘to the earth that holds us all’. 

Siân Davey: The Garden, Stills, until 30 August; main picture: Siân Davey.