Ann Shelton

Ann Shelton is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s foremost photographic artists. Across a career spanning more than two decades, her work has explored narratives that sit at the edges of dominant histories—unearthing overlooked, contested, and often erased knowledge. Her practice weaves together visual storytelling and rigorous research, engaging deeply with histories of gender, science, and the natural world.

Shelton’s recent photographic series have investigated the intersection of plant knowledge, reproductive politics, and the suppression of botanical histories. In jane says (2015–ongoing), she carefully arranges plants historically used for fertility regulation, contraception, and abortion into meticulously constructed ikebana compositions. These works highlight the knowledge systems that have long been held and shared by women, yet have been systematically erased, dismissed, or criminalized. Her ongoing project i am an old phenomenon expands on these inquiries, exploring how the professionalization of botany and the rise of Western medical institutions displaced traditional understandings of plant medicine.

Shelton’s photographic practice engages with what scholar Donna West Brett describes as an “aesthetics of displacement,” working within a feminist methodology that examines the power structures embedded in knowledge production. Her lush, highly detailed images challenge the historical suppression of plant-based medicine and the cultural frameworks that have shaped contemporary reproductive politics. By revisiting and reactivating these histories, Shelton’s work provides an urgent and poetic meditation on the relationship between people, plants, and power.