RHS Garden Wisley
Commission for
On The Hedge, 2025
Anna Kroeger
Analogue photography project using plant materials to create images
Since the start of the year, artist-in-residence Anna Kroeger has created two major works for the exhibition On The Hedge at RHS Garden Wisley.
The work was commissioned by curator Gareth Gardner as part of the exhibition project, which follows last year’s successful Close to the Hedge photography show at Gareth Gardner Gallery in Deptford.
For On The Hedge, Anna created major two bodies of work using plants gathered from RHS Wisley.
Anna’s work is on display as part of the On The Hedge exhibition of hedge-inspired photography at the Old Laboratory Gallery, RHS Garden Wisley, until 28 October 2025.
Hedge Studies
In Hedge Studies, Anna explored the historic cyanotype process, creating detailed plant prints and toning them with botanicals sourced from RHS Wisley. She used the garden’s rich textures as both her setting and creative partner.
Anna made sequences of six cyanotypes from 16 pressed hedge samples, presented in a large-scale grid. The deep Prussian blue prints of each series was untoned. She used wood ash and plant infusion baths to bleach and tone the others, with tannins, water pH, and immersion time shaping their final colours.
In Quiet Company
For this series of 12 analogue images, Anna Kroeger explored and photographed hedges and surrounding plant life at RHS Wisley.
She focused on the contrast between the formal, playful shapes of topiary and the looser, organic growth of nearby shrubs – an interplay that shaped how she experienced and captured the space. She then developed the film using plant-based solutions made from hedge species.
Hedges play many vital yet often overlooked roles – as habitats, carbon sinks, food sources, and natural flood management systems. By using plants in her film developers, Anna explores their potential to contribute to sustainable image-making, both visually and materially. Through these photographs, she hopes to spark a sense of wonder and encourage us to see nature not as something to control or exploit, but as something we are inherently part of.
About the artist
Anna Kroeger explores the connection between people and place through sustainable analogue photography,using materials sourced from each site. Originally from Germany, she has spent over a decade living on a narrowboat along England’s canals and rivers.Her close-to-nature lifestyle deeply influences her artistic practice.
Further reading
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Anna Kroeger created the cyanotype prints for Hedge Studies with plants she gathered at RHS Wisley, with the assistance of expert staff.
Reflecting on process, collaboration with nature and the relationship of material and image, Anna experimented with the historic cyanotype method and sustainable toning techniques.
The result is a grid of images where hedge plants are both subject and medium.
Anna made multiple cyanotypes from 16 pressed hedge samples. The deep Prussian blue prints (top row) are untoned. She used wood ash and plant infusion baths to bleach and tone the others, with tannins, water pH, and immersion time shaping their final colours.
Some were toned with flowers, foliage or bark of the same species as in the image.
The samples used:
1Red-barked dogwood ‘Elegantissima’ (Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’)
Common ivy (Hedera helix)
Common yew (Taxus baccata)
Honeysuckle ‘Maigrün’ (Lonicera ligustrina var. yunnanensis ‘Maigrün’)
Common elder (Sambucus nigra)
Japanese barberry ‘Orange Rocket’
(Berberis thunbergii ‘Orange Rocket’)Common gorse (Ulex europaeus)
Common holly (Ilex aquifolium)
Tibetan cotoneaster ‘Decorus’
(Cotoneaster conspicuus ‘Decorus’)Japanese cedar (Elegans Group) ‘Elegans’ (Cryptomeria japonica (Elegans Group) ‘Elegans’)
Common hawthorn
(Crataegus monogyna)Wire-netting bush
(Corokia cotoneaster)Cider gum Azura
(Eucalyptus gunnii Azura (‘Cagire’))White cedar ‘Brabant’
(Thuja occidentalis ‘Brabant’)Common hornbeam
(Carpinus betulus)Box ‘Bowles’s Blue’
(Buxus sempervirens ‘Bowles’s Blue’)
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Creating cyanotypes is a camera-less process using sunlight and light-sensitive chemicals. Plants are placed on coated paper and exposed to light. The paper is then rinsed, producing deep blue images with white silhouettes through a simple yet striking chemical reaction.
Invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, cyanotypes gained recognition through botanist Anna Atkins, considered the first female photographer.
Using iron salts instead of toxic silver, the process is more environmentally friendly than many other photographic methods.
The colour of cyanotypes can be modified by soaking in plant-based infusions. Prints can also be bleached by immersing in an alkaline solution, such as a mixture of hardwood ash and water.
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For this series of analogue images, Anna Kroeger photographed hedges and surrounding plant life at RHS Wisley. She focused on the contrast between the formal, playful shapes of topiary and the looser, organic growth of nearby shrubs – an interplay that shaped how she captured the space. She developed the film using plant-based solutions made from hedge species.
Hedges play vital yet often overlooked roles – as habitats, carbon sinks, food sources and natural flood management systems.
By using plants in her film developers, Anna explores their potential to contribute to sustainable image-making, both visually and materially. Through these photographs, she hopes to encourage us to see nature not as something to control or exploit, but as something we are inherently part of.
The photographs and development plant materials:
Hinoki cypress ‘Nana Gracilis’, developed with holly developer
Burkwood osmanthus,
developed with ivy developerBeech, developed with box developer
Spruce and yew, developed with hawthorn developer
Tibetan cotoneaster ‘Decorus’ and Hibiscus syriacus ‘Oiseau Bleu’, developed with ivy developer
Beech, developed with eucalyptus developer
The Walled Garden West, developed with hawthorn developer
Besom heath, developed with rosemary developer
Ivy, developed with cotoneaster developer
Dead hedge in the Pinetum, developed with spruce developer
Cut ivy on an oak tree,
developed with spruce developerGiant redwood ‘Pendulum’, developed with holly developer
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To process her exposed black-and-white rolls of film for her project In Quiet Company, Anna made a variety of plant-based developers as a more sustainable alternative to conventional darkroom chemistry.
First, the plant matter was boiled or steeped in hot water to extract phenolic acids. This extraction was then mixed with washing soda and vitamin C, creating a DIY film developer.
This solution is capable of converting the light-exposed silver halide crystals in monochrome film into metallic silver, making photographic images visible as negatives.
If stored correctly, the developer can be reused many times.
Anna was first introduced to plant-based developers by artist Melanie King and the charity The Sustainable Darkroom.