A creative photo-based session hosted by SOILSCAPE to deepen our ways of seeing, feeling, and relating to soil.
On 23 July 2025, SOILSCAPE invited a multidisciplinary group of artists, scientists, students, and soil practitioners to embark on a collective experiment: to see soil not only as a scientific substrate or productive layer, but as something intimate, personal, and perhaps even emotional. The session, titled “(Re)Connect to Soil,” was guided by the spirit of curiosity and co-creation, and rooted in the language of images and reflections.
This webinar was no ordinary slideshow. It built on a participatory process that began even before the meeting itself. Each attendee was asked to submit a photograph that they took, an image that answered, in some way, the questions: What is the role of soil in your everyday life? Do you see art in it? Alongside the photo, a short text reflection. Not definitions or measurements, but glimpses. Stories. Hints of something felt.
When images meet texts, perceptions burst within our minds
Facilitated by Tobias Sprafke, Mégane Roncier, Facundo Lucas, and Alice Boyero, the session opened with warm welcomes and a reminder: we are not here to define soil, we are here to encounter it anew.
After a brief dive into the SOILSCAPE project and its commitment to art-soil literacy, the team introduced the Photo Voice methodology, a framework that merges visual storytelling with participatory dialogue. It’s a method that doesn’t claim objectivity, but rather invites us to express our thoughts. It gives participants space to interpret, to see differently, to connect what they feel with what they see.
The first collective exercise was deceptively simple: match images to their written reflections. But very quickly, complexity surfaced. One photo rarely yielded a single interpretation. What seemed to be a close-up of plant roots might evoke care in one viewer, disarray in another. It was not about getting the “right” match, it was about seeing through another’s lens.
From individual lenses to collective patterns
Participants then dispersed into smaller breakout groups to spot patterns and share insights. Group 1, presented by participant Ana, noted that almost all images featured soil directly, but in vastly different lights. Some linked it to life and food; others to labour, memory, or communication. The colours were natural: greens, browns, ochres. There was a contrast between animated, lively frames and those that felt still or empty. A brief but meaningful discussion unfolded: When does a soil photo become art? And what does that say about our boundaries between nature and culture?
Group 2, summarized by Tobias, traced a progression. First came observations about light, texture, shadow. Then, deeper threads emerged: fungi and roots, domestic gardens, wild terrains, the tension between natural and human-shaped spaces. One absence stood out: very few images captured the vertical dimension of soil. Where was the depth? The layering? The hidden?
Interestingly, it was not the individual images that unlocked the richest meanings, it was their juxtaposition. Perception expanded when photos spoke to each other.
Reflection as transformation
In the final reflective round, participants were asked: How did this exercise shape your understanding of soil?
Several admitted they were surprised by the experience. Choosing a single photo had felt nearly impossible, there were so many layers to how they related to soil. One participant shared that they unexpectedly chose a photo including their own body, making the connection personal and quite literally “embodied”. Another noted that while the exercise didn’t necessarily alter their scientific view of soil, it did highlight the emotional terrain that surrounds it, something often unspoken in academic settings.
Others expressed that having the texts available beforehand might have added even more depth to the exchange. And yet, the immediacy of live interpretation brought its own value: vulnerability, honesty, surprise.
Traces, surfaces, and the unseen
Tobias closed the session by linking the insights back to the broader SOILSCAPE SEPIA Photo Voice study. Though this webinar was a shorter format, several recurrent themes emerged. Soil was rarely imagined as depth. Most images stayed near the surface. Many reflected functional views, soil as food source, soil as structure, soil as workspace, but less as story, memory, or being. The aesthetic and emotional potentials of soil, however, were deeply present, even if subtly.
Importantly, the webinar revealed that perceptions of soil are not geographically bound. What one sees in soil is not dictated by latitude, but by relation, the relation between the observer and the ground they stand on.
Beyond the method
This wasn’t a session about correct answers. It was a session about seeing. About slowing down. About welcoming multiplicity.
The images and reflections shared during “(Re)Connect to Soil” now form part of a growing archive, a living dialogue about how we relate to soil through art, science, and personal narrative. Like a patchwork quilt, each piece tells a story, and together they offer warmth, contradiction, and insight.
SOILSCAPE reminds us: the way we see soil shapes the way we treat it. Sometimes, all it takes is a photograph to start a new conversation.
For future events and research findings, visit our social media channels(Facebook, Instagram, X, Bluesky, Youtube ,LinkedIn) or the SOILSCAPE website. To explore more about Photo Voice and soil perception, stay tuned to upcoming SOILSCAPE releases.