Yan Wang Preston
Image courtesy of Jules Lister.
Dr Yan Wang Preston is a multi-award-winning visual artist and photographer who is passionate about the natural world and our positions within it.
She has completed many challenging projects, including photographing the entire 6,211km Yangtze River in China at 100m intervals for Mother River (2010–2014), and walking to and photographing the same heart-shaped rhododendron bush on the South Pennine Moors every other day over an entire year for With Love. From an Invader. (2020–2021).
Yan Wang Preston has developed three distinct bodies of work each interpreting her surroundings in the gardens through an original perspective.
The Perfect Flower
All in One. From The Perfect Flower series, 2025 ©Yan Wang Preston
The Perfect Flower asks: What is a perfect flower? How do we go about getting them? Why such an impulse? Throughout 2025, Yan followed RHS Bridgewater’s spectacular Hydrangea paniculata trial in order to answer these questions. She observed the tender care of the RHS trials team, shadowed the judging panel, overheard visitors’ marvels and chased the origins of these flowers. The outcome is a multimedia exhibition tailored for the Potting Sheds at RHS Bridgewater. From tracing the very first hydrangea specimen to reach this country, to a dazzling film projection of their perpetual flowers and a series of playful portraits with dried flower heads, the exhibition shares Yan’s fascination towards the hydrangeas, while inviting viewers to reflect on their own search for the perfect flower
Images courtesy of Jules Lister
Goose Poo and Rainbow
Brick and ball. From Goose Poo and Rainbow series, 2025. ©Yan Wang Preston
Goose Poo and Rainbow is inspired by Yan’s time in Middle Wood. The project name references a meeting with one of RHS Bridgewater’s volunteers. One day Margaret arrived to lead a Tai Chi class at the garden, only to find the lawn carpeted with Canada goose poo. After a frantic clean-up, she invited the group to inhale and imagine a fine drizzle, just as rain began to fall. She then joked about picturing a rainbow, and one appeared.
Rooted in the historical Middle Wood, the garden holds memory, magic and mischief. These photographs capture objects found in Middle Wood, staged to echo a history as rich as a rainbow and as unruly as the geese.
Images courtesy of Jules Lister
Memory Keepers
Lily’s Gift – A leaf wrap with sweet chestnuts, 2025 ©Yan Wang Preston
Memory Keepers comprises a combination of photographic practice and memory gathering in response to the oldest tree at RHS Bridgewater. This magnificent sweet chestnut tree, estimated to be 300 years old, stands near the historic site of Worsley New Hall. If trees are memory keepers, what might this tree recollect from the past three centuries?
Hear Yan talk about her experience so far here:
Yan’s projects are internationally and critically acclaimed. She was the recipient of the inaugural RPS Award for Environmental Responsibility in 2023. She won 1st Prize in Professional Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards (2019); 1st Prize in Professional Commission, Syngenta Photography Prize (2017); and the Shiseido Photographer Prize at the Three Shadows Photography Annual Award in Beijing, China (2016). She was one of the Hundred Heroines awarded by the Royal Photographic Society in 2018. View the artist’s website here.