LEAVES No. 6 — art, health & the living world

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh focus • Flow Country • Shetland • Arran

Edinburgh, 28 October 2025 — Studies in Photography announces Leaves No. 6, a richly illustrated journal exploring the vital connections between art, health, nature, and climate, with a major focus on the work of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) and allied environmental projects across Scotland and beyond.

What’s inside (highlights)

• RBGE spotlight: features on plant exploration from Northern Vietnam to SW Scotland; the Scottish Plant Recovery Programme; the Herbarium as a living scientific archive; and Anna Atkins cyanotypes within RBGE’s collection.
• Land & seascapes: new writing and photography on the Flow Country and Shetland, and community-led projects on the Island of Arran.
• PhotoDalkeith: coverage of the festival at Dalkeith Palace, a historic landscape with trees up to 900 years old and designated SSSI.

Contributors & features (selection)

• Editorial — Sara Stevenson (on RBGE’s global conservation role and public impact).
• Plant Exploration from Northern Vietnam to SW Scotland — Richard A. Baines.
• The urgent need to prevent extinction of Scotland’s plants — Dr Aline Finger.
• Robert Moyes Adam — Pete Moore (with historic photographs, including Glen Affric, 1929).
• O’erhung wi’ fragrant spreading shaws: the lichens of Dawyck — Dr Rebecca Yahr.
• Stories from the Archives: The Battle of Glen Tilt — Leonie Paterson.
• Additional essays include Flow Country (e’ Flou) (Paul Stewart), Six Thousand Years of Sunlight Poem (George Gunn), Homage to Saint Veronica (Brian Richards), What brought you here? (Colin Fraser), Orwell’s Garden (Paulina Saran & Hans K Clausen), Saving the Arran Whitebeam (Maggie Carson), Finding Britain’s Rarest Hardwood (Catriona McKay), Shetland Plastic Pollution (Michael Peterson), reviews and more.

Cover & key images

• Front cover: In Memoriam, Jennifer Gough-Cooper (pigment print on True Rag Etching paper, 20×20 cm, ed. 5).
• Back cover: A view in Glen Affric, 10 April 1929, R.M. Adam (RMA-H2054). Courtesy University of St Andrews Library & DC Thomson.
• Inside: new work from Alexander Hamilton (Pishwanton 3, unique cyanotype, 1 m × 2.5 m).

Editorial & production credits

Editor: Sara Stevenson • Co-Editor: Maggie Carson • Publisher/Co-Editor: Alexander Hamilton • Assistant to the Editor & Publisher: Paula Saran • Design: Ian McIlroy • Copy Editor: Robin Connelly.

About Leaves

Leaves is published by Studies in Photography, the trading name of the Scottish Society for the History of Photography (SSHoP), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC033988). ISSN 1462-0510. © 2025 the authors.