In the work of Nicola Davison Reed, art is not an ornament but a necessity. Each image carries traces of lived experience: the hunger of beginnings, the solace of making, the persistence of vision in the face of doubt or loss. Rooted in the everyday — battered cameras, secondhand fabrics, light falling across a teacup — her practice insists that art belongs not to exclusivity but to accessibility, to resilience, and to connection. What emerges is an approach to creativity that is instinctive, unguarded, and defiantly human.

✧✧✧

Do you believe an artist's passion is something destined or a conscious choice? 

You can have passion for anything, my husband was a joiner and I fell in love with him for the way he hung a door, the passion and the dedication to making a door hang was picasso-esque to me, we know passion its not exclusive to the art field, the question more is about how liberated are we within our passion; with our choice making, that answer is where the art may sit, hide, be revealed, be found or be lost.

What do you think is the most meaningful role an artist plays in society today? 

To comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable.

How important is it for viewers to understand the intended message of your work? Does ambiguity add value, or do you seek clarity in your expression?

There is a Shaolin Master story of a one such master taking her young student to watch the sun rise and as it rose and the student exclaimed " wow look at that sunrise' the master disciplined her, the reason she did so was because the master explained that words diminished the experience as to truly feel one must look and seek your own truth and not exclaim what you see and feel to others, but feel it for yourself and experience it, this is how i see looking at art and listening to music - share the art and music show people the way to it but allow others to have their own experience - one thing I learned when studying poetry ‘ too much analysis causes paralysis’.

If you could communicate just one core message through your entire body of work, what would it be?

We are not Alone, we are All One - we are all part of the same thing.

How do you measure the impact of your work—by its reception, its personal meaning, or something else? 

I simply do not-  over the years I have had many critics through social media, from that’s great to that’s not - I have learnt to take praise and criticism with equal measure. This way really keeps me grounded, and I am simply doing what I do and will always do, no matter what.

In a world flooded with imagery, what responsibility do artists have to stand out and say something authentic? 

In a world, an artist does not have the responsibility to say something authentic. That’s the job of the government..sadly as we know that does not happen, what artists do is respond, without art, music, literature and people’s voices we have nothing - we all have have to say something and we all have something to say even if it’s a whisper - “ listen to the dull and the ignorant they too have their story” - Desiderata.

Can you take us through the evolution of an artwork, from that first spark of inspiration to the finished piece?

I will attempt to by choosing one piece that people seem to resonate with - it’s called T_ime - arriving at the studio, it’s the end of a very cold winter where the old glass in my studio freezes on both sides - so I am feeling released and I can open my sash windows again. I sit at my desk and listen to the kettle - as the pc warms up, I look to the window and the warm breeze is particularly welcoming and beautiful this day. My small old second desk is nearby, I move it to the window so it catches the breeze. Whilst the tea is brewing, I move my tea cup onto the desk - I type my password into the iMac. 

 

I look back at the table with my white tea cup and saucer and think, oh my, I love that, so I take my cameras, which are next to my desk and photograph with my Canon, then my Fuji, then my iPhone and my film Praktica. I process, but no edits, all straight out of the camera. I feel content. I take my cup and saucer and make my tea. 

Do you feel that a personal connection to your subject matter is essential? How has this connection shaped your work?

With my portrait photography I always feel a personal connection  - all my clients have remarked how comfortable they feel in front of my camera - I think because I appreciate what it feels like to feel awkward or nervous I like to thing my camera and I build a bridge for myself and my sitter to meet across - we meet in the middle - it’s like every hood healthy relationship or marriage you have to each give a little to make a lot - trust and respect is a two way street but myself as the photographer has to initiate that greeting I have to give to my sitter - I have fallen I love Uber and over and over again with my portrait sitters. With my street portraits, I am always heart-warmed, inspired and amazed by how freely people connect with my camera and these connections are never taken for granted.

How do you feel social media is shaping the way art is created, consumed, and valued today?

Personally, 14 years ago, when G+ evolved, I was very grateful to the photography circles that invited the most interesting perspectives of life through photography- I live in a small town in the midlands, so to have this access to incredible photographers' advice, perspective and viewpoints and work was absolutely wonderful. There is always a negative to a positive of course and 13 years later this consumption and availability is on another level - it’s fast it’s furious and there is awhile lot of elbowing this much I do know - there is a lot of judgement from other photographers about what one should make what one should or shouldn’t do or use or create - the gatekeepers have arrived - if one doesn’t create the way they feel and do it their way then you are not allowed in - I think there is a lot of BS and I’m sorry I adore men but it’s mainly men with the cameras and the big elbows -  fortunately my socials stay well away and I’m lucky to relate with only really great photographers - greta in the sense not juts the work but their approach and respect.

Do you believe the ‘mad artist’ stereotype still holds weight, or is creativity more grounded than we think?

Well, I can say this much - if I had a pound for every eye roll for every ‘crazy’ reference pertaining to myself, then I would be wealthy in financial terms. It is a bore - off - it makes me yawn - and on a deeper level it hurts that people think that what you do that feels so close to your heart is laughable or not worth listening to or reading or looking at because you are simply ‘mad’; ‘crazy: lonely or arty farty and seeking attention and what you do it’s not proper and it’s not hard work, it’s what anyone could do it and maybe do some real work  “ - I have overheard people say how is that worth £ it’s just a click of a camera - like there is zero thought or process or feeling - that is what makes the artist path a lonely one in a small town and why I’m grateful to social media because I find artists who sing from the same song sheet and that brings great comfort - I consider myself very grounded and this is why I can do what I do because I do not fear letting go.

Under what circumstances do you think art risks becoming pretentious?

I have never enjoyed the word pretentious - it makes me question the person using the word - I put it in the same category as the word ugly - not really a word but a slur. I understand that the artists who taped a banana and sold it for silly money may attract that word, But I also believe art can be playful and even poke fun at itself—sometimes that’s part of its charm and commentary.  I do think silly money, although when raised from such art, should be distributed to charity, not somebody already minted.

Can art be truly therapeutic? Have you experienced its healing power personally, or seen it impact others?

Of course - around the time I took up photography ‘seriously ‘ I had got to my three months pregnant with my third child - unfortunately it was not meant to be and through days and nights of sitting on the doorstep -with this dreadful feeling of lost maternal bond and this searching instinct to mother a child that had gone, I picked up my camera and photographed very dull and mundane domestic objects -this was very therapeutic for me - it soothed me - and I continued daily without fail and seemed to get fired up the more I looked through the viewfinder - that little box was healing me at a time when I couldn’t really vocalise my darkest and deepest emotions.  I look back at this unseen series now and understand that broken heart and hear those echoes of maternal grief  - life does that break us and makes us - with photography we can choose to use the camera as a therapeutic tool - maybe I have never stopped doing so and that’s ok.

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly infiltrating creative fields. Do you see artificial intelligence as a threat, a tool, or a collaborator in the art world? 

I see AI as a bandwagon -  like masking, skin re-touching, filters, it's fake, it's false, people can use it, it will get so very tired and to scrape other artists' hard graft, I think there lies the crime.. lazy. 

How do you respond to debates about the accessibility of art—should it be exclusive, or is it for everyone?

This is how I see it - art is free - meaning the birth of the art requires zero money - I had nothing but a battered old camera and a shed load of hunger they say poverty creates ambition - always work like you have your last fiver in your pocket  - I would like to convey to every child born into poverty where the choices appear minimal and desperate - art creates choice once you make the choice for art - I wish every child access to one camera one canvas one song

 

 I made work from my dining room for free to school mums. Then I charged a fiver, a tenner, then fifty and so on and then my studio I found because it was above a shop and cheap and the landlady who happens to be a fine art printer has not changed my rent in 13 years and I am so grateful to them for that - everything in my studio is from a charity shop my backdrops cut up sheets and builders sheets that I dyed - I stood before the local council to explain why I deserve a half funded second camera and they somehow agreed so then I had two cameras the first I sold my old car for and that camera was also secondhand. 

 

My Fuji was on my wish list for years, and then a neighbour happened to say he didn’t want this camera he had bought, so he allowed me to pay for it incrementally - so then I had two Canons and my Fuji and my old film camera, the Praktica - but the actual one I started with at 18 in my bedsit but similar. 

 

My point being - art is accessible and creates choice - shall I point my camera here, shall I make colour, shall I do a portrait, can I make street ?? So many choices within the constraints of thinking you have nothing - art creates something, and that’s what matters.

List five moments or achievements in your career that fill you with gratitude.

✧ The social media photographers that have supported me over the years, I have kept a note of them all 

 

✧ Having a feature in my favourite monthly magazine, Black & White  Photography magazine 

 

✧ Shortlisted for a few prestigious awards such as British Journal of Photography; Black and White Photography awards, Commend d’ image for Sony World photography awards and my street portrait project, The comfort of strangers, being published by PPA - Professional Photographers of America 

 

✧ The clients that come to my studio, who keep my rent being paid and how they sit for their portraits.  I must have photographed hundreds and I live each and every one of them and their dogs and hamsters, too, no less 

 

✧ Every day I climb the old stairs to my old studio I am grateful that somehow someway I have managed to keep it going for 14 years and it’s been a struggle but I’m grateful i still get open my sash windows and allow in the summer breeze and even grateful when I am tapping away at the keyboard in the depths of winter with my fingerless gloves on.

If you had the chance to sit down with any creative mind from history, who would it be, and what would you ask?

Francesca Woodman or Vivian Maier, so let’s say Vivian Maier 

 

✧ Did you have a favourite area to photograph that you returned to 

 

✧ Did you feel any fear when making your first street photographs? 

 

✧ Did you ever take a lover? 

 

✧ The man in the suit, asleep in his car, did you fear he would wake up and you would startle him when you clicked?

 

✧ What is your opinion of John Maloof?

 

✧ Are you happy with how your work has been edited? 

 

✧ How are you so utterly brilliant?

If you were appointed as President for a day, what initiative would you launch to support arts and culture?

Art and music back into the primary and secondary school system 

 

Every class has musical Instruments that can be borrowed to take home - every day has one art class consistently 

 

Every town has a funded art gallery, not just cities - the villages have travelling art gallery/music buses to visit them.

How do you envision the evolution of your work in the coming years?

I would really like to document somebody’s story that needs telling - I really enjoy listening to people's life stories and I love street photography and portraits, so somehow I would like to amalgamate these to present someone’s story that they would like telling.

Have you considered teaching your artistic skills to others? What excites or challenges you about that?

I considered it and I did it - not for me, although the students said they enjoyed it - teaching photography is something I struggle with as I’m what they deem an instinctive photographer and very technically dyslexic- I have no rules, zero methods, and so this is very hard to translate to twenty sets of eyes waiting for you discuss and explain the exposure triangle.

Can you imagine ever choosing to stop creating art? What might lead you to such a decision?

No - blindness.. but then I have discovered blind photographers, so maybe I would t be stopped then either.

✦ ✦ ✦

Through reflections that range from the intimacy of grief to the absurdities of the art market, Nicola Davison Reed reveals a belief that art’s strength lies not in grandeur but in honesty. A practice sustained by resourcefulness, trust, and unshakable conviction becomes a reminder that expression is both survival and gift. In every frame, the message is quiet yet resolute: art creates choice, art creates connection, and art, above all, creates meaning.