“Are You Next To An Angel” by Honey J Walker | Awards Collective GalleryTalk
The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions. Honey J Walker’s image The Dance of the Waterlillies received the Directors’ Award in the botanical exhibition juried by Lee Ann White. Honey’s exhibition Are You Next To An Angel is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
One never knows when something seemingly small and inconsequential can be a pivotal moment in one’s life.
Four years ago I was sitting in my car listening to 5 Live Radio, a segment with Naga Munchetty about a small charity called The Marylebone Project For Homeless Women And Those Facing Crisis. My husband and I were in the process of selling our family business and we had decided to give some of the proceeds to a charity. My husband wanted to focus on homelessness and I wanted to focus on women in crisis. We both agreed it needed to be a charity where we could see a direct impact. Call it serendipity but that interview changed my life.
Today I am the Ambassador for the Marylebone Project Charity, a role I am immensely honoured to hold. The charity provides life changing services for women facing homelessness and or extreme crisis. It is the largest and longest running centre of its kind in the UK. The centre has 112 beds on the Marylebone Road and also has the Sanctuary, the only 24/7, 365 days of the year drop in centre for women in the UK. My role is to raise awareness of the charity, the work it does and to raise funds and services for the charity. We need to raise £1.3 million per year just to keep the Sanctuary doors open.
All charities operate in a very overcrowded space. The ability to stand out and gain recognition and donations is increasingly difficult. Additionally, the public is much more receptive and empathetic to situations that they have either experienced or feel they might experience. Women and homelessness, domestic violence, abuse and trafficking are not on most people’s radar.
Yet reported abuse and violence against women has risen by 40% in the last 5 years and that is only what is reported. London has become one of the primary centres for trafficking, especially of women, who invariably end up being prostituted.
My first task within the charity was to redo their corporate sponsorship brochure. Their current one was very dry and text heavy. I had never designed a brochure for a charity, but I knew the importance of immediate impact and creatively standing out in a crowded market. It was a steep learning curve. I approached it by first spending 3 days at the charity and meeting some of the current residents. Listening to their life stories. Their stories were truly harrowing but the shining light was the strength, safety and dignity that living at the charity had given them. Having completed the brochure, the first corporate recipient doubled their original pledge.
Fast forward to Christmas 2023 and the charity’s staff party. I made a speech to the staff about how important they were and the work they were doing. In essence they were all Angels.
Several of the staff approached me afterwards to say how their roles had never been spoken about in those terms before and how it had made them feel very proud. It was a lightbulb moment. I decided to pitch a photographic project to the charity, which required taking the charity staff out onto the streets, wearing enormous angel wings, which I just happened to already own.
The idea was to:
…Recognise the staff and to shine a light on all the care givers in society, who are largely underappreciated and go unnoticed.
…To elevate awareness about the work of the Marylebone Project.
…To raise much needed funds for the charity.
I now realise the easy part was coming up with the concept!
There were several challenges, firstly the charity had to sign off on the idea.
Secondly, having pitched the idea I needed to find a central London gallery that would host the images for free! Unbelievably, Yield Gallery in Eastcastle street, W1, embraced the idea and refused to take any commission. They gave me the most incredible space for 10 days at the end of November 2024. Perfect timing for an Angel themed event. This is a gallery that normally sells everything from Banksy to Richard Hambleton so I felt suitably in awe and frankly terrified. I now had the responsibility of not only representing the charity and the staff in a good light but also creating images that were worthy of such a prestigious gallery.
My normal photographic and creative practice is very different to what I envisaged for this project. I create using multiple exposure a bit of ICM, mixed media, gold leaf, collage, whatever interests me at the time. I always say my images find me, my subconscious finding oxygen. There is no conscious planning, I simply play. Colour is always an integral part of my images. However much I try to restrict my colour pallet colours seem to explode out all over the place.
ARE YOU NEXT TO AN ANGEL? was going to be completely different:
…Black and white
…Street photography
…Inexperienced, self-conscious models.
…Public reaction.
…The weather, it rained a lot!
…Dodging security, it is difficult to photograph anywhere with giant angel wings and not get picked up on a security camera.
…Very limited shooting time per model as they were being given a total of one hour paid time from work, including the travel time to locations.
…The models had to wear giant wings and look totally comfortable in them.
The project took nine months to shoot but what became apparent from day one was that the public really were blind to the angels in their midst. Almost without exception, people did not notice the angel next to them on the tube, or in a café. As the photographer I was further back from my subject so I could see people’s eye line. Literally nobody noticed.
At a time in history where we are more digitally connected globally, through our smart devices, we are also more polarised and more isolated from each other. By constantly looking down at a screen we are becoming more insular and self-absorbed.
I shot the whole project with my trusty Canon R5 and a 24-105 Canon lens. I absolutely hate Photoshop, any editing I do is in Procreate which feels more intuitive to me. As much as possible I like to capture everything in camera.
A decision I made early on was that I needed a second pair of eyes, someone with a wealth of black and white, documentary experience. I am a huge fan of Paul Sanders and with his previous position being head of the Picture Desk for News International, he appeared to be perfect for the task. Paul’s input was invaluable. He made me raise my game. When you greatly admire someone, you strive to produce work that is worthy of their time. Just the pressure of knowing I had to show a body of work to Paul made me really judge the images. I would do an initial, drastic cull. At that point I would present to Paul. My instincts were good and we pretty much agreed on the next culling. There was one image that we disagreed on, I felt very strongly about. It is really important to fight for your own work and also be open to objective criticism. Ultimately art is always subjective, but that particular image was one I was very connected too and I just knew it worked.
Additionally, the images had to work both cohesively as a body of work and individually. The amount of wall space, size of framed prints, pricing, all had to be carefully considered. To raise the maximum for the charity I had self-funded the printing and framing. 100% of the sales price went directly to the charity.
There was also the PR, social media, opening party and invitation list to decide on.
The social media and PR part was excruciating!
Pointless having an exhibition that no one knows about or comes too!
I had set myself a target of raising £12,000 as this is what it had cost to print and frame the images, host the party etc. Any less than that and I might as well have written a cheque to the charity a year before and sat on a beach. We raised £43,500 with additional promises of services and potential grant funding.
I was interviewed by Naga Munchetty which gave me the opportunity to thank her for being a catalyst in my journey and felt like completing a circle. My 5 Live interview has also brought new sponsors to the charity with offers of help and has further promoted knowledge of the services and help the charity so badly requires. I always say, “you drop a pebble and you never know where the rings will reach”.
I have been supported in this whole endeavour by incredible friends and wonderful companies offering to discount their services or offer them for free. Along the way I have met some truly generous Angels. The experience has been a complete privilege.
Honey J Walker
August, 2025
Bio
An international award-winning photographer who initially had a successful career in fashion and interior design. Her interest in photography started with candid portraiture with a deeply personal nature. She was always interested in the human within the exterior shell, the story that was not immediately obvious to the casual observer.
Her images have become increasingly multi layered both in camera and as part of a mixed media process. She is always experimenting and pushing her own learning and creativity through experimentation.
“Within my photographs there exists a converging of two scales; the physical world, things in themselves as they are and the interior world, lying hidden in all things.
A synchronism of the internal and the everyday.
My interior world is expressed externally through my lens, the layering of images that find me, that reveal themselves as I work.
My subconscious finding oxygen”
Her role as Ambassador for the Marylebone Project Charity For Homeless Women And those Facing Crisis has further influenced her exploration of a woman’s position in society and the female gaze.
Walker has been exhibited internationally and her limited edition prints are held is various international, private collections. She is represented in the UK by Yield Gallery and is the recipient of several prestigious awards including, Abstract International Garden Photographer Of the Year 2024, LACP 3rd prize Street Photography, Global Photography Awards, Silver winner.
website: honeyjwalker.com
instagram: @honeyjwalkerphotography