Lee Karen Stow

Documentary photographer and photographic artist based in England, UK. Since 2007 when I met women in Sierra Leone displaced by a decade of civil war, I have devoted my photographic practice to recording the personal narratives of women of war, conflict and genocide. Along the way I photographed the red common cornflower poppy (Papaver rhoeas) as a personal response to forgotten women of war. This body of work is inspired by two forgotten women of war: American volunteer war worker Moïna Belle Michael who, in November 1918, conceived the red poppy of the In Flanders Fields war poem as a symbol of remembrance; and French war worker Madame Anna Guérin who introduced the poppy remembrance symbol to Britain in 1921. Here is a small selection of works from my touring exhibition Poppies: Women, War, Peace which combines a portrait series of women whose lives have been affected by war with a botanical series of the red poppy in its natural environment.

Awarded Honorary Degree (D Litt) by the University of Hull, UK for photojournalism. Completing Masters by Research in Journalism at the School of Journalism, University of Lincoln, UK.

Poppies: Women, War, Peace currently on show at The Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Georgia.

UN Headquarters New York; Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, US; University of Georgia, US; International Slavery Museum, Liverpool; University of Cambridge; Royal Commonwealth Society, London; Horniman Museum, London; The Senedd: Welsh National Assembly; Museum of Liverpool; York Army Museum; University of Hull, The Ferens, Hull. Recent installation TORN appeared at Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Two images in the New Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge.