PHOTOGRAPHER Carol Ballenger is staging a special exhibition celebrating her 25-year collaboration with poet John Powls.

The free event will also mark the release of the new enlarged and updated version of Carol and John’s book ‘Dartmoor Dreams,’ full of black and white images and poems.

Dartington-based Carol is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a founder member of Arts Live which promotes exhibitions, performances and workshops, often combining photography, music and poetry.

Inspired by nature, Carol’s work is held in collections both in the UK and abroad, and she has exhibited widely including for the National Trust, The Royal Photographic Society and the Edinburgh Festival.

John is an established writer and landscape poet with a considerable body of published and exhibited work. His poetry is influenced by the romantic tradition and Dartmoor, seascapes and his native North East of England.

Carol’s early photographs, scanned from original darkroom prints, and recent digital photographs, are presented in the exhibitions as fine art prints, together with John’s poems.

Photographer and poet respond to Dartmoor’s ancient woodlands, granite, weather, moonlight, standing stones, rivers, snow and ice. And being a true collaboration, the exhibitions are also about their responses to each other’s work.

Over the years Carol Ballenger and John Powls have worked together on various projects including Dartington Hall Gardens, Japanese gardens, urban landscapes and the iconic Route 66.

Dartmoor Dreams - Early Work is running at until September 1 at the Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre, Princetown.

Rebecca Martin, Dartmoor National Park Authority’s visitor services manager, said: “We’re thrilled to hold this two-part exhibition and we hope visitors are inspired to visit both.

“We’re proud to promote Dartmoor’s beauty and help improve understanding of its special qualities; art is a fantastic way of doing this.”

For more information about John, Carol and their Arts Live colleagues visit www.artslive.org.uk