Victoria Woolley
Victoria Woolley (née Hillman) is an Old Wellansian, studying for both GSCEs and A-Levels at Wells Cathedral school before going on to study Zoology with Marine Zoology at Bangor University in Wales and then an MSc in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at Edinburgh Napier University. Nature has been a passion from an early age with photography following closely behind as a way to show people what she was seeing and studying. Over the years she has developed her scientific and photographic skills specialising in macro photography championing the smaller species we have around us and the importance of ethical photography and practises.
Victoria has been a judge for BWPA, BPOTY and is currently on the judging team for WildArtPOTY, she has contributed stills, video and articles to magazines, books and TV series including National Geographic and The BBC. Victoria also co-hosts the UK Wildlife Podcast with good friend Neil Philips, covering news, issues, our UK species in more details and interviewing guests from producers and presenters of BBC natural History Programmes to specialists in their fields.
Victoria published her first book Forgotten Little Creatures in 2017 from her project of the same name celebrating local wildlife through bringing together photography with scientific and historical facts and is now continuing the project and working on future books. This is a project celebrating plants, invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles through art, photography, science, history and folklore, bringing everything together to show not only the beauty but importance of these species. It is also about working with other people, communities, organisations and charities to help raise funds for and awareness of their work both home and abroad and encourage people to create spaces and corridors for wildlife.
Following injury and surgery, Victoria now focuses more on her art, coloured pencil drawings and wool sculptures, raising awareness and funds through the sales of these pieces and now works in conjunction with organisations across the world highlighting a wide selection of different species.
At the heart of everything, her inspiration remains the natural world and working on ways to help reconnect people with the nature and wildlife they have around them with influences from other artists, conservationists and naturalists.