Launch of Reading Gardens leading up to publication/sharing live of the blog post of inaugural article with Advolly on 24 Sep 2026 when the GMG shares a smaller version of the article through the Autumn Magazine. ​ 21 Aug 2026: Dan, the GMG editor advised he is happy for me to publish on my website my full version article and run a 3-week lead up campaign on Instagram. Dan said "You are welcome for your blog post article to go live the day the mag comes out (24 Sept). And I’m fine with you doing your 3-week lead-up promo at the beginning of September. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ It should be: There is a new photographic research project called Reading Gardens. ​Reading Gardens asks what happens when we observe how expertise changes the way a garden is experienced. And then, gradually: What is Reading Gardens? Why am I doing it? What am I observing? How does the method work? Who was the first study with? Reading Gardens — Reading Rousham with Advolly Richmond. Why Rousham? What did I learn from observing Advolly? Where can people read the full study? And then: The inaugural study, Reading Rousham with Advolly Richmond, will be published in the Garden Media Guild's Autumn issue. That becomes a lovely piece of external validation — not the story itself. And I think your blog is crucial This is where I'd make a deliberate distinction between Instagram content and the website article. Your website article can contain the complete intellectual argument and observational narrative. Instagram should not simply reproduce paragraphs from it. Instead, Instagram can take individual ideas from the project and make them visually and intellectually intriguing. For example: Observation Movement Attention Touch Pause Expertise Interpretation Reflection Those are essentially the vocabulary of Reading Gardens. And because you have such strong photographs from Rousham, we can let the images do a considerable amount of the work. I actually think we have two audiences to consider Garden people will initially see: Rousham. Advolly Richmond. Garden expertise. Garden photography. But the people we really want to capture are those who think: Oh. This isn't actually a garden photography project in the conventional sense. That second reaction is the gold. ​ Because Reading Gardens is ultimately about ways of seeing. And that gives us an extraordinarily good Instagram proposition. 1 Sep: Instagram first post teaser: Reading Gardens A new photographic research project Exploring how expertise shapes the way we experience gardens & other green spaces Not simply photographing the garden Not simply photographing the person But observing how they read a garden More soon. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​And there is a lovely little thing happening here that I don't think we should underestimate: The photograph says it before the caption does. We see someone looking at something. Then we read: But observing how they see. That makes the viewer go back to the photograph and look again. That's exactly the behaviour I want the first Reading Gardens post to provoke. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Another Instagram Post Proposal ​ What you've articulated about the experience is actually quite beautiful and gives people a much clearer sense of what Reading Gardens is. Instagram could be used to let people glimpse the philosophy, rather than explain the mechanics. I would particularly use this idea: It is much more like spending time in a garden together than taking part in a conventional photographic session. That is distinctive. I would make it a simple text-led post Something like: What does a Reading Gardens study actually feel like? Slow. Quiet. Considered. I work with one camera and one lens. The camera is only briefly raised to my face; much of the time I am simply observing. There may be occasional conversation, as there would be when two people are walking through a garden together. No posing. No directing. No repeating actions. Just time in a garden, allowing attention, movement and engagement with place to reveal themselves naturally. It is much more like spending time in a garden together than taking part in a conventional photographic session. Reading Gardens — Landscape Observational Studies'. I think that would be a very good Instagram post. A Reading Gardens study isn't necessarily an uninterrupted hour of photography. At Rousham, midway through my time with Advolly, we stopped. We sat immersed in the landscape. I made a fresh cup of Earl Grey loose-leaf tea, brought along some lemon cake, and we simply talked. Then, when the time felt right, we continued. I love these pauses. They aren't planned into a formula, and they aren't really about photography. They're about creating space to slow down, enjoy the garden and say thank you for someone giving their time and sharing their expertise. Perhaps that is part of what Reading Gardens is becoming for me: not simply a way of photographing how people experience gardens, but a way of spending meaningful time in gardens together. ​Reading Gardens investigates horticultural expertise through analogue photography, observation and writing. I'm interested in how gardeners experience landscapes, and how observation can reveal forms of knowledge that are difficult to express in words alone. ​ I also think it would be worthwhile creating 3–5 foundational posts that remain near the top of your grid. They don't all have to be posted at once, but together they can introduce new visitors to your practice: What is Reading Gardens? (your research question and methodology) Why analogue photography? (why film matters to your work) Why observation before interview? (your methodological approach) About Gina Dover-Jaques (your background and interests) Selected work (for example, a photograph from your Advolly project with a reflection on what it taught you) These aren't promotional posts—they're context. If someone like Claire at Great Dixter or an editor from The English Garden visits your profile after receiving an email, they won't just see attractive photographs. They'll quickly understand that they're looking at the work of someone pursuing a coherent, research-led practice. That's a much stronger impression than a feed that consists only of finished images with descriptive captions. It shows that your photography is driven by enquiry, and that is one of the qualities that distinguishes Reading Gardens. ​ ​ ​ Another Instagram Post Proposal ​ What you've articulated about the experience is actually quite beautiful and gives people a much clearer sense of what Reading Gardens is. Instagram could be used to let people glimpse the philosophy, rather than explain the mechanics. I would particularly use this idea: It is much more like spending time in a garden together than taking part in a conventional photographic session. That is distinctive. ​ I would make it a simple text-led post Something like: What does a Reading Gardens study actually feel like? Slow. Quiet. Considered. ​ I work with one camera and one lens. The camera is only briefly raised to my face; much of the time I am simply observing. ​ There may be occasional conversation, as there would be when two people are walking through a garden together. ​ No posing. No directing. No repeating actions. ​ Just time in a garden, allowing attention, movement and engagement with place to reveal themselves naturally. ​ It is much more like spending time in a garden together than taking part in a conventional photographic session. ​ Reading Gardens — Landscape Observational Studies'. ​ I think that would be a very good Instagram post. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A Reading Gardens study isn't necessarily an uninterrupted hour of photography. At Rousham, midway through my time with Advolly, we stopped. We sat immersed in the landscape. I made a fresh cup of Earl Grey loose-leaf tea, brought along some lemon cake, and we simply talked. ​ Then, when the time felt right, we continued. I love these pauses. They aren't planned into a formula, and they aren't really about photography. They're about creating space to slow down, enjoy the garden and say thank you for someone giving their time and sharing their expertise. ​ Perhaps that is part of what Reading Gardens is becoming for me: not simply a way of photographing how people experience gardens, but a way of spending meaningful time in gardens together. ​​​​​ ​ Week 1 — introduce Reading Gardens Don't tag Advolly. This first post is about you and the project, not yet about Advolly. You want people to understand: Reading Gardens is a new photographic research project exploring how expertise shapes the way we experience gardens & other green spaces. That establishes the project as something with its own identity, rather than making it appear to be a project built around a particular garden historian. You could, however, mention that the first observational study took place at Rousham without tagging her. ​ Week 2 — introduce the methodology / observational study Still probably don't tag Advolly. This is where you can begin revealing how Reading Gardens works — observation, movement, attention, engagement, analogue photography, etc. You might show one of the Rousham images, but again I'd resist tagging her if the post is fundamentally about your methodology. This is important because you're building curiosity rather than immediately asking Advolly's audience to look at you. ​ Week 3 — reveal the Rousham study Yes — tag Advolly. This is the point at which I think the tag becomes genuinely valuable. Something along the lines of: The first Reading Gardens observational study was made at Rousham with garden historian Advolly Richmond. Then tag @advollyrichmond. This gives Advolly a very natural reason to engage with the post or repost it, because you're no longer simply introducing your project — you're explicitly revealing the collaboration she was part of. And then, after the GMG Quarterly is published on 24 September, your full Rousham article can go live on Reading Gardens, with the Instagram post directing people to it. ​ The important distinction I wouldn't think of tagging Advolly as merely a way of getting her followers to see your posts. I'd think of it as a narrative device: Week 1: What is Reading Gardens? ↓ Week 2: How does it work? ↓ Week 3: Who was the first study with? ↓ 24 September: Read the full study. That progression is much more compelling. And there's another reason I'd hold back. You want Advolly to encounter Reading Gardens as a coherent photographic research project in its own right. By the time you tag her, she isn't being introduced as the person who makes the project interesting; she's being revealed as the first subject/collaborator within a project that already has a clear intellectual and visual identity. So my recommendation would be: Week 1: No tag Week 2: No tag Week 3: Tag Advolly 24 Sept / publication: Tag Advolly again when the full Rousham study is announced I'd also avoid tagging her in the actual photograph itself during the first two weeks. If she is tagged, it should be because the content is specifically about her/collaboration, rather than simply because she appears in an image. That feels much more aligned with the quiet, considered way you've been positioning Reading Gardens. what about tagging the garden media guild Yes — I would tag the Garden Media Guild, but differently from Advolly. In fact, I think GMG can be tagged earlier in the campaign, because the forthcoming publication is part of the story you're building toward. ​ I’d structure the tagging like this Post Advolly Garden Media Guild Week 1 — Introducing Reading Gardens❌ No❌ No Week 2 — The methodology / how you observe❌ No❌ No Week 3 — Rousham / Advolly revealed✅ Yes✅ Yes 24 Sept — GMG publication / full study live✅ Yes✅ Yes ​ The reason I wouldn't tag GMG in Weeks 1 or 2 is similar to the reason I wouldn't tag Advolly: you don't want the campaign to feel like you're leveraging other people's audiences before you've established what Reading Gardens actually is. ​ But there's an important distinction with GMG On the Week 3 post, the GMG tag has a particularly useful function because you're now able to say, in effect: This is the first Reading Gardens study, made with Advolly Richmond at Rousham — and it is about to be published in the Garden Media Guild's Autumn Quarterly. That creates a very neat three-way connection: Reading Gardens → Advolly Richmond → Garden Media Guild without making the project appear dependent upon either of them. Then 24 September becomes the payoff. I'd make that post much more explicit: ​ Published today 24 Sep. Reading Rousham: An Observational Study with Advolly Richmond The first study in the Reading Gardens series is now published in the Garden Media Guild's Autumn Quarterly, with the full photographic study available to read on the Reading Gardens website. And tag both @advollyrichmond and @gardenmediaguild. ​ One thing I'd particularly avoid I wouldn't tag GMG simply because you are a GMG member or because the post happens to precede the publication. The tag should have a reason to exist in the content. ​ That makes the eventual GMG tag much more meaningful — and potentially gives the Guild a reason to interact with or share that particular post. So, if we're refining the campaign we discussed, I'd now see it as: Week 1: Here is Reading Gardens. Week 2: Here is how Reading Gardens looks at gardens. Week 3: Here is the first study — Rousham with Advolly. [Tag Advolly + GMG] 24 Sept: Here is the published study. [Tag Advolly + GMG + link to Reading Gardens] ​