Leading to Nature explores the evolving landscape of Hounslow Gunpowder Mills, now part of Crane Park Nature Reserve. An area once known as the largest gunpowder manufacturing site in Europe, supplying the British Army and Navy. The 24-metre-tall Lead Shot Tower, the last surviving structure from the Mills, was used for producing lead shots.

Given the volatile nature of gunpowder, the Mills experienced 55 explosions during their operation, many of which were deadly. These blasts caused significant destruction to both human life and the environment, often leaving large areas of forest barren. Earth mounds were built using layers of ash and tin, then covered with soil to enable tree planting, providing protection against the impacts of future explosions.

Drawing inspiration from the process of creating lead shots, Leading to Nature blends the materiality of analogue photography that uses silver nitrate, expressed through soil chromatography, with digital photographic images of the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills. Through the lens of the site's evolving landscape, three locations were selected: the Lead Shot Tower, representing the distant industrial past; the Factory Remains, reflecting the transitional phase between industry and nature; and finally, the Overgrown Pond, symbolising the present-day (re)growth of nature.

Photographs of each location were printed onto filter paper and treated with silver nitrate. Diluted soil samples were then applied to their respective paper at scaled distances (24cm, 16cm, 8cm) to reflect the distance between past and present. This process mirrored that of pouring molten lead through a sieve at the top of the tower. The resulting soil chromatograms emerge through interaction with sunlight, mirroring the solidifying process of the lead pellets when they hit the water tank at the bottom of the tower. This process has helped to uncover the site's industrial past and its evolving growth of nature.