Meg Hawksworth is a British photographer based around London and the South Coast, who uses self as a starting point to undertake the relationship she has with her chronic illness. Hawksworth uses her practice to confront the realities of living with myalgic encephalomyelitis, processing its challenges through constructed imagery. She uses natural landscapes in contrast with dramatic characterisations of self to invoke themes of isolation and reflection.

Her recent work explores the conception of a dreamlike space or realm in which she can exist without the pressure of the fatigue associated with her ongoing condition. Within this veil, Hawksworth subverts expectations of illness and sickness, reclaiming metaphorical control over her life and body. Hawksworth uses recurring iconography of water to mirror the relentless impact of MECFS, while intricate details add further context and meaning to the dream space, allowing audiences a deeper understanding of life with a chronic illness.

What if a camera could reveal the veil between life and death? A space between consciousness and unconsciousness, where fantasy and dreams battle reality and grief. My work explores this hypothetical, constructing a space to visualise and process the reality of disabling sickness and chronic illness. Where, despite its separation from linear reality, I am still stalked in the darkness by the progression of my symptoms and the threat of deterioration.

Fatigue rules this space, and I am left existing within it, a haunting trace of what was and what could have been.

Hawksworth has previously exhibited at BAD Bournemouth and, most recently, exhibited in the Auger Gallery, Bournemouth. Her current work will be exhibited in the upcoming Undisclosed Collective exhibition at Copeland Gallery, London.

She is currently undertaking a BA (hons) in Photography at Arts University Bournemouth, graduating in summer 2026.