THIS time last year, Hackney-based photographer Justin Coombes applied to become Valentines Mansion & Garden’s inagural artist-in-residence. Fighting off 60 other applicants, he won the appointment and this week has unveiled his efforts.

Featuring a selection of surreal and haunting images of Valentines Gardens, Grief Tree fits nicely with the haunted history of the 17th Century building, in Ilford, Essex, but above all, reflects a personal journey.

“A grief tree is basically a hangman’s tree,” the Devon-born artist explains. “The title just came to me about a month or so ago, as it really conflated two things. One, there are a lot of trees in the images, like a recurring motif, and two, the pictures have been a form of grieving over a personal loss, the loss of a relationship.”

Justin, who has a BA in Fine Art from Oxford University’s Ruskin School, continues: “Any art teacher will tell you not to make art cathartic, it doesn’t tend to work, but for me putting this work on show is already feeling like it has closed a certain chapter in my life.”

After eight months of preliminary visits and planning, Justin and his team spent an intensive period of just one or two weeks taking over the gardens during the dead of night.

“It’s a good deadline to know that dawn is coming,” the 32-year-old photographer jokes.

From a “great pile of final images”, just eight have been selected for the free exhibition, which features large-scale photographic prints and light boxes.

One such stricking image is Origin 2009, which shows a woman tracing her own shadow on a wall.

Justin, who is currently studying for a PHD in Photography at the Royal College of Art, embellishes: “It’s a reference to the Greek myth of the Maid of Corinth who supposedly invented painting. She had a lover who was leaving for war, but before he left, she drew his profile which was cast by his shadow on a studio wall.

“There was nice resonance for me, the idea of a departure, somebody leaving, going out of your life and that doomed attempt, which connects to photography, to try and fix and capture something actually very fleeting.”

Also on display is Grief Tree (for A), which features an almost ghostly figure of a young girl and serves as a “tribute to the daughter that my ex and I were planning to have”, and Don’t Look Now (for Julie Christie), an engaging shot inspired by the 1970 film about a couple’s mourning for their child.

“It’s been wonderful,” Justin says of his appointment as artist-in-residence. “It’s the first time I have actually had a base other than my studio and they have been so supportive and helpful to me here, I will miss them.”

Grief Tree runs until Sunday, September 6. Valentines Mansion is open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday. Details: 020 8708 8100 or www.valentinesmansion.com