Shutterspark

Maximilian Slaven

2009-11-13T08:00:00.002Z

Gallery of Modern Art (from "Piece by Piece") © Max Slaven

Hayward Gallery (from "Piece by Piece") © Max Slaven

Palais De Tokyo (from "Piece by Piece") © Max Slaven

Saatchi Gallery (from "Piece by Piece") © Max Slaven

Tate Modern (from "Piece by Piece") © Max Slaven

Maximilian Slaven Graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2009 with BA (hons) Fine Art Photography

“Piece by Piece is an ongoing project in which architectural details from cultural institutions are collated as typology.
The project is developed as a museological archaeology of Institutional Critique, in which it is inverted on it's own terms.
A literal deconstruction along theoretical lines.”

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Francesca Hall

2009-11-11T08:00:00.000Z

© Francesca Hall

© Francesca Hall

© Francesca Hall

© Francesca Hall

© Francesca Hall

Francesca Hall Graduated from University College Falmouth in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

“Initially inspired by the writings of Ian Sinclair and his views on ‘mapping’ it has led me to discover psychogeography, whereby you explore environments by instinct, finding the hidden, alternative space.

Fifteen paces is a focused exploration of my experiences. Taking time to notice things that occur in my daily life, existing alone amongst the backdrop of this urban lifestyle. Not the loud, projective subject matter, but the quiet, banal objects that survive in a space of their own. Constantly moving forward, remembering, not forgetting what went before, but always looking, seeking and finding something else, questioning my pause and choice for putting that moment, that object into the rectangular frame of a photograph. It has become as much a study of my surroundings as it has my identity, proving my existence amongst this commonplace matter. The pace of life in western society is in fast forward mode and people become blind to the beauty around them. I hope people can find a small piece of beauty amongst the work and take a moment to appreciate it for simply being it.”

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Fergus McDonald

2009-11-08T22:34:00.005Z

© Fergus McDonald

© Fergus McDonald

© Fergus McDonald

© Fergus McDonald

© Fergus McDonald

© Fergus McDonald

Fergus McDonald Graduated from Arts University College at Bournemouth in 2008 with BA (hons) Photography

“‘On Road’ is a series of images I have been working on for the past year. I initially started taking photos for the series because of a genuine interest in people, popular culture, social groups and class structure. This drove me to document the people around me on the street. It seems as though in the 21st century, image is everything. Even if not intentionally, when a camera is pointed at us we react. Subconsciously or not, we pose. This was something that I wanted to avoid in my photos for this series. I wanted to capture people in a natural way, without them knowing they were being photographed. This is part of the reason I shoot most of the images from the hip to conceal the recognised action of taking a photograph, raising the camera to the eye.”

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Felly Mistweave

2009-11-06T08:00:00.000Z

© Felly Misweave

© Felly Misweave

© Felly Misweave

© Felly Misweave

© Felly Misweave

© Felly Misweave

Felly Mistweave Graduated from University College Falmouth in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

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Andrew Pilsbury

2009-11-04T22:06:00.004Z

© Andrew Pilsbury

© Andrew Pilsbury

© Andrew Pilsbury

© Andrew Pilsbury

© Andrew Pilsbury

Andrew Pilsbury Graduated from Birmingham City University in 2009 with BA (Hons) Visual Communication - Photography

“In this body of work I am looking at 25 locations where violence has altered the English landscape. I have revisited, and explored the often ordinary and surprisingly familiar places around the Midlands, that have been tarnished with tragic pasts. It challenges us to contemplate the meaning of what has taken place but also the lives that have been lost and the families that have been destroyed. We are continuously questioning how we associate and tie meaning to a certain location, urging us to delve deeper. Free of the sensationalism of contemporary reporting the unadorned and often plainly deceptive scenarios question our current perceptions of our surroundings. They allow us to look beyond the innocence of the picturesque or banal scenarios and challenge deeper psychological issues, dwelling on relationships between humanity and nature.”

aphotographic@gmail.com

Amit Nachumi

2009-11-01T22:14:00.005Z

© Amit Nachumi

© Amit Nachumi

© Amit Nachumi

© Amit Nachumi

© Amit Nachumi

Amit Nachumi Graduated from University for the Creative Arts in 2007 with BA (Hons) Contemporary Photographic Practice

“You See” desires to present the interior reality of both adults and children in the exterior, an internal world in an outer landscape. My homeland of Israel is used as a backdrop. A place that is as emotionally charged as it is politically burdened is photographed through eyes desiring to put aside the use of recognizable images of conflict, but rather as a space of contemplation and reflect.
The notion of ‘fitting’ or ‘fitting in’ is dominant and there is an acute awareness of a place, sensed from afar, predominantly by those away from home. . The primary relationship visible is that of the sitters with their surroundings, the exterior – their ‘temple’. Frozen ordinary acts, play as isolated moments of contemplation shown in extraordinary, yet somehow familiar, surroundings.”

Andrea Solomou

2009-10-28T07:00:00.000Z

(from "Waiting For Alex") © Andrea Solomou

(from "Waiting For Alex") © Andrea Solomou

(from "Waiting For Alex") © Andrea Solomou

(from "Waiting For Alex") © Andrea Solomou

(from "Waiting For Alex") © Andrea Solomou

(from "Waiting For Alex") © Andrea Solomou

Andrea Solomou Graduated from University of Brighton in 2009 with BA (Hons) Editorial Photography

“Waiting For Alex”

“This project follows the life of a woman who exists on the margins, strong and weak, loved and alone, happy and sad. She lives a life not many of us could imagine. I have aimed to create a staged realism, the idea that the camera is at the edge of the subject's personal space. The situations shown are not explicit but I have aimed to use codes and signs to create a curious yet open ended narrative.”

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Amanda Jobson

2009-10-26T23:45:00.002Z

(from "Winch Huts") © Amanda Jobson

(from "Winch Huts") © Amanda Jobson

(from "Winch Huts") © Amanda Jobson

(from "Winch Huts") © Amanda Jobson

(from "Winch Huts") © Amanda Jobson

Amanda Jobson Graduated from University of Westminster in 2008 with BA (hons) Photographic Arts

“Since graduating Amanda has worked on self initiated projects on the east Sussex coastline. Her most recent photographs on the Winch Huts, Hastings are to be exhibited at the WPS Gallery, Old Town Hastings in September 2009

The Winch Huts project started in the winter of January 2009. Throughout the months that followed into early spring I continued to return. The huts all looked the same except for the paraphernalia that exists from the individual commercial fishermen that continue to work from the winch huts. I placed my camera in exactly the same height and position facing the cold light, which flooded through from the English Channel. I looked for a sense of uniformity and repetition amongst the working lives of the fishing community.”

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Adéla Bernatíková

2009-10-23T23:28:00.003+01:00

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

(from "home be/longings") © Adéla Bernatíková

Adéla Bernatíková Graduated from University College Falmouth in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

“home be/longings”

“The idea of home and memory has been a starting point to my final degree work. We are all shaped by the spaces we inhabit and while revisiting significant places I once lived at, the work reflects my own personal responses to these. Through the use of double exposure I am combining two realities, where past communicates with the present, resulting in images in which the internal thoughts, fears and desires are exposed.”

ada.bernatikova@yahoo.co.uk

Harry Watts

2009-10-22T01:27:00.003+01:00

© Harry Watts

© Harry Watts

© Harry Watts

© Harry Watts

© Harry Watts

Harry Watts Graduated from University of Brighton in 2009 with BA (Hons) Editorial Photography

“ The Bell Common Tunnel, situated on the M25 road network, is the area which I have been granted access to record. This is a £90.5 Million refit of a public space, in need of redevelopment, yet still 120,000 vehicles move through it daily. As one of the 234 structures, and one of only two tunnels, situated on the M25 the Bell Common Tunnel is in need of change. Behind on safety codes and fire regulations, over the next year replacements of mechanical, electrical and fire safety equipment will take place. The ventilation system will be upgraded and new monitoring equipment will be installed. In the end passers by might only notice the clean walls, newly painted lines and brighter lights.
Behind the walls and even above ground there are countless pieces that will hold together the safety of the motorist within the tunnel. These details are not placed on show or presented as artifacts but buried. Seeing behind the facade of the development

A tunnel is placed to cut a passage under a building or through a hillside. At Bell Common, situated in the Epping Forest, the tunnel sits under a part of historic countryside resulting in the need to minimize the effect on nature that has been vested in the Corporation of the City of London, and conserved by the Epping Forest Act, 1878. Along side the redevelopment of the tunnel interior, developments will be taking place above ground
The 470m-length stretch of tunnel is mirrored above ground with a cut out section of the forest, I have documented this change of space throughout the redevelopment and work in parallel with the construction below. Detailing with the means of which, us as humans, present traces of our presence to change the very space we inhabit.

The connection with the natural and artificial is an aspect that I have explored within this work. Not only does the redevelopment have to care for the road user during the time of construction, and following resolution, but also the preservation of the forest land above. Both natural and artificial have to co-exist, with the latter being a produce of nature itself, the spaces we develop create a nature that can be seen as surreal, a sculpture gallery if you may.
This sculpture park is the way that I have addressed these found scenes of surrealism in both the above and underground areas. Turning a normality of the everyday to an artifact of documentation, within a changing environment.”

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Ellen Nolan

2009-10-18T21:46:00.005+01:00

(from "One at a Time") © Ellen Nolan

(from "One at a Time") © Ellen Nolan

(from "One at a Time") © Ellen Nolan

(from "Previous Personality") © Ellen Nolan

(from "Previous Personality") © Ellen Nolan

(from "Previous Personality") © Ellen Nolan

Ellen Nolan Graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2007 with MFA Fine Art

“‘Previous Personality’ explores the artist’s relationship to her mother as she recedes into dementia.
Ellen Nolan documented herself and her mother in key moments over two years, to explore the journey of reversal and erosion.
Nolan started photographing herself and her mother when her mother stopped recognising her as her daughter.”

‘One at a Time’ observes the dynamics of, and emotional hierarchy within single parent families.
The images explore an expressive undercurrent that reveals both the inherent tensions and intimacies that arise from this complex relationship.

I work with the mediums of photography and film to explore ideas around human isolation, the ageing process, emotional relations and social hierarchy. I am interested in hidden aspects of society and human behavior, how these translate themselves onto film and my subjects further relationship to the camera.”

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Yaron Lapid

2009-10-15T17:25:00.004+01:00

(from "The New Hero") © Yaron Lapid

(from "The New Hero") © Yaron Lapid

(from "The New Hero") © Yaron Lapid

(from "The New Hero") © Yaron Lapid

Yaron Lapid Graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2007 with MFA Fine Art

“The New Zero”

“The New Zero is an ongoing artistic project, which plays on the nature of photography and its ability to assemble and disassemble layers of history.
In 1999 Yaron Lapid found on the floor of a recently demolished area in Jerusalem, several envelopes. The envelopes contained hundreds of black and white photographs and negatives, which were probably the leftovers of a former photographic studio.
The artist has reprocessed the found material to create an atypical “family album” composed of moving portraits that fluidly fade into black before revealing their main features.  By reversing the conventions of documentary editing, the video focuses on marginal details such as body posture, clothes and accessories to suggest the habits and costumes of Jerusalem in the 70s, providing hints of the atmosphere of that time.
The loop reinforces the sense of a stratified past that cannot be pictured at once, but has slowly informed the layers of this multifaceted society. A society in which the most basic human encounter, eye to eye, is not always effortless and where formal differences often mark profound cultural oppositions.  These photographs, which have crystallised a particular moment of individual histories, form a visual archive whose gaps can be filled by the viewer’s imagination and inner projections.”

(Adopted from a text by Gaia Tedone)

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Felix Frith

2009-10-13T18:02:00.004+01:00

© Felix Frith

© Felix Frith

© Felix Frith

© Felix Frith

© Felix Frith

Felix Frith Graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2009 with BA (hons) Fine Art Photography

“Day-to-day assumptions can be crude and end up functioning as pursuits of security or functionality, a way to satisfy the fear of the unknown and the instability the unknown brings. They can be used as a practical structure of living rather than a philosophy of truth. Pursuits of the ability to live with the knowledge of life’s intrinsic ambiguities are therefore necessary.
The investment of emotions into icons or iconic experiences negates the need for a genuine response. By presenting images that incite an emotional investment from the viewer due to their suggested iconic nature and to somehow rob the viewer from such a satisfying response, I hope to create an atmosphere of anti-climatic search that supports an acclimation to this abstruse condition.”

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Isabel Arbeláez

2009-10-11T13:05:00.003+01:00

Chrystalline Light (from "So it Goes...") © Isabel Arbelaez

Fluffed Stuffing (from "So it Goes...") © Isabel Arbelaez

Half Developed (from "So it Goes...") © Isabel Arbelaez

Surface Ice Crashing (from "So it Goes...") © Isabel Arbelaez

Wintering Heron (from "So it Goes...") © Isabel Arbelaez

Isabel Arbeláez Graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2009 with BA (hons) Fine Art Photography

“So It Goes…”

“This body of work places emphasis on the aesthetic value of light and subject. How to create a sense of amazement, freshness to life and the photographic medium were main concerns. These images expound their singularity, their delicate renderings, their subtle likenesses. One is confronted with a point of view where there is indistinguishable treatment of animal (living), man (living), hybrid still life (imbued with life), background/foreground/middle ground (photographic life). It exudes ideas and feelings of polarities, cycles, sheer fulfilled happiness and amazement. This magic is fully grounded in death and solitude, where the gaze from one creation to the next or the gaze into simple abysmal nothingness (of beautiful tone) will seemingly float away in its treatment and spatial lightness.”

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Sam Luntley

2009-10-07T23:23:00.003+01:00

© Sam Luntley

© Sam Luntley

© Sam Luntley

© Sam Luntley

© Sam Luntley

Sam Luntley Graduated from Edinburgh Napier University in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

“…no information at all is given about the image reproduced because it seemed to us that such information might distract from the points being made.” John Berger

“Once a word is written a limit is set, boundaries have been narrowed, potential removed, that’s hole not coop.

Hope, agitation, history, remembrance, loss, gain, frustration, wear, sacred, time, repetition, chaos, play, light, dirt, age, reflection, decay, love, habit, use, colour, change, pun, futility, records, insignificance and monumentality, pleasure, absurdity, poignancy, the moment, and all and none of the above.

This is coop not hole.”

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Philip Haynes

2009-10-06T00:27:00.002+01:00

(From "Living and Dying Alone" © Philip Haynes

(From "Living and Dying Alone" © Philip Haynes

(From "Living and Dying Alone" © Philip Haynes

(From "Living and Dying Alone" © Philip Haynes

(From "Living and Dying Alone" © Philip Haynes

Philip Haynes Graduated from Norwich School of Art & Design in 2009 with BA (Hons) Graphic Design

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Jonathan JK Morris

2009-10-04T22:30:00.003+01:00

© Jonathan JK Morris

© Jonathan JK Morris

© Jonathan JK Morris

© Jonathan JK Morris

© Jonathan JK Morris

Jonathan JK Morris Graduated from Swansea Metropolitan University in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photojournalism

“My major project documents youth culture. I've focused on a group of youths who gather regularly in the city centre of Swansea. I have deliberately taken a positive, almost celebratory approach in order to represent them, this is in direct opposition to the mainstream media, whose articles are mostly negative about young people in the UK. This is a long term project, which has allowed me to build a level of trust with those I've photographed, and it has enabled me to travel home with some of the youths in order to better understand who they are.

In my practice I want to take a considered look at social issues in the UK, providing an alternative to the mainstream media's superficial, and negative approach. Such an approach I believe doesn't investigate deep enough into exploring alternative cultures in the UK. I believe, that style of reporting that doesn't allow us to understand the differences in our society, instead it manages to push us away from one another, thereby creating further social problems.”

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BrightOnes Exhibition

2009-10-02T17:35:00.010+01:00

An exhibition by recent graduates from the University of Brighton; united by their desire to photograph using traditional methods. Diverse in subject matter, the show provides an interesting mix to the photographic approach ranging from domestic spaces, documentary to portraiture. Featuring the works of Philip Bedford, Melanie Clark, Richard Cole, Samantha Goddard, Sarah Lloyd, Jacqueline McCullough and Gabriella Rizzello; this show offers an opportunity to catch these emerging artists embarking on their photographic career.

Private View: 10th October 6-8pm.

A bus from Brighton to and from the gallery will be provided for the preview evening on Saturday 10th October for a reduced cost of £3. For further details please contact Jacqueline McCullough on 07855440091 or email jackiemccullough@hotmail.com.

Refreshments will be provided at the Preview.

Featured artists:

Gabriella Rizzello

Jacqueline McCullough

Melanie Clark

Philip Bedford

Richard Cole

Samantha Goddard

Sarah Lloyd

Exhibition continues from 14th October to 14th November.

Gallery open 11am – 6pm Wednesday - Saturday

Independent Photographers Gallery
3 Old Brewery Yard, Battle,
East Sussex, TN33 0AF

www.ipgbattle.com

David Hendra

2009-10-01T17:43:00.003+01:00

Anthill Boy (from "Uganda") © David Hendra

Craven (from "Uganda") © David Hendra

Mother and Child (from "Uganda") © David Hendra

Nelson and Francis (from "Uganda") © David Hendra

Wheelchair Wing (from "Uganda") © David Hendra

David Hendra Graduated from Arts University College at Bournemouth in 2005 with BA (hons) Photography

David Hendra lives and works in Hackney, London.

His photography is refreshingly uncomplicated. Dave is interested in the human condition, our victories and losses.

These Images are taken from an extended series on Uganda.

davidhendra@hotmail.com

Dianne Whyte

2009-09-29T17:31:00.005+01:00

Shutters (from "The Echo of a Silent Cry") © Diane Whyte

Suitcase (from "The Echo of a Silent Cry") © Diane Whyte

Numbers (from "The Echo of a Silent Cry") © Diane Whyte

Clock (from "The Echo of a Silent Cry") © Diane Whyte

Cage (from "The Echo of a Silent Cry") © Diane Whyte

Bridge (from "The Echo of a Silent Cry") © Diane Whyte

Diane Whyte Graduated from IADT, Dublin in 2007 with BA (hons) Photography/Visual Arts

The Echo of a Silent Cry

“This work deals with the effects of institutional enclosure on the person confined, the loss of innocence and identity associated with the institutionalisation of young offenders. Society treats such people as defective and attempts to reshape them with a bureaucratic hammer. Little thought is given to the individual tales of loss and tragedy associated with each of these juveniles. Are they ever free from the inflicted rules and suppression? Once freed from the enclosure itself, the remaining scars have embedded themselves into the very psyche of the person involved, forever holding, forever tightening its grip. The loss of identity in the realization that all are reduced to a document or simply a scrap of paper.”

diannewhyte@gmail.com

Dave Wyatt

2009-09-27T18:49:00.004+01:00

(from "Thames Town") © Dave Wyatt

(from "Thames Town") © Dave Wyatt

(from "Thames Town") © Dave Wyatt

(from "Thames Town") © Dave Wyatt

(from "Thames Town") © Dave Wyatt

Dave Wyatt Graduated from University of Bolton (Dalian Cohort) in 2009 with MA International Photojournalism, Documentary Photography and Travel Photography

“Thames Town: China’s new suburbia”

“Thames town is an English style new satellite housing estate built close to Shanghai as part of the local governments ‘One City –Nine Towns’ plan. This plan was hatched out of the population boom being experienced in Shanghai. In the past 15 years the population has increased by 8 million and the landmass it covers has increased from 100sqkm to a staggering 680sqkm. Despite this growth Shanghai is still four times as densely populated as New York. The ‘One City –Nine Towns’ plan sought to construct nine satellite housing estates around Shanghai. Six of these estates are themed on European style towns from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Italy.
The rise of China’s new middle ‘class’ is resulting in the same phenomenon as seen in post-war Britain and America, that of the creation of a new suburbia. Now that disposable incomes are reaching levels that allow people to pay for better education, annual holidays and private accommodation, the landscape of China is changing in the same manner as seen in the West. The construction of new towns such as Thames Town would have been impossible as recently as a quarter of a century ago. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao all housing was state owned. The rise of private wealth and less government control has led to a demand for a style of housing most Chinese have never before experienced.”

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Interview with Ellie Davies

2009-09-24T22:04:00.001+01:00

(from "I Always Knew You'd Come Back...") © Ellie Davies

Ellie Davies is exhibiting work alongside others from the Latitude Group at The East End Arts Club from 1st-15th October.

“I Always knew you’d come back…” is produced in response to the relationship between cinema and photography. Ellie agreed to answer a few questions about the show.

(from "I Always Knew You'd Come Back...") © Ellie Davies

Michael Duggleby: Your work is about to be exhibited at the East End Arts Club as part of an exhibition entitled “I always knew you’d come back…”. I’ve read that the exhibition investigates the notion of the cinematic cliché. Could you explain a little about this idea?

Ellie Davies: The notion of cinematic cliché refers to way that a viewer brings to the film viewing experience a set of culturally inscribed understands about the likely structure, progress and content of that film. We may expect a romantic film to have a beginning, middle and conclusion, and we have expectations about the way the narrative is likely to progress. These assumptions are based on cliché, a repeating of narrative patterns within the genre we assume the film to fit into.

“I Always knew You'd Come Back…” comments on the notion of cinematic cliché by asking the viewer to choose images from the 42 images available, and to arrange them on the wall in order to construct their own narratives. These stories are recorded and have since been incorporated into a book, which juxtaposes sequences of images alongside the narratives that were drawn from them by members of the public.

These narratives can be seen to follow structures that draw on, and reflect an understanding of culturally specific storytelling patterns, and the overarching influence of cinematic cliché on the way each person approaches this task.

The show at the East End Arts Club is a Latitude Photographers Exhibition, a photographic group of which I am a member. We established the group in early 2008, and are all alumni from the London College of Communication MA Photography course. We meet and exhibit together regularly.

(from "I Always Knew You'd Come Back...") © Ellie Davies

MD: How have you found working as part of a group? Do you tackle a brief any differently knowing your work forms part of a collective response?

ED: From its inception Latitude has felt that it is important to use our group work as an opportunity to push ourselves beyond the comfort zone of our personal practices. An important element in doing this is to develop a strong curatorial brief for each show.

The group members work together to develop this brief, but responses to it will be individual (and may indeed reflect personal practices to a greater or lesser degree). Through a period of months group members present ideas, and then images to the group in the format of a group crit. Ideas are developed and enriched, areas needing further attention are drawn out and explored. It is a very productive and challenging process.

This is slightly different from my personal practice, in which the act of shooting the work and developing it into a series can be a slightly more organic process, each image leading into the formulation of the next in an ongoing process of learning and development. Working to a group brief requires a pinning down of the specifics of the images earlier on.

Latitude is a very constructive forum for developing and showing work as a group, but this is only part of its agenda. Personal work is of equal importance, so new personal work is regularly explored through group crits in a similar way, and this ongoing process of presenting new work and receiving feedback becomes an important part of personal practice that many artists may find lacking when they leave art school. The group provides a supportive and critical structure from which to work.

(from "I Always Knew You'd Come Back...") © Ellie Davies

MD: What about the longevity of Latitude? Would you say the members regard the group as a short term vehicle or do you predict you’ll be exhibiting together in the years to come?

ED: I think we all see Latitude as something that we'd like to be part of for the foreseeable future.

This is reflected in the way that we have worked to develop a smooth running structure and system of working. Distinct roles have been allocated to individual members within the group, and our time together is carefully divided to allow us to deal with admin as quickly as possible and get on with the real reason we are all involved with the group; to show new work, develop new work, push ourselves critically and practically, and to give each other feedback and support. This is very much an ongoing process, new challenges arise all the time, but it is a valuable learning experience at the same time. We definitely foresee a long-term future for Latitude Photographers.

(from "I Always Knew You'd Come Back...") © Ellie Davies

Ellie Davies Graduated from London College of Communication in 2008 with MA Photography

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Photomonth

2009-09-24T12:59:00.004+01:00

Alexa from Shoot Experience – the company that is co-producing this year’s Photomonth – emailed me yesterday with information on this year’s event. “The UK's largest photography festival runs from 1st October - 30th November. This year the festival is bigger and better than ever with over 150 exhibitions and events, more than 85 galleries and spaces and over 500 photographers.”
Major artists exhibiting this year include: Eugene Richards, Jim Goldberg, Jenny Matthews, Nadav Kander, Terry O’Neill, Tom Hunter and Sophie Calle.

A highlight of the festival is Photofair which is taking over Spitalfields market on 11th October. “We’ll be there alongside The Photographers Gallery, Rhubarb Rhubarb, Trolley Books, lots of independent photographers.”
Stand for the events have sold out but there are still a few stalls left going for £25. The booking form is available here.

Brendan Berry

2009-09-23T14:16:00.005+01:00

(from "Intimate Distance") © Brendan Berry

(from "Intimate Distance") © Brendan Berry

(from "Intimate Distance") © Brendan Berry

(from "Intimate Distance") © Brendan Berry

(from "Intimate Distance") © Brendan Berry

(from "Intimate Distance") © Brendan Berry

Brendan Berry Graduated from University of Wales Newport in 2009 with BA (Hons) Documentary Photography

“Intimate Distance”

“On April 12th 1961 Yuri Gagarin, in the Vostok 1 spacecraft - launched by the Soviet space programme - became the first human cosmonaut to leave the earth’s atmosphere and achieve spaceflight. Eight years later the first American astronauts landed on the moon, which still remains the furthest distance humanity has travelled from its birthplace.
Despite the rapid growth and improvement in technology over the last forty years, the advancement of space flight has been relatively slow. However, as the uncertainties facing our planet’s future proliferate and intensify, many nations have begun to invest large sums of money in astronomy and cosmology. In total, thirteen space agencies have now been formulated, of which NASA is just one.
On the north-eastern coastline of Norfolk lies the community of Happisburgh, a large village with a rich history dating back to the eleventh century. The people of Happisburgh are being labelled Europe’s first “climate refugees”, and in less than fifty years the entire neighbourhood will lie in ruins, deep below the North Sea.
These photographs of Happisburgh are inspired by an astronaut's-eye view of earth, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility. They express a view of our micro and macro cosmology and act as a porthole through which people may enter into a greater understanding of our universe's entirety and of the challenges facing humanity in years to come. In their abstraction the images reflect man’s interaction with the environment and express the transience of life and the implacable, destructive erosion taking place within this struggling area. That which we share on earth is far greater than that which divides us; and seeing earth from space permits these divisions to dissolve. In truth we comprise only one race: earthlings.

“We are entering an increasingly dangerous period of our history. Our population and use of the finite resources of planet earth are growing exponentially along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But, our genetic code still carries a selfish and aggressive instinct for survival. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million. Our only chance of long tern survival is not to remain inward looking, but to spread out into space.”
Professor Stephen Hawking – 2008, NASA’s 50th Anniversary

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Özant Kamacı

2009-09-20T19:09:00.004+01:00

(from "Pause") © Özant Kamacı

(from "Pause") © Özant Kamacı

(from "Pause") © Özant Kamacı

Özant Kamacı Graduated from Central Saint Martin's College in 2009 with MA Communication Design, Pathway Photography

“In ‘pause’, the work depicts the juxtaposition of powerful machines which are symbols of advancement and technology against nature which is widely accepted as precious and untouched. The medium of photography provides a visual dichotomy of reality and illusion through the aesthetics of plane and tree and their spatial relationship. Planes behind trees as individual objects are familiar and common, but when combined and interrelated, the viewer moves to a new space to behold the unexpected.”

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Thomas Haywood

2009-09-17T20:37:00.007+01:00

Blocks (from "Island") © Thomas Haywood

Horse (from "Island") © Thomas Haywood

Rock (from "Island") © Thomas Haywood

Morning Glory (from "Island") © Thomas Haywood

Gate (from "Island") © Thomas Haywood

Sista (from "Island") © Thomas Haywood

Thomas Haywood Graduated from Royal College of Art in 2008 with MA Photography

“Island”

“It felt like paradise.
Immediately the first day I thought..”

“This work follows in the wake of the myth of a utopian island, presenting the viewer with traces of what may have been a fleeting paradise. On an idyllic island we are left with the residue of a restless search for the perfect existence, and the lifetimes spent in the gap between dreams and reality.”

See more here

Victoria Jenkins

2009-09-15T22:13:00.006+01:00

(from "Images from the Archives of the Institute of Esoteric Research") ©Victoria Jenkins

(from "Images from the Archives of the Institute of Esoteric Research") © Victoria Jenkins

(from "Images from the Archives of the Institute of Esoteric Research") © Victoria Jenkins

(from "Images from the Archives of the Institute of Esoteric Research") © Victoria Jenkins

(from "Images from the Archives of the Institute of Esoteric Research") © Victoria Jenkins

Victoria Jenkins Graduated from University of Brighton in 2009 with BA (Hons) Editorial Photography

“Images from the Archives of the Institute of Esoteric Research”

“A unique characteristic of photography has been its ability to record the visible, material world, its perceived objectivity and accuracy has lead to a utilitarian application of the camera as a tool for documentation, and this can be traced back to photography’s early history. Parallel to this is a history that echoes with illusion and trickery; photography carries a false empiricism, for which we may allow our guard to be dropped.

The photographs presented in Images from the Archives of the Institute of Esoteric Research are rooted in the language of rational investigation, employing quasi-scientific laboratory style conditions in to which a series of still lives, fictional archival images, are constructed. A commingling of varied sources occurs: vernacular imagery of magic tricks, home science experiments, divination practice, superstitious belief and forensic investigation. The intent is to play on the conflicts in the languages that are being appropriated: logic and absurdity, revelation and trickery, illustration and illusion, but also that which seems concurrent despite the apparent polarities: the image whose authority is asserted through a shrouding in secret language and gesture.

This collision and coinciding intends to produce a series riddled with ambiguities, the oblique amongst clarity providing a slippery surface on which to form the photographs narratives.”

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Petros Chrisostomou

2009-09-13T22:16:00.006+01:00

© Petros Chrisostomou

© Petros Chrisostomou

© Petros Chrisostomou

© Petros Chrisostomou

© Petros Chrisostomou

Petros Chrisostomou Graduated from Royal Academy Schools in 2008 with MA Fine Art

“In summary, I feel that my work is about extremes and I continue to pursue this. Works like "Banandosh" and "Hero" from the 18 Fortis Green series (an interpretation of my childhood home from memory) stand as totems to the romantic ideas of hope and aspiration, yet maintain a sense of grounding on various different obvious and less obvious ways. Whilst more recent works like "Slut", "Lips" and "Orgy", become parody’s of themselves, and poke fun at the art world and the idea of art as a commodity. The free -standing sculptures add another dimension to the dialogue between fact and fiction.”

See more here

National Media Museum Bursary Award

2009-09-11T21:19:00.003+01:00

The deadline for the third National Media Museum Bursary Award is fast approaching. The closing date for applications is Friday 25th September.

Here’s some info from their website:

“The National Media Museum seeks to increase public awareness of contemporary photography by promoting the work of emerging photographers. To encourage these aims, the Museum, in partnership with the Wilson Centre for Photography, will award a series of annual bursaries up to a total of £20,000 in each year. The bursaries will support talented photographers to produce an ongoing or new body of work, allowing them to develop their practice and enhance their profile.”

National Media Museum Bursary Award

Interview with Lillian Wilkie

2009-09-11T16:29:00.008+01:00

(from ("Dresden I - IX") © Lillian Wilkie

Ahead of her exhibition opening on Tuesday at Camden’s Monkey Chews, I talked to Lillian Wilkie about her explorative urban environment project Dresden I – IX.

Michael Duggleby: Your most recent project, Dresden I – IX is about to be exhibited at Monkey Chews in Camden. How was the series created? Could you tell me a little bit about the process you go through?

Lillian Wilkie: Most of my works are inspired by uncanny or coincidental links in whatever reading or research I happen to be doing. Dresden and its history were often referenced in the texts I studied for my dissertation on WG Sebald and post-Holocaust German literature, and are widely discussed in his essay ‘On the Natural History of Destruction’. Further links to Dresden came up during a walking project I simultaneously undertook based on my great-grandmother’s death during a German zeppelin attack on London during the First World War.
Out of curiosity I took myself on a short break to Dresden and immediately felt that I should make a piece of work on the city. After a further two trips there, and much reading about its history both during the war and back to its origins as a priory and its epoch as the capital of Saxony, I developed a process of plotting a walk based on pieces of information I had gathered. The walks could be informed by a piece of text, a poem or eyewitness account, or simply just a conversation, and each sought to uncover a different layer of the city’s complex history. The walks were documented through not just photographs but also audio recordings, short films and considerable annotation, and I used the wide range of material I had gathered to structure the books. Altogether I visited the Dresden four times, each time staying in the same hostel in the Neustadt, providing a constant to help me plot my various courses.

(from ("Dresden I - IX") © Lillian Wilkie

MD: In your artist statement you reference the Situationist International’s theory of Dérive. In what way has the Situationsist International movement informed this work?

LW: For some time now I have been focusing on the act of perambulation as an investigative and artistic tool, and I have touched on the ideas of a number of 20th century art movements, such as the Land Artists of the 1960’s and 70’s and indeed the Situationists and the theories of Debord. I have in turn been hugely inspired by modern-day writers such as Iain Sinclair and Will Self who are still championing psychogeographical study and producing beautiful and eye-opening writing on walking and the experience of the modern city. I have however made a departure from the concept of dérive in my recent work; rather than a playful and detached encounter with the city my walks are carefully plotted, having fixed start and finish points and a more-or-less set course. Naturally this was not always stuck to, and I let myself be open to psychogeographical intervention, but it was important to me to have a series of rules and constants to work with that could help to structure my final piece.

MD: Dresden I – IX is largely a landscape without people. Why did you choose not to photograph the people in these environments?

LW: Excluding the human figure from the frame is predominantly a subconscious act for me. The way humans interact with their environment was not the focus of this work; I was searching the urban landscape for ghostly traces of human activity, for scars, for signifiers, for suggestions. When people do appear in my images they are usually very small. Their presence seems significant whilst at the same time their ambiguity and size within the frame strips them of identity or any connection to a particular time or place, leaving the viewer to construct a narrative.

(from ("Dresden I - IX") © Lillian Wilkie

MD: What brought the project to a close, how did you know when it was finished?

LW: This project had quite a set structure. One of my influences for its format was, again, something I was reading, an article about Greek archaeology which set off a series of uncanny associations in my mind. I began to research Heinrich Schliemann, an amateur archaeologist and eccentric from Pomerania who was a great fan of Homer and believed very much in the historic reality of places in his poems. Throughout the 1870’s he conducted a series of excavations at Hissarlik in Turkey believing to have located the site of ancient Troy. Modern day archaeologists doubt the existence of the city, but what Schliemann did find was nine layers of a mysterious settlement, each exposing traces of violent destruction. The links with Dresden, which itself has seen more than its fair share of violence throughout the ages, influenced my decision to create nine walks, and thus nine books, based on nine different sedimentary ‘layers’. The project concluded once all the walks had been completed and the material edited and processed.
However, due to the mixed media nature of the material, I would like to think this project has a fluid lifespan, and could be exhibited in a number of different ways, such as an audio-visual piece or as a short film.

MD: Would you say books are the medium most suited to your work?

LW: Right now it’s the medium I am most excited to work with. Creating photobooks allows me to combine my love of image-making with craft and design. I have a deep interest in books, in paper and printing, and I take a great deal of satisfaction from exploring and experimenting with different cloths, papers and ribbon as well as considering font and layout, bringing together a number of different elements to create a one-off photographic object. I also like the idea of creating books about walks, the connection between footsteps and turning pages, and the concept of the book as a journey or path in itself.

(from ("Dresden I - IX") © Lillian Wilkie

MD: How do you present this work in a gallery setting, what is the size of the prints?

LW: So far I have exhibited the books alongside nine small 5”x7” prints, one taken from each of the books, together with a computer showing the books in digital format so the viewer can ‘flick’ through all the pages at their leisure. However as I mentioned before I intend for the work to be displayed in a number of different mediums and formats, and hope in the future to edit together a more immersive audio-visual installation using the material I gathered along the walks.

MD: When people look at your images, do you think it will be clear to the viewer what you thoughts are?

LW: Suggestion and metaphor are used quite a lot in my work. Had I left out the accompanying texts, just titling my recent work ‘Dresden’ would have played on people’s associations and assumptions and a sense of loss or trauma is likely to have pervaded the series. However, whilst I don’t like to spoon-feed my audience, I like to make my premise clear; each book ends with details of the walk and any reference material used. The images themselves are supported by or contrast with the text, creating a dialogue with I hope conveys some of my thoughts to the reader. People approach work like this in different ways though, and its reception will vary person to person depending on their own awareness of Dresden’s history and their attitudes towards its destruction.

(from ("Dresden I - IX") © Lillian Wilkie

MD: Would you describe your work as personal?

LW: Yes. Despite my obvious concentration on histories and the experiences of others, my images also record my own personal journey, and in Dresden I - IX I put this across in the texts accompanying the images. Whilst some texts focus on historical accounts or hard geographical science, others take the form of diary entries, personal reflections or transcriptions of audio recordings written in the first person. These emphasise a unique perspective and the meditative and mnemonic aspect of journeying. Christopher C. Gregory-Guider calls this ‘autobiogeography’, and its something I’m fascinated with – the idea of landscape and its traversal as a portrait or self-portrait.

MD: What are you working on at the moment, what is informing your current work?

LW: Right now I’m concentrating on smaller projects. Dresden I – IX was quite an intense experience and it can be difficult to keep momentum after completing something like that. I’m beginning to put together a small handmade book which documents the 12-hour night train journey from Berlin to Paris, a trip that rounded off my travels this summer. I aim to create a number of smaller editions of handmade, low budget books based on individual journeys or walks, improving my binding skills and pushing myself in terms of design and layout.

Lillian Wilkie Graduated from University of Westminster in 2009 with BA (hons) Photographic Arts

Her exhibition Dresden I – IX will be showing at Monkey Chews in Camden from Tuesday 15 September for 4 weeks.

See more of her work here

Hazel A. Atashroo

2009-09-10T22:29:00.007+01:00

Moth/Mother 2009 © Hazel A. Atashroo

She Conceals 2008 © Hazel A. Atashroo

Heroine 2008 © Hazel A. Atashroo

Stage 2009 © Hazel A. Atashroo

Karen's Mirror 2008 © Hazel A. Atashroo

Hazel A. Atashroo Graduated from Slade School of Fine Art in 2009 with BA (hons) Fine Art

“Hazel Atashroo creates images and installations, working in various media including photography, video, sculpture and drawing. She is interested in clandestine performative acts, sculptures as props, complex human relationships of power, identity and creating images, readable and unreadable.”

See more here

Caroline de Vries

2009-09-08T22:42:00.009+01:00

Bethnal Green (from "Templates") © Caroline de Vries

Kings Cross (from "Templates") © Caroline de Vries

Stroud Green (from "Templates") © Caroline de Vries

Unknown-Known © Caroline de Vries

Caroline de Vries Graduated from Royal College of Art in 2008 with MA Fine Art/ Photography

“My practice is principally focused on questioning the nature and physicality of the photograph, especially the photographic portrait, using strategies of seriality, comparisons, archiving or decontextualisations.
I am interested in the tension and emotion that can be created or revealed between two or several photographs. The face regaining a meaning, a weight not through its uniqueness, but through its juxtaposition with another face or another expression of the same face.”

See more here

Ralph Mackenzie

2009-09-07T15:32:00.004+01:00

(Scanner Dance) 1m12s - Transit Cop by Beastie Boys © Ralph Mackenzie

(Mother's Lights) Living Room Ceiling © Ralph Mackenzie

(Mother's Lights) Master Bedroom Ceiling © Ralph Mackenzie

(Scanner Dance) Tri-Colour Composite © Ralph Mackenzie

(Self Portrait) Tri-Colour Composite © Ralph Mackenzie

Ralph Mackenzie Graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2009 with BA (hons) Fine Art Photography

“My work is dedicated to the redefining of conventional fine art processes; questioning the methods that we perceive today to be the norm, and attempting to break these processes down to rebuild them into something new and unique. I work with basic technologies; seeking those that may be altered to serve a new purpose in its lifetime. To have a different voice. Many devices can lend themselves towards a hybridisation with other media, leading me to my “scanner camera” project: a camera device built with a conventional flatbed scanner as a receiver and a box brownie as the focussing device.

The technical limitations of the scanner camera were obvious from its inception. “Scanner Dance” exposes just one of these: the scanner's registration of movement. With the duration of the scan being one minute and twelve seconds, all of the songs in my own music collection of that duration were played whilst I danced in front of the lens, forcing the scanner to represent the movements in thick black streaks across the image at a rate of one image per song. The scanner's sensitivity to light and the necessity to have powerfully lit subjects led to “Mother's Lights”, a documentation of all of the lights in my mother's house. The scanner's inability to scan in colour has also led to colour studies in the form of filtered exposures and tri-colour composites to achieve a colour image.”

ralphmackenzie@hotmail.com

Sarah Chapman

2009-09-05T19:48:00.006+01:00

Rock Pool - 43 Bags. Kokar (from "Contained") © Sarah Chapman

Rock Pool - 3 Bags. Kokar (from "Contained") © Sarah Chapman

Rock Pool - 5 Bags. Kokar (from "Contained") © Sarah Chapman

Rock Pool - 51 Bags. Kokar (from "Contained") © Sarah Chapman

Detail of Tree - 67 Bags. Kokar (from "Contained") © Sarah Chapman

Sarah Chapman Graduated from Arts University College at Bournemouth in 2008 with BA (hons) Photography

“Contained”

“Sarah Chapmans current practice centralises around the constructed natural environment, addressing environmental issues surrounding our use of plastics and our need to contain and control our surroundings, building them in our vision. Her work often results from performances within the natural landscape, with only photographic documentation of the performances remaining. Phenomenology remains at the forefront of Sarah’s work.

The 'Contained' series were begun on the Aland Archipelago Guest Artists Residence in Finland which Sarah undertook in 2009. The act of ‘containing’ an aspect of the natural landscape was in many ways a performance within the landscape. As someone who is environmentally aware, the process of using clear plastic bags to temporally contain an element of the landscape felt both brutal and highly conscious. It also provided a different experience of the landscape as I became aware of small creatures that lived in rock pools, bugs that surrounded the trees, the colour of the water, the fragility of the leaves and so on. After the scene was documented, the bags were emptied in a continuation of the performance. The landscape would return to its previous state and no evidence of my interference within it would remain.”

See more here

Jason Andrew

2009-09-02T17:24:00.007+01:00

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

(from "Jazzland") © Jason Andrew

Jason Andrew Graduated from International Center of Photography in 2007 in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program

“Jazzland”

“On August 29th of 2005, the world watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, causing the levee system in New Orleans to fail and flooding over 80% of the city. I was one of the millions of people sat glued to the television as the citizens of New Orleans waited on the roofs of their flooded homes, abandoned and trapped, victims of America’s largest natural disaster.

Two years later, I found myself sliding under a rusted steel gate, about to take a journey into a park few people knew existed. Recently used as a parking lot for FEMA trailers, Jazzland, New Orleans’ Six Flags amusement park, now sat deserted. Only the sound of my footsteps and heartbeat could be heard as I walked through the open front entrance of the park, weary of rabid dogs and my own imagination, which would play tricks on me all day.

While I went to New Orleans intending to photograph people, the loneliness and solitude of the apocalyptic scenes I found at Jazzland drove me to document the once thriving amusement park situated in this beleaguered region of New Orleans. Jazzland is unique, completely different from the rest of the destruction around New Orleans. The park causes chills to rise up your spine as you walk into stores still stocked with souvenirs and stuffed animals, their eyes following you around the room like ghosts from the past. Covered in dirt and mold, the stuffed animals look like abandoned souls left to rot, forgotten memories of someone’s childhood.

The fact that these relics were left behind lent a feeling of preservation to the park which, contrasted by the pervasive decay, created an ominous vision of a nuclear holocaust; whole rides and stores were intact and infested with the pungent smell of rotting clothes festering around every corner. Wondering through Jazzland felt like living an eerie dream, a visual nightmare, one that I continued to relive every time I ventured back into the park.

The decaying skeleton is a physical manifestation to the pain and misery suffered by the people of New Orleans. The park remains untouched; ready to open it’s arms to swarms of children on a sweet summer day that never came. The swamp begins to pierce the grounds of the park, slowly reclaiming the land it was built on. Only the lonely sounds of crickets and the wind can now be heard inside a park that was once filled with the screams of laughter and joy; a relic of Hurricane Katrina and a symbol of our inability to recover from this unnatural disaster.”

See more here

Andy Glinka

2009-09-01T14:53:00.006+01:00

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

(from "This Boy's Life") © Andy Glinka

Andy Glinka Graduated from University of Bolton in 2009 with BA (hons) Photography

"This Boy's Life"

"Photography isn't perfect, but then life isn't either". - Peter Galassi

See more here

Ruth Naylor

2009-08-30T22:29:00.009+01:00

(from "The Dreaming Tree") © Ruth Naylor

(from "The Dreaming Tree") © Ruth Naylor

(from "The Dreaming Tree") © Ruth Naylor

(from "The Dreaming Tree") © Ruth Naylor

(from "The Dreaming Tree") © Ruth Naylor

Ruth Naylor Graduated from University of Westminster in 2009 with BA (hons) Photographic Arts

"The Dreaming Tree"

“Dreams are a composite of our daily lives, that stem from the events of the day, delicate articles that upon waking either disappear from memories or are remembered for their surreal aspects. The delicate nature of each transparent photograph echoes the fragility of dreams. The dreams used in this piece are extracted from the lives of friends and family of the artist. They each play important roles to play within the artist’s life. Audio and visual act as a synergetic force that draws us into the work, emotions associated with the dream are portrayed through the dreamers voices. The unconventional tree structure is a dream within itself, beautiful and mysterious, which acts as a representation of life.”

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Bryan Dooley

2009-08-29T08:00:00.004+01:00

Antelop Island. UT (from "Omaha, Neb to Sacremento, Cal") © Bryan Dooley

Paradise Hill. NV (from "Omaha, Neb to Sacremento, Cal") © Bryan Dooley

Keaney. NE (from "Omaha, Neb to Sacremento, Cal") © Bryan Dooley

Salt Lake City. UT (from "Omaha, Neb to Sacremento, Cal") © Bryan Dooley

Winnemucca. NV (from "Omaha, Neb to Sacremento, Cal") © Bryan Dooley

Laramie. WY (from "Omaha, Neb to Sacremento, Cal") © Bryan Dooley

Bryan Dooley Graduated from University of Wales Newport in 2009 with BA (Hons) Documentary Photography

Omaha, Neb to Sacramento, Cal

“The ‘American Dream‘ has continuously required an advancing Frontier, which ensures the ‘Dreams’ unattainability, allowing the ‘Dream‘ to be continuously reinvented causing an ever desirable idyll, a utopia to continuously aspire to.; Preventing stagnation and creating a society where the belief that it is possible to achieve the ‘Dream’ is central to it’s existence. The Transcontinental Railroad which spanned from Omaha, Neb to Sacramento, Cal and met at Promontory point, Utah, is said to have allowed the idyll of America as a ‘land of plenty’ to exist, as it allowed the wealth of the American West’s resources to be transported back East. Yet whilst the Railroad was being built and new land traversed, the Frontier was progressing daily, so fast that Jars of dirt sent back by Irish workmen (heading west) to the cities on the East coast to be sold as ‘Frontier Soil’ were redundant by the time reached the city, as the railroad Frontier had progressed thirty miles West; Emphasising the unattainability of the ‘Dream’ in it’s most reduced, primitive form; Dirt. The ‘Dream’ as a Frontier was reduced further on the railroads 75th anniversary by the introduction of a commemorative stamp, which was issued across America in 1944, emphasising the continuing reduction of the Dream’s representation by the railroad and how homogenised the ‘American Dream’ had become; Whilst the contemporary representation of America’s Frontier becomes more diverse and complex. Omaha, Neb to Sacramento, Cal focuses on these once frontier lands along the route of the Transcontinental railroad, where the American Dream was once at it’s most pure and corporeal, yet the inhabitants of these lands have now been left clinging to fragments of the ‘Dream’ as the Frontier has moved on.” ”*The studio images of the Soil samples were taken with the San Francisco US customs digital POLAROID camera due to state laws on the transport or sending of soil. I had to photograph some of the 156 soils samples in the customs office, before applying for permission to send the soil samples back to the UK which can take up to 8 months.”

See more here

Alex Hunter

2009-08-27T19:17:00.032+01:00

Untitled (from "Past Presense") © Alex Hunter

Untitled (from "Past Presense") © Alex Hunter

Untitled (from "Past Presense") © Alex Hunter

Untitled (from "Past Presense") © Alex Hunter

Untitled (from "Past Presense") © Alex Hunter

Alex Hunter Graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2007 with BA (Hons) Photography

“past presence”

"This body of work came about through an old set of family images that used I hang on the wall of my childhood home. I remember being facinated by these images that showed me what my forefathers looked like, people that I have never met before, yet people that I can relate to and sometimes even see myself in. This is the power of photography.

These photographs no longer hang on the wall of the family home. The marrage between the photographs and the walls now exists here in my own photographs. These people have an affinity with the walls of this house and they will continue to do so for the time that these photographs remain."

Awh.hunter@gmail.com

Ben Baxter

2009-08-25T22:57:00.017+01:00

Tree (from "Dead Space") © Ben Baxter

Green (from "Dead Space") © Ben Baxter

Flower Bed (from "Dead Space") © Ben Baxter

Fan (from "Dead Space") © Ben Baxter

Bench (from "Dead Space") © Ben Baxter

Ben Baxter Graduated from University for the Creative Arts - Rochester in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

"Dead Space"

"This series looks at modern urban development and the public domain around central London. The trend is new public space is no longer one in which all kinds of people can enjoy diverse activity. Instead the space is defined and dictated by a select group of people and the results are drenched in over-planning and pomposity. The promise of a new public plaza is often just an attractive compromise and a subsidiary thought. Consequently the resulting spaces reflect just that; mediocre token gestures that ultimately discourage public bustle."

benjaminrobertbaxter@hotmail.com

Rachael Rands

2009-08-22T09:00:00.010+01:00

Untitled (from "Transitions") © Rachael Rands

Untitled (from "Transitions") © Rachael Rands

Untitled (from "Transitions") © Rachael Rands

Rachael Rands Graduated from Central Saint Martin's College in 2000 with MA Communication Design, Pathway Photography

"Transitions"

"Advertising is something that surrounds us and much has been written about its impact on us. I am interested in the way advertising affects our public spaces and how mass media defines our personal tastes. By focusing on the surface of those sliding street billboards these images are a comment on the superficiality of the medium as well as its pervasiveness."

See more here

Per Mattisson

2009-08-21T08:00:00.015+01:00

Untitled (from "Lagom") © Per Mattisson

Untitled (from "Lagom") © Per Mattisson

Untitled (from "Lagom") © Per Mattisson

Untitled (from "Lagom") © Per Mattisson

Untitled (from "Lagom") © Per Mattisson

Per Mattisson Graduated from University for the Creative Arts - Rochester in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

"Lagom"

"Lagom is Per Mattison’s first publication and explores social issues in
his native Sweden. He is a stranger in his own land, a Swede who has lived
outside his country and returns to it with the fresh perspective that this
combination of distance and intimate understanding can provide.

Lagom is a word difficult to translate into English that means roughly
‘just enough’ or “everything in moderation”. The word is part of the
national identity and colors Swedish attitudes.
It represents an ideal place where everything is as it should be, and
where the necessities of a good life are guaranteed. Nothing disturbs this
utopian status quo. Lagom prevents anyone from falling too far down the
social ladder. At the same time it frowns on anyone intent on climbing up.
As long as things are done in the Lagom way there is no need to worry
about extremes.
Despite recent international influences on economy and culture the deeply
imbedded value of Lagom still strongly manifests within the Swedes.

This sense of moderation has offered and delivered tangible benefits.
Applied by successive governments of Social Democrats through Sweden’s own
brand of ‘middle way’ socialism, it has contributed to the establishment
of a strong welfare state and the apparent eradication of social
injustice. On closer inspection however the dominance of this desire for
a shared normality has led to a subtle but steady erosion of an individual
sense of self and of a freedom of spirit."

See more here

Rachel Cunningham

2009-08-19T20:13:00.014+01:00

Quiet Transfer I: Demolition #30 (2/4/08) Shadi Hamdan Family, Anata, Jerusalem. 2008 (from "Quiet Transfer") © Rachel Cunningham

Quiet Transfer I: Demolition #31 (9/4/08) Khalid Schoman Family, Beit Hanina, Jerusalem. 2008 (from "Quiet Transfer") © Rachel Cunningham

Quiet Transfer I: Demolition #58 (15/7/08) MajidAbu Aisha Family, Beit Hanina, Jerusalem. 2008 (from "Quiet Transfer") © Rachel Cunningham

Quiet Transfer I: Demolition #50 (7/5/07) Hasan Tutah Family, Wadi Al Joz, Jerusalem. 2008 (from "Quiet Transfer") © Rachel Cunningham

Quiet Transfer I: Demolition #4 (4/1/08) Jaabary Family, Shoafat, Jerusalem. 2008 (from "Quiet Transfer") © Rachel Cunningham

Quiet Transfer I: Demolition #33 (14/4/08) Yunis Sbeih Family, Anata, Jerusalem. 2008 (from "Quiet Transfer") © Rachel Cunningham

Rachel Cunningham Graduated from University of Westminster in 2008 with MA Photographic Studies

"Quiet Transfer"

"Rachel Cunningham is a London based artist whose photographic practice explores various themes surrounding photography and representation. She combines her practice with an interest in art history, especially the place of still life in both photography and painting.

‘Quiet Transfer’ explores the Arab-Israeli conflict through the Israeli policy of house demolition and settlement expansion in East Jerusalem. The images show fragments of Palestinian houses demolished in 2007-2008. The fragments were collected in Jerusalem following the demolitions and then posted to the artist in London. These still life images are shot in the style of archeological or museum artifacts, lit with inky blackness and high contrast, they resonate with religious and political importance."

See more here

Peter Watkins

2009-08-16T14:58:00.003+01:00

Untitled 1 (from "Hope of Additional Light/ Now We See Darkness") © Peter Watkins

Untitled 2 (from "Hope of Additional Light/ Now We See Darkness") © Peter Watkins

Untitled 3 (from "Hope of Additional Light/ Now We See Darkness") © Peter Watkins

Untitled 6 (from "Hope of Additional Light/ Now We See Darkness") © Peter Watkins

Untitled 7 (from "Hope of Additional Light/ Now We See Darkness") © Peter Watkins

Untitled 8 (from "Hope of Additional Light/ Now We See Darkness") © Peter Watkins

Peter Watkins Graduated from University of Westminster in 2008 with BA (hons) Photographic Arts

"Hope of Additional Light / Now We See Darkness"

"Peter Watkins’ photography can also be described as installation or performance. Neither the camera nor the development process are used as the principal means for his manipulations of light and colour dispersions; they are just witnesses. It is, rather, a direct manipulation of the landscape. Colour is laid directly onto the subject through projected light over the course of a visual event, which is then recorded, and removed and reproduced every time it is turned on or off. In this process, three sites of meaning are produced: the performance of its creation, the static past of the photograph and a living present. It provides both a direct and indirect engagement with the subject, and an honest, organic representational concept." (text: www.murmurart.com)

See more here

Elizabeth Wewiora

2009-08-13T19:01:00.003+01:00

Sensory Deprivation #3 (from "The Things After The Physics") © Elizabeth Wewiora

Hand & Thread Series #2 (from "The Things After The Physics") © ElizabethWewiora

Untitled #1 (from "The Things After The Physics") © Elizabeth Wewiora

Still Life #1 (from "The Things After The Physics") © Elizabeth Wewiora

Sensory Deprivation #1 (from "The Things After The Physics") © Elizabeth Wewiora

Elizabeth Wewiora Graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2008 with BA (hons) Fine Art Photography

"The Things After The Physics"

"Interest for me, lies in the ambiguity between images that may appear as the everyday, but also hints at the truly beautiful nature of our surroundings. Photographic focus on light, texture and colour can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, whilst more staged imagery can work to change the view of an otherwise empty space. This is the nature of most of my degree show work."

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Anne-Cécile Caillaud

2009-08-11T22:42:00.002+01:00

Eggs (from "The Liquid Showdowns") © Anne-Cécile Caillaud

The Queen (from "The Liquid Showdowns") © Anne-Cécile Caillaud

Refuge (from "The Liquid Showdowns") © Anne-Cécile Caillaud

Starship Trooper (from "The Liquid Showdowns") © Anne-Cécile Caillaud

Arrow (from "The Liquid Showdowns") © Anne-Cécile Caillaud

Anne-Cécile Caillaud Graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in 2009 with MA Communication Design, pathway Photography

"The Liquid Showdowns"

"My work can be described as large modern still-lives, focusing on narratives behind the idea of "Lost and Found".
Over time, the Regent's Canal waterway became a fascinating element of my surroundings and a daily landscape of my life in east London. I am interrested in the discared objects floating in the water. I used the process of isolating them in an inky void, which gives to each of these curious items a new meaning by capturing this odd and unique moment where they are out of their usual context, drifting unrealistically in a dark flow. The images are suspended in moments of uncertainty, leaving sensations of calm. The obvious confrontation of two different worlds appears. When nature suddenly encounters urbanity, it creates a confusing space. It is a combination of an entirely pure element with its own wildlife in direct breakdown with the products of mankind, which makes it a poetic, hybrid territory."

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Hayley Raines

2009-08-09T20:28:00.002+01:00

(from "Platonic Relationship") © Hayley Raines

(from "Platonic Relationship") © Hayley Raines

(from "Platonic Relationship") © Hayley Raines

(from "Platonic Relationship") © Hayley Raines

(from "Platonic Relationship") © Hayley Raines

Hayley Raines Graduated from University College Falmouth in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

"Platonic Relationship"

"Space: a realm of which physicality supports no notion. Though complex to define the double faceting of space has boundaries that are never constant and always being reset. By looking at the five Platonic solids and attempting to blur together physical evidence of built space with the psychological effects of built space; human constructions appear as mere shadows of what we mean them to represent. The focus on the atom as matter stretched out explores provisional boundaries and permeable space. The suspended figure shows a state where the body itself is a boundary; skin holding energy and matter. It becomes a co ordinate in time and space and, like the photograph, becomes an object. If the subject is to become object, the subject must become one with the surroundings. Without becoming dead, bodily excess - such as vomit - is the closest way to achieve this objectified state and become truly assimilated within the space."

hjraines@googlemail.com

Richard Marsden

2009-08-08T18:51:00.004+01:00

(from "Agents of Aspiration") © Richard Marsden

(from "Agents of Aspiration") © Richard Marsden

(from "Agents of Aspiration") © Richard Marsden

(from "Agents of Aspiration") © Richard Marsden

(from "Agents of Aspiration") © Richard Marsden

Richard Marsden graduated from University College Falmouth in 2009 with BA (Hons) Photography

"Agents of Aspiration"

"The Notion of Leisure; time spent outside the personal call of duty. Within this 'free time' opportunities occur for an individual to construct a positive representation on the inner self.

While society continues to be fostered and governed by business, the consumption of leisure continues to be dictated through marketing. A society dictated by ambitions to liberate the individual, has handed to business the perfect consumer.

This documentation has been an inquiry into the strange actuality that exists within leisure environments."

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Caleb Churchill

2009-08-06T19:15:00.007+01:00

Upsmacking (from "Horny Dog") © Caleb Churchill

Sunflower Feeder (from "Horny Dog") © Caleb Churchill

Horny Dog (from "Horny Dog") © Caleb Churchill

Flat Fat Cat (from "Horny Dog") © Caleb Churchill

Ascent (from "Horny Dog") © Caleb Churchill

Caleb Churchill graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2009 with BA (Hons) Fine Art Photography

"Horny Dog"

"The images in this work are wide-eyed with lucid subjects. They are caught in a dream-like state. I wonder where the embraces have begun to begin and end. I have created images that embody the classic enlightenment with senders, receivers and something in between. They all become one with lyricism and rhythm, going from one image to the next with their myriad of associations. I have chosen not to define the muse while I allow her singularity whilst threatening to make her distinguishing features disappear. This is about trying to force a smile, to understand the essence of love and truth while reconciling sensitivity to the self."

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