BA (Hons) Photography
Kind of
1
Introduction The BA (Hons) Photography graduates of 2017 gained their place at London College of Communication three years ago, through their individual drive and passion for photography. They understood photography as a medium to communicate, but what they wanted to point their camera at and why they wanted to show it to a wider audience was, at this stage, a mystery to most of them. This would reveal itself throughout the course. To help enable this, the course supplies an expansive study of photographic histories and cultures, an applied study of its techniques, encourages risk taking, experimentation and professionalism, whilst insisting on reflection and analysis. It is this combination, alongside their passion for the medium and hard work, which ensures each student will find their individual way of using photography, resulting in very different approaches to photography in the BA (Hons) Photography graduation show. We know they are going to be the future photographers for our magazines, galleries, billboards, adverts, blogs, the future picture editors, publishers, art directors, art buyers, curators, gallery owners. We celebrate their individual creative energies and their extraordinarily ambitious output and wish them all good luck with their exciting futures.
Course Leader Beverley Carruthers
3
3
You Take My Breath Away Imogen Davis imogendavisphotography.co.uk imogendavisphotography@gmail.com 4
In my current project, I am drawing from an archive spanning May 2016 – January 2017 in which I was a private altruistic sperm donor, to then being a potential father, and, following a miscarriage, returning to my cyclic beginnings. The work produced after this process is not documentary, nor pertaining to grief, but a celebratory expression of the ability to undermine societal and biological boundaries as
a queer act; attacking the innate notion of infertility caused by sexuality. In this sense, ‘queer’ is not defined as anti-heteronormative or as a unique act, but a collective attempt to normalise the abnormal. A personal and contextual archive of collected materials, including recorded phonecalls, a radio appearance and interviews with industry whistleblowers, alongside a host of object expressions, aims to
satiate the gallery space. This space attempts to house enough information to create a shared déjà vu, figuratively epileptogenic, causing a psychological seizure, a transfer of consciousness, information and memory. A numbered edition of 300 specimen pots will be given away as ephemera on the night of 24 May 2017.
Queer Dialectics William Britten williambritten.co.uk willbritten@gmail.com 5
The virtual world is populated and supported by surfaces, colours and shapes; by abstract, immaterial, entities that the physical realm seems to expel. A realm built upon a-linear, a-centred, irregular and dispersed images; of absolute images which form an intricate and rhizomatic structure. The virtual world is built upon infinite scraps of information
Num_# Xabier Astigarraga xabierastigarraga.com contact@xabierastigarraga.com 6
that hold all the data in the form of absolute images. Images that do not just fit within the boundaries of a fixed time frame or a two-dimensional system, but that belong to an expansive realm of thinly layered representations. Despite the myriad of digital apparatuses that merge with and alter our perspective into reality, our relationship with the digital and virtual worlds
is unclear. Considering the unsettled relationship we hold with technology, ‘Num_#’ uses the narrative qualities offered by virtual reality to open a discussion about the effects and importance of disembodied living, and our interaction with digital images.
Pressed up against another, our own procedures take on a sharper definition. In this work, the human and landscape are pulled apart into processes of flow, stillness and silence. In rhythmic encounters, images of a totemic man – animal relation, folk – history and the inherited landscape tradition work to quietly implement a visual territory formed out of a desire for orientation.
By placing equal importance on the human, geological and ideological forms of mark making that the individual inhabits, new lines of relation are drawn between the different bodies involved. Out of this terrain, a consideration is posed on the importance of both recognition and misrecognition, and their implications in relation to photography and power.
Cameron Williamson cameronwilliamson.com cameronwilliamson@outlook.com 7
Ayurvedic Lucidity Nilik Khimani nilikkhimani.com nilikkhimani@gmail.com 8
‘Circles: A Record of our Time’ is an ecology of image and sculpture that examines how man’s relationship with the environment can be read from trees. The tree acts as a recording device, a camera. As trees grow they form growth rings. Each growth ring differs depending on environmental fluctuations. In our current geological epoch – The Anthropocene – we are directly affecting the growth of these tree rings.
The tree becomes a medium for making art. Working directly with wood allows the viewer to encounter these materials as tools: portholes through which one is able to consider the future of our environment and human placement within it.
Circles: A Record of our Time
Hannah Fletcher hannahfletcher.com fletcherhannah@hotmail.co.uk 9
What a thrill ---My thumb instead of an onion. The top quite gone Except for a sort of hinge Of Skin, A flap like a hat, Dead white. Then that red plush, spilling onto the pale flesh. Plath (1962) The build up below the surface suddenly exploded, a struggle against the 80mph onset and flash of intense pain. The currents accumulated, streams progressing into tidal waves. Anonymous
forces were at play, tunneling through each bend with increasing strength, deluging through the veins and past the rocks where I stood looking over the Cornish landscape. The body I stood on was made up of millions-of-years -old organisms that had once belonged in the sea. The pigment of the limestone saturated the rock below and gradually bled out into the ground that met the dead grass and weeds, running for a few hundred feet before dropping back into the sea again. That rock had taken millions of years to make it this far from the water, only for my line of vision
Is It That I Cannot See Myself? Alice Cooke alicecooke.net info@alicecooke.net 10
to push it instantly back to where it came from. I couldn’t bend too far to see past the edge of the cliff; never trust the body of Eve.
At Her Majesty’s pleasure James Crockett cargocollective.com/jamescrockett james-crockett@hotmail.com 11
I set up a tripod a few streets down from my house. Hoping to engage some sort of interaction, I hung a white bed sheet from two trees and set up a medium format camera: a failed imitation of a photographer’s studio: an interruption, a distraction to passers-by. On 25 November, waiting for a curious stranger to approach me, I met R. We exchanged words, I took his photograph, he made me a cup of tea.
The walk began here. Six months later, each person has pinpointed a section of this walk: a trail based on chance, interaction and communication with strangers – a walk I have repeatedly retraced. I abandon navigation tools for the purpose of this work: a rejection of our dependence on new technologies, which have distanced us from one another and disengaged us from our surroundings. While exploring social construct, the
A walk directed by strangers over the course of six months Naomi Blair Gould naomiblairgould.com naomiblairgould@hotmail.com 12
work comments on how these technologies have influenced and altered contemporary communication, in particular interpersonal communication. By fear or by commodity, we have become fascinated by the possibility of self-fabricating our lives on the basis that what we hear and see is carefully shaped and channelled specifically for the individual.
Text 1 Where one runs and the other falls The light came down over the land like a breath, like breathing; condensing in the lower recesses, thickets, dusty indentations in overhanging rock faces. Flirting with the viscous river water that is skirting the boundary of its own freedom of movement in this morning cold. A light that was forgiving to the frost – bitten valley – sides, perpetually shaded through the months of December and January; allowing the darkened recesses to remain clasped firmly in ice. As morning wains, the light draws with shadow its own border of frost-hued ground, a crystal warning to the warm blooded men and animals residing in the fields and village to the East. Be wary of lines drawn, of places isolated. Saas – Fee, 2016.
text by Cameron Williamson
13
13
Strength, stoicism and selfconfidence are traits commonly associated with modern masculinity. My project aims to highlight the flaws in these ideals through the juxtaposition of form, texture
Stone Reflection Nathan Thompson ntretouching.com ntretouching@gmail.com 14
and materials. Inspired by stone sculptures and the relationship between male strength and fragility, this piece explores my own condition in relation to masculinity.
I moved from Nigeria to England when I was six. My grandfather worked with wood and used to carve figures and masks using traditional methods. My grandmother created her own African tribal designs on Ankara fabrics, and these became clothing for the family. It was only later, as an adult in London, that I came to understand the beauty and artistry in what they created.
I try to remain true to the unassuming simplicity of my ancestors’ art. But, whereas the pattern on an Ankara fabric can delineate a tribe and signify status, my photography is about deconstructing the established order and questioning the received wisdom. I enjoy working in black and white, rejecting the easy pleasures of colour, preferring to go back to
basics. Washing out the colour creates distance between the past and the present, and encourages the viewer to discard their sense of time, freeing them to examine the art in its own terms. Dreams have always fascinated me. I asked dozens of people to keep a pen and paper by their beds, and upon waking, translate their dreams into words.
Dreams Folashade Ayeni shaddyphotography.wixsite.com /shaddyphotography fa.ayeni@yahoo.com 15
Rebuilding a City Edward Hull edwardhullphotgraphy.com edwardhullphotography@gmail.com 16
For the last year I have been working on a participation photography project called ‘Capturing Miracles’ with at-risk youth from North Philadelphia. My work in this exhibition ‘Dear Philadelphia,’ is a tribute piece to the youth and community, displaying both my photography and some of theirs. In this piece, with the use of photography, text and sound, I focus on both my relationship with the people
but also how my own personal life changes and experiences in London have influenced my emotions towards North Philly. The youths and adults that I have shown are all photographed here for their unity, beauty and strength. See more of the youths’ work: capturingmiracles.org
Dear Philadelphia, Renee Maria Aiho Osubu reneemaria.co.uk reneemaria@hotmail.co.uk 17
An observation of our living dependency on nature’s complex form. Enhancing nature’s natural creativity, using the photographic surface as a support to understand its sophisticated silent language. Exploring the unpredictability of natural growth, to make visible something that previously was not perceivable.
UNEARTH. Hannah Barnes hkbarnes.com hbphotography@outlook.com 18
The stories I will tell you are mine and they are not mine [...] I am the biased voice of a generation of teens who are dead, nearly dead or feel they are vastly superior to their former selves. But they don’t know that you cannot escape your past [...] that you are now who you were then [...] That nothing has changed for me or any of us except time and a chance to reflect and understand the anger that we felt then, that we still feel now. It is the collective sharing of a universal story of a generation of under ambitious American kids […] revolting against a society that rejected them because of how they looked or acted or the families that they came from or the lack of money in a town fuelled by richness and salmon coloured khakis […] We met when we were just starting high school, forged a group based on our interest in getting stoned, by the fact that we were quickly categorised by our teachers as lazy and useless and that they were mostly correct, by our tendencies to go out for cigarette breaks [...] Disappearing entirely into the amber light of darkroom, exchanging pills amongst enlargers and exhaling marijuana smoke up the chemical ventilators – emerging red eyed and weary into the
We shared our fears of the past, future and the infinite present that never seemed to change except in the growth of pillowy facial hair [...] haven of ceramics room under the watchful gaze of the artist guru the Sandman, who sang us to sleep with stories of his youth and taught us how to throw on the wheel. Where we got our kicks from making bowls, cups, plates, smashing them into the scrap pile and making from them fresh new clay to be moulded and smashed again, never fired or glazed because the cycle of destruction was far too appealing for us [...] There were pure unequivocal moments of ecstasy where in our chemical highs we felt enlightened and these moments kept us […] loving and living because the dark pretences behind […] what we did was kept hidden within our communal subconscious – only talked of in the dead of night when in whispers we shared our fears of the past, future and the
infinite present that never seemed to change except in the growth of pillowy facial hair […] We didn’t care – that was essential to our beings – we were invincible with our soured souls hidden by that youthful glow until our cheeks hollowed out, teeth rotted in our mouths [...] Until we turned green and grey and could not recognise our own mugs in the bathroom mirror, until our eternal dirt turned the bathtub a permanent grey […] the colour of our lives and ambitions until the enlargers gathered dust projecting smiling images an illusion of a non-existent past that haunts us [...]
The Voice of a Generation Victoria Jouvert victoriajouvert.com victoriajouvert@aol.com 19
Vantablack Mudan Bai fishpowerphotography.com mudan9233@gmail.com 20
POTG (Play of the Game) Shaquille Mayanja instagram.com/shaqmm shaquille.mayanja@gmail.com 21
The Harder the Heart Ryan Chang ryanchang.net ryanchangphoto@gmail.com 22
This series seeks to explore the sublime and the underlying emotions behind our polished surface by means of the still and the moving image. Here is an investigation about the lorry driver. What drives an energetic and enterprising man to spend his life in seclusion, in a living space the size of a small cabin. What are the effects of this self-imposed solitude?
An unrelenting journey, a recurring dream with no final resolution, seeing life pass by is eluded to with cinematic imagery. Emotions cause time to be used as a currency for aspiration, all held in control via a steering wheel, small and insignificant amidst an ever-changing and all encompassing landscape.
Recurring Dream Tøri Gjendal torigjendal.com tori@gjendal.no 23
Built upon an attention to materials and processes, ‘Bark’ explores the artists’ practice. How does one work around a subject? How do different processes influence an image? But also how does an image influence different processes? How do we learn to make, experiment and reduce? The image rests upon layers of work, textures and processes.
Bark Alma Feldhandler alma-feldhandler.tumblr.com alma.feld@gmail.com 24
The piece is a collection of solar plate prints and printing plates together with drawings on paper and animation.
Girls and boys who are seemingly detached from the world, locked inside themselves, inside their rooms. In pale, cold light they stand absent from the moment, exhausted with reality they get high but not on life. Fluctuating between past and future, connection and disconnection, pink and blue; they are connected but only through algorithms. He buys an ocean to fill his room with lights,
moving graciously from corner to corner filling the blank spaces with green, blue and red shades of colour. Detached from his body he is swimming in the lights, not thinking, not feeling. She closes her eyes, lifts her hands and switches off her mind. Still and frozen they hang above the floor, clenching to the pleasant dream before them, stuck in a screen and escaping realities.
Nostalgia for a Future Agnese Gutovska agnesegutovska.com gutovskaagnese@gmail.com 25
‘Mother and Me’ explores the delicate relationship between my mother and I. My work explores the sensitive relationship we have with our parents, and challenges our ideas of the naked form. Through working collaboratively with my mother, this body of work is centred around our ideas of trust and control.
Mother and Me Ella Sloper ellasloper@gmail.com
26
Text 2 I don’t ever want to grow up I don’t ever want to grow up I wish to run free Happy and excited With a group of my young friends Who don’t care about the future But care about the now, art, love & sex They seem to understand the world In their own young, innocent ways And I want to sit in the overheated library For five hours With short breaks for the toilet And a cold lunch from the fridge My friends like to sit in a canteen And tell funny stories Of their everyday existence They are not afraid to tell the truth About their love life or a fragile state of mind They have constant innocent crushes On other people They fancy boys and girls Not quite knowing What they are yet They have threesomes And mention it casually And this is life for them Here and now I want to go To the top of the Shard And giggle in an elevator
On the way up While other people give us Looks of disapproval They hate the way We are Because we remind them Of their own youth And now They are grown ups In their miserable existence Of overpriced mortgages And careers they hate They wish they were Young again And could do it Some other way They wish They could hang out With their young, careless Boyfriends and girlfriends I don’t want to be them Ever I want to go to every art opening In town Every evening For the sake of Cheap booze And good conversation I want to have crushes On other people And drink cheap beer In the bar with No name
I want to have so many Project ideas That they won’t let me Sleep at night Sleepless nights Are worth it! I want to write Crap poetry Inspired by others’ Good writing The beat poetry About their life stories Recited with honesty During the crit tutorial And we go back To work In our little busy minds Planning the next deadline I love to run around parks Smoking and eating Cheap Tesco picnics I make new friends Daily And they are happy With nothing to do But hang around And have conversations And fancy each other Why would I want to grow up?
text by Dorota Beau-Ingle
27
For ‘UNIT 1081’ I wanted to portray how working for this particular company is a lot like being a part of a cult, in the way you must look and act, as well as studying the Fred Perry book, which seems to be almost biblical. Additionally, the way the company wants to be perceived but is not necessarily seen that way to all of its customers and employees.
UNIT 1081 Charlotte Wilmore cawilmore.wixsite.com charlottewilmorephotography@gmail.com 28
‘Four Hundred Miles’ documents a road trip from London to Edinburgh. Influenced by the classic American road trip, but with the contrast of very British surroundings in a post-Brexit landscape, this journey explores a personal experience of the open road.
Four Hundred Miles Bryony Graham bryonygraham.co.uk bryonygraham1@gmail.com 29
After many months of physical pain, strange weather, and puzzling occurrences, this series of inexplicable misfortunes brought forth one conclusion: a curse had been cast. ‘Eyed’ is an exploration of a superstitious belief known as the ‘Evil Eye’ – a curse cast by an evil gaze. In this personal account based on true events, the curse was passed on to me by one of the most unlikely creatures imaginable: a guinea pig.
Eyed Pamela Abad Vega pamelaabad.com pamelaabadvega@gmail.com 30
The peculiar placement of an object – in a home, in a garden, in a land, in a memory, in a story – is never accidental. All histories must be considered and there, in plain sight, lies the reality.
Dry Creek Hagen Deremo hagenderemo.com hagenderemo@gmail.com 31
A journey about to begin. Wei Luo weiweiweiluo.weebly.com weiweiweiluo@qq.com 32
After being infatuated by mannequins, their uncanny and creepy likeness to humans, I started to create a dark humoured storyline centred around a female mannequin, using different wigs to create different characters. Inspired by movies such as The Stepford Wives (2014) and Lars and the Real Girl (2007), the storyline revolves around a group of middle-aged stereotypical housewives all pretending to
live the perfect upper class life. However, it really does not seem that perfect behind closed doors, when left in a big house alone. Using a mannequin imitates the lifestyle qualities of the postmodern housewife I wanted to create, referencing plastic surgery, fashion and luxury.
The Desperate Housewives of the Mannequin Gabriella Soper lellasoperblog.wordpress.com lella@dailycid.com
33
technoselva Fernanda Liberti fernandaliberti.com feeliberti@hotmail.com 34
Opening Facebook, someone no longer in my life shares an article: Social Media has Created a Generation of Self-Obsessed Narcissists. I think: what’s so wrong with that? With the increase of advertising in the 20th Century, we were told to consume based on our flaws. Surely to be a “self-obsessed narcissist” is to be liberated, of which contradicts the previous consumerism object of belittling the self. I find it hard to believe this acquaintance, even read the article before sharing. The article paints sharing the self online as negative; that sharing your opinion should not be done on social media because of how public the Internet is. However, social media is a modern phenomenon that gives people a voice, whether it’s wanted or not. It is the fastest form of information sharing. We now find out information, read opinions, and form our own opinions based on what is being shared online. We project ourselves due to what is happening in real life, which we know about from the Internet. That’s what my work is about. I am trying to understand the self in relation to modern day events, particularly social media. As a 21-year-old woman semi-actively using social media daily, it is near impossible not to frequently read, hear, or view an opinion on what
Guilt is the result of being the “observer”.
the typical person in their 20s should be doing with their life. There are many “Internet famous” people, most of which are in their 20s, that owe their fame due to substantial followings. It is difficult not to compare oneself to a person in the same age bracket achieving success due to their statistics on social media. Getting out of the mind space that your social media following and/or likes equates success, or happiness, is near impossible due to the evidence that it works for many people. The science fiction TV series Black Mirror often examines this phenomenon, reinforcing the idea social media popularity is how to succeed and that it will be the only secure profession. With the continuing exponential growth of technology, this fictional situation might not be far off. What has sparked my interest in this topic is the fact that I am terrified of social media.
I post infrequently, and have little following because of it. I consider myself an “observer” of social media; watching, maybe even admiring, people sharing their lives online. From this “observer” role, I often feel self-conscious about my social media, and as if I am failing. Guilt is the result of being the “observer”. I know I do not need a large online following to prosper; yet something inside me disagrees. My video, ‘Lost’, is a manifesto of ideas spoken to the camera in a typical YouTuber-esque vloggingin-your-bedroom style. Although seemingly on the spot, the words spoken are scripted, an act done to contribute to the fake reality often presented by the “Internet famous”. I speak as a young woman, feeling pressured to conform to modern expectations set by an online world.
Lost Faye Callard fayecallard.com faye.callard@gmail.com 35
Stereotypes on the street Yu Chen backtoblac1.wix.com/erynnchen back.to.black@outlook.com 36
Her HijÄ b Johir Hussain johirhussain.com contact@johirhussain.com 37
Brockley Rozine Jahfar cargocollective.com/rozinejahfarphotography rozine_j@hotmail.co.uk 38
‘Looking at Gardens’ is an observation of British suburban housing and the borders of public and private space. This is a unique setting due to its blank state when viewed as an outsider as well as its constant double registers of invitation and repulsion through neatly curated flowerbeds, tall, well maintained
hedgerows and fences. These locations tread a fine line between polite competition with the neighbours and a strong desire to claim one’s own private space through decorative obstructions.
Looking at Gardens Alex Natt alexnatt.co.uk alex.natt@hotmail.co.uk 39
GREEN Corp. might seem to be a corporation like many others, but in fact it is not. The code of conduct is there and the appearance too, yet its headquarters is far away from the financial district, which it is separated from by the River Thames.
The difference resides at the very essence of its human resources. GREEN Corp. it’s a shuttered self. It’s green, it’s alien, it’s queer. It might as well be named Queer Corp.
Have you ever seen those men on the tube, commuting either from or to their workplace, wearing socks in fluorescent colours, or unmatching socks, or extravagant ones, within their oppressive work attire? Well, the staff at GREEN Corp. went all the way with it. Under their office garments they wear a green layer, a green skin or a green screen, for all their possible selves to be projected onto. Like superheroes coming out of a queer comic strip, in this hopeless time they run the business, they do the job and more.
Category is... Corporate Eleganza! Davide Martella davidemartella.com martella.davidee@gmail.com 40
With music by vogue DJ and producer Vjuan Allure and a personal reworking of a poem by artist Henrik Olesen, this work, part performance and part video, wants to stand as a celebration of the ballroom community and of all queer and femme entities.
C20H12O5 Flora Maclean flora-maclean.com floramaclean@hotmail.co.uk 41
Text 3 Through attempting to forge individual prose, this year rejoices in further destabilising the imbalance between the more limited capacity of language to relocate a mimeticism that falls so easily to the photographic image, resolving contention by exploring all faculties of artistic expression and communication. Through many narrative epistemologies, our mixed media cohort evidence how inextricably linked they are to photography’s innate conflict, routed in its scientific, technological and aesthetic dimensions, including optical lens based reference and visual satisfactions — a tension often resolved by photojournalists who accentuate the realist documentary nature of their projects. However, what distinguishes this group’s relation to photography from normative photographical production is the active rapport with which we have engaged our historical predecessors, who seemingly held firm beliefs over the automatic continuity between seeing and knowing; viewing and photographing. It is through establishing a rapport that it becomes widely possible to tacitly deconstruct or even demolish these pre-existing boundaries. The work as a result is derived from a combination of measured criticism towards photography’s meditations, its ability to embody the visual, and a sustainable dialogue used and developed to effectively communicate varying modes of expression. By accepting a medium’s limitations as opportunities in themselves, it is possible to negate the conventional reductive answer to the tensions between documentary work and visionary artistic practice, often espoused in our community. Whereas Karen Jacobs (2002) suggests a purely photographic discourse with literary links is “a kind of visual relation”
42
that she calls an “interior gaze” — working inside our medium’s confines by “valuing concealed truths” — I would suggest our cohort propagate a demonstrable exterior gaze; used for both research and practice. Of course, many of the works feature concepts that are sourced through an “interior gaze”, but it is by allowing an accession to use photography in its widest sense that many works can establish an originally exterior relationship with anthropological and sociological sympathies. This dialectical exchange between an interior and exterior gaze denies objectivity over the validity of acceptable mediums of expression. So whether literal or conceptual, much of the work on display establishes dialogues which can be experienced holistically. This is only possible through the course’s commitment to a positivist fantasy toward student methodology. By encouraging learning through experience and promoting experimental practices, the resultant work gains a unique and recognisable commonality in the diverse. It is not what it is but how it works. This approach allows students to accede to their own visual truths, by critically disregarding any prior difficulty of access toward such a revelation; often with the work’s qualities culminating in the gestalt. Through our dialectical relationship with what exactly photography is and where its boundaries lie, as artists, we have confidently defined and defended a wonderful ambivalence towards all limitations and expectations thrusted upon the umbrella medium we choose to gather under.
text by William Britten
43
Mimicking a scientific aesthetic, the photographic series ‘In – Between’ explores the tension of pleasant repulsion. The photographs evoke a feeling of comfortable familiarity, but simultaneously disgust because of the alienate quality of the motif. The sleek aesthetic seduces and creates a comfortable feeling of familiarity which stands in contrast to the uncertainty of the subject.
In – Between Kathrin Werner kathrinwerner.co.uk mail@kathrinwerner.co.uk 44
I found a whale, a dead whale, washed up but resting on shifting sands. Ringed by a flat horizon, surrounded by a tide washing back and forth, filling into these twisted creeks, like a heavy breathing ritual, cleansing this respiring land. Here laid a carcass, collapsed out of the walls of skin, revealed to the land as a monument, a spilt monument of death. With a tongue twisted by the tide, a tongue twisted whale. The body
was suspended in this fugue, amnesic state, converging into this essence of visceral sublimity. Lying between the immense, sweeping ocean and our strange shifting world, between reality and imagination, between the land and the sea, in a no man’s land. Here lay a creature part fish, part human, a creature of the sea, a creature which lives on beyond us, who sees things we cannot see, who holds
knowledge beyond our interpretation. A floating mass of flesh, once a watery, glossy skin, once leaping through the mystical seas, and now lying still. A bruised body, descending towards the ground. This incomprehensible animal, drying into dust, into a matter without purpose, into the enemy of modern order, a sheen of a faint glitter and an emblem of a lost time.
Oed’ und leer das Meer Tilly Wace matilda-wace.format.com t.wace@hotmail.co.uk 45
A documentary-styled short film explaining the childhood and life of a father. Displaying his shyness when discussing distressing subjects, the film focuses on indirectly talking about his own flaws and fears, these ranging from loneliness to the aspect of fatherhood and manhood. This is shown in a man that believes in being a strong silent type of person. This highlighting a current social
Shy Man Talking Shaun Michael Howes shaunhowesphoto.com shaun1199@outlook.com 46
struggle in the lives of modern men, with the rise of male suicide being ever more relevant. With the majority of the film focusing on his inability to speak and also his constant nervousness when dealing with difficult subjects. However, through his tough exterior it also shows a lighter side to a normally formidable man, this mainly being seen through his connection with his mother, wife and sons.
‘Whirlwind’ deals with the cyclical nature of abusive relationships. Drawing upon traditional portrayals of female psychosis in horror films, the photographs depict the mental pressure of waiting for a perpetrator’s release from prison, whilst questioning the differences between past and future, mother and daughter, truth and lies, and romance and horror.
Whirlwind Olivia Lynch olivialynch.net oliviablynch@icloud.com 47
My practice comments on the representation of women online, specifically through their presence within pornography. ‘The Semiotics of Pornography’ is not a critique nor a celebration, it simply shows an aspect of the condition of sexual female representation in the 21st Century. The video piece is inspired by the prominent 70s artwork The Semiotics of the Kitchen by Martha Rosler.
The Semiotics of Pornography Holly Shackleton holly-shackleton.com holly.shackleton@yahoo.com 48
This series of photographic images is addressing the complexity and dangers of psychological entrapment within our own domesticity and limitations of family members’ co-dependency. I wish to discuss mental illness, such as depression, anxiety and self-doubt, and its stigmas – the quiet and lonely suffering, the “bleeding” from within, which goes by, unnoticed by others. I also ask questions of feminine nature which needs addressing more than ever in
these difficult political times. Where is my place in society? As a woman, partner, carer and homemaker? ‘Malignant Co-dependency’ was created in my own domestic space. The bathroom signifies washing off one’s “dirt”, in this case as a metaphor of negative, heavy, suppressed emotions, being addressed in the privacy of my own bathroom.
Malignant Co-dependency Dorota Beau-Ingle beau-ingle.com dorota@beau-ingle.com 49
You Know I Do Naroa Perez Iguaran naroaphoto.com naroa@naroaphoto.com 50
Impulse Control Phoebe Davis phoebe-louise.com phoebelouise95@gmail.com 51
Brockweir: A Border Village Gabriella Hutchings gabriellahutchings.wixsite.com/photography gabbi.hutch@gmail.com 52
Our daily experience is largely dependent on perception. As Merleau-Ponty claims in the Phenomenology of Perception, “the body is a third thing, strictly speaking neither subject nor object… something ‘in between’, consciousness and the world, it is essentially ambiguous.” The bodily perception is a fundamental way to perceive the world.
The network coming with the digital revolution demonstrates a true virtual world for people, a virtual world which offers the illusionary feeling of presence. The perceptual experience of reality shifts to the compression of illusion and is mediated. These illusions blur the boundary between the real and unreal, and shapes the way that people perceive the external through perception. The relation between
the self and the external world is detached and disembodied. The project ‘Sun’ takes the universal subject as the model to offer the immersive environment for viewers and to explore the notion of the perceptual experience, movement, mediation and simulation today.
Sun Yunhan Liu yunhanliu.net yunhan-liu@hotmail.com 53
In Search of the Unfathomable Unicorn Kim Leuenberger & Alexander Pullin kimou.co kim.leuenberger@me.com 54
The Unicorn, in the way in which it manifests itself, has become representative of a great many things; fantasy, purity, power, freedom, even Christ. But in recent times, no attribute has been so closely associated with the unicorn as its perceived non-existence. It has become symbolic of an absolute reality lacking in its presence. “Unicorns are not real” This blunt implement of a statement, unsparing in its brevity, presupposes the conditions necessary for the non-existence of a thing, and in turn those required for existence itself. What the statement fails to consider is its own potential to be founded and centred upon and around a false idealisation of presence. In as much as the means by which a thing might exist without a necessarily perceptible embodiment. Two collaborators, Alexander Pullin and Kim Leuenberger, follow the adventures of famed doctors of Cryptozoology, Dr Anita Van de Berre and Dr Winston Heaviside-Gardner, as they set out to uncover forgotten traces of the mythical Unicorn. Their escapades would see them in pursuit of these two esteemed
“We must take a leap of faith, we must embrace the experience of not knowing and whilst doing so maintain what remains of our sense of wonder” — Van de Berre and Heaviside-Gardener giants of their field, from the highland spiritual home of this majestic creature to the far off and exotic birthplace of the unicorn in Greek scientific literature. Fragments of the two scientists’ work are seen through a documentary film of their expeditions and their book of findings ‘In Search of the Unfathomable Unicorn’, within which we find not just a scholarly work, but also an unabridged insight into the guiding philosophy of these two Cryptozoologists. “There are things that exist outside the scope of our understanding. And in this time, this age of information and deconstruction
where all phenomena are reduced to discrete values and data, how might we grasp that which eludes our intellect? We must take a leap of faith, we must embrace the experience of not knowing, and whilst doing so maintain what remains of our sense of wonder, so that we might see the brilliance in the most ordinary of things.” Taking root in the thematic use of the Unicorn in Alex’s essay Can The Photograph be Considered Truth of Anything as an emblem for the photographic’s tumultuous relationship with reality, the project aims to deal with the issues of reality, existence and childish idealism.
In Search of the Unfathomable Unicorn Alexander Pullin & Kim Leuenberger alexanderpullin.com alex@alexanderpullin.com
55
The first artwork I beheld was a copy of Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) that hung in my childhood home. By means of re-enacting the protagonist in differing perspectives, this series manifests into
Fractured Transference Glenn Michael Harper glennmichaelharperphotography.com glennmichaelharper@outlook.com 56
mise en abyme – all pervasive, copy after copy, to an unknown vanishing point. These images thus become stage-like scenes, escalating a painting into an auratic and
exalted object. As these pillars are pushed apart, all that remains is the point of a thwarted transference and broken eulogy.
There, the simulation expires, everything becomes blank again. The simulation expires? ...and blankness can’t be traversed. What if I go to Mile End and start pushing the data around me until it generates new blankness? You would just crash it. Don’t take it personally but the reason
you’ve never travelled outside it is that you can’t. The simulation will always end. [pause] What can you see right now? I see the room we’re in. I see its walls but the door is locked. Outside there’s a… Outside there’s nothing. Outside is not being generated
in full right now; it just doesn’t exist other than in the blank state. There’d be a crash every second if all of us were to generate the outside every single time we think of it. In fact, how can you be sure of the outside when it doesn’t sound like anything? No noise, nothing?
eyelids_open Giacomo Goldoni giacomogoldoni.com contact@giacomogoldoni.com 57
The three of us are strong, we have triumphed in our personal battles. We have supported one another and fought each other in the process. Dare I say it, we have a lot in common, which scares me and simultaneously fills me with some confidence. Often “mistaken” for sisters, we share some of the same mannerisms, not to mention our sadistic, witty sense of humour and our ability to light up a room with our distinct
The Three of Us Lauren Daly laurendaly.co.uk laurendaly95@gmail.com 58
laughs. I believe we get some satisfaction from arguing, what we say can be quite hurtful, spiteful even. Despite the coherent flaws in our relationship, we are an unbreakable unity. You will find my grandmother, mother and I at The Mildmay Club in N16 on a Saturday night doing the twist or sat side by side, distracted by our surroundings, usually with disinterest in our conversations. The room where we sit holds
many memories for us. Much of our interaction is contrived by our past and shared reminiscing, moreso by my mother, who has suffered brain trauma contributing to loss of memory, and from my grandmother, who is reluctant to embrace change. Our version of the past alters with our mood and with time, resulting in conflicting perspectives to which not one ‘truth’ can dictate.
A sibling collaboration with a sister (Tayla) and autistic brother (Preston) who use photography as a means to communicate with each other and the outside world.
understand a unique person’s life by entering into their personal space and including themselves in a life they would not personally experience.
Using photography as a tool to approach and understand a condition that affects thousands of people all over the world.
This is all placed into a book, which includes photographs taken and specifically chosen by Preston, which he felt he wanted to be included in the book. The book also includes images as well as personal interviews
Photography is used as a tool to become an inside eye to help one
that have been taken to document Preston’s life, to show others and to raise awareness of this individual’s life, which is very different to others.
Idiosyncrasy Tayla Collison-Childs tcollisonchildsphoto.wixsite.com /tcollisonchildsphoto taylacollison@aol.com 59
The digital is a space. It is a realm beyond this one. It is our visual link to other dimensions. It is a world, one where the spirits and shadows of objects and beings exist without physicality. The creations made in the digital world mimic this world, and they take on our shapes and forms, but are not held by the same laws. It exists, like the soul as a place not quite reachable, only imagined. Almost touchable and inhabitable,
2MASS Tim Orrom Swan timorromswan.com timorromswan@gmail.com 60
the digital landscape encourages a desire for the sensual. I wanted to work with this idea and create something that feels almost graspable, yet completely foreign and strange. Using my imagination to manipulate the digital, it helps me to realise my imagination. ‘2MASS’ is a simulated exhibition space with three separate pieces that explore the mind, the digital and the physical space that they exist within.
In 1962, Captain Wiebe was working for the Swedish secret service when he discovered a nuclear threat. He kept the information hidden, unknown to his family, and carried on to live his life with a dual identity. His
secrets will forever be sealed, but through a child’s recollection of a grandfather’s life, the family archive is playing a poignant role in unveiling the boundaries between reality and myth, past and future.
Nuclear Family Hanna Wiebe hannawiebe.com hanna.wiebe@hotmail.com 61
Tower blocks were not something I was accustomed to when I first arrived in London. I’m from a countryside where houses were individual objects and the closest you got to mass housing was a camp of 10+ caravans. But a majority of my experience of the capital has been spent in these structures, exploring them, living within them. There’s something significant about them.
Blocks Liam Glover liam-glover.squarespace.com liamglover217@gmail.com 62
Residential blocks are swarmed with life. 30+ families living within such a seemingly small area, only walls and ceilings separating them. You hear sounds from each direction, reminding you of the proximity. There is something fascinating about the accumulation of people within this one space. A different sense of community, each floor affected by the sound and setting around it.
‘Tramontana’ is an exploration of loneliness in Menorca, an island which becomes deserted once the last tourist leaves in August. However, this feeling, although nostalgic, is not tainted with sadness. The island embraces this tranquility protected by the northern wind, la Tramontana. At first, one might wrongly be condescending towards the locals, thinking they are suffering on this stranded rock in the Mediterranean. However, this could not be more inaccurate. The wind protects it, making it look hostile
to the outsider and as a result the isleĂąos are able to benefit from this chosen solitude. Rarely is one witness to this type of feeling, in which attributes such as reclusion or isolation become positive. The Menorquines have learnt to embrace loneliness, generally something that is widely forgotten and silenced.
Tramontana Irene Gonzalez irenegonzalez.co.uk contact@irenegonzalez.co.uk 63
Environmental pollution has become an increasingly severe global problem. In China, the most widely known and severe environmental problem is air pollution. This project is about the issues with smog in China in
Pollution and Generation Yuqiao Geng yuqiaogeng.wordpress.com 185257475@qq.com 64
order to make a comment on the balance and conflicts between social development and natural environment. I interviewed three generations of steel workers to know their different viewpoints on pollution.
‘Umbilical’ stands as an experimental video piece that addresses the aftermath of human nature and the possibilities of a digital becoming. ‘Umbilical’ envisions the idea of an inorganic maternity. The embryonic stage takes place within a clinical environment, which steals the aesthetic of a computerised territory. Hereby, four male individuals rest lifeless at the base of a column, which holds the personification of a mother. Their pink bodysuits fit as a second skin and allow them to homogenise amongst each other and
become anonymous. A rejection of sexuality occurs as they appear with silicone female breasts sewed to their chest, complementing their outer androgynous figures. A female incorporeal voice initiates their journey and the immobility of their bodies is awakened. Their movements differentiate in the form, but are intentionally constructed through an ‘organic algorithm’. The piece was choreographed appealing to a meditation technique called the body scanning practice and for this reason each male
dancer is deprived from sight. Virtual reality is exploited as a misused medium as it doesn’t allow them to visually experience their surroundings but grants them to focus on the remaining senses.
Umbilical Afra Zamara afrazamara.com afra.zamara@ymail.com 65
Defeat Statistics are a band from London who are working towards becoming the next big thing in Pop Punk. As someone who is close to the band, I work alongside them a lot and have captured their journey so far. Now I want the world to know their story. This zine contains images spanning the last year and displays the band’s backstory, interviews with the band, member facts and a behind the scenes look at how
Defeat Statistics Faye Postin fayepostinphotography.co.uk faye.postin@hotmail.co.uk 66
Defeat Statistics plan to take over the world. Myself and Defeat Statistics decided to put together this zine as a way of promoting the band, but also as something for music fans to keep and collect. Perhaps in years to come, this zine can provide fans with nostalgia and memories of the small club show days and the anticipation of Defeat Statistics’ first record.
Building my own cameras Lik Shan Jan Eric Wong ceirceir.wordpress.com likshan00@gmail.com 67
Text 4 The Infinite Present Green dot, yellow dot, afterimages of the primordial madness, a side effect of internal contemplation spent staring at ceiling lights, Understanding and interpreting lampshades of lays and red umbrellas in the midst of night, When the mind is lost in eternal thought, inexpressible in the naivety of youth, the youth that follows us from birth to grave, Where we learn so much yet so little where we build foundations of who we are and then abandon them completely and inevitably. Ultimately preferring the solitude of practical spaces and the company of contemporaries who fill our minds, bodies and souls with endless advice, criticism, support and cheap booze. Which we ignore or follow to the pleasure and spite of our tutors allowing us to grow, shrink, or lobotomise our practice entirely, Provoking an everlasting feeling of inadequacy of what is present so that the movements of our thoughts and ideas are forever transforming beyond the walls of the institution. Where we emerge from forever searching for something, an impossible solution that exists beyond the all-embodying present that contains past, present and future.
text by Victoria Jouvert
68
Countless forgotten negatives and prints belonging to my great-grandmother found their way into my hands, retracing her life and that of my grandfather during WWII and its aftermath in the heavily affected port city of Saint-Nazaire in France. However, these joyful snapshots are in no
way representative of these difficult times, nor do they show the tumultuous relationships in the family, which led me to question the negatives themselves in order to make sense of how conflict affects both memory and photography.
EmpochĂŠs Louise Donohue louisedonohue.com donohuelouiseg@gmail.com 69
“ IIIIIII is beginning to say i’m crazy and obsessed, but this is the clearest symbol yet. Screw the IIIIIII , I think i’ve found the biggest IIIIIIIIIII and IIIIIIII yet. This has got to be down to the IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII . At the end of the development is a curiously shaped IIIIIIIII , and unlike other IIIIIIIIIII road carvings, this one is an accurate depiction of a known IIIIIIIIIIII symbol...”
Sapere Aude – Emporio de Somniorum Charlotte Swindell charl0tteswindell.wordpress.com charlotte.swindell@hotmail.co.uk 70
‘Re – purposed London’ looks into the footprints of buildings in a city of constant change and development. Sites of adaptive re-use refers to when an old site is re-used for a new purpose; this being more economical and an effective method of land conservation. Focusing mainly on sites where the previous use contrasts with its
current; whilst managing to retain some of the life and character from its previous life. I am drawn to the way in an ever-growing society we can hold onto, and reflect on, past life and influences which were once of importance. The series explores a selection of examples and portrays their changing lifespan.
Re – purposed London Bethany Hardy bethanyhardy.com bethhardy094@gmail.com 71
I often wonder where you are, dear. Where did you go? You left so suddenly that I think my mind will never be able to comprehend what happened, but knowing I will never be with you again saddens me more than I can express. Every now and then I am reminded of you and quickly a distant memory would strike me and leave me blue, but I can do nothing more but wait
Missing May Yasmeen Melius yasmeenmelius.com yasmeenmelius@gmail.com 72
for time to ease me. It happened so suddenly, you left me so suddenly... My eyes and mind are mourning and they will forever search for you. May I ask this of you, please visit me, comfort me, and embed yourself in my work and all that I do. But most of all, please show me how to heal.
I am interested in ambiguity and the freedom manifested within radical expression; this photoessay challenges the eroticisation and beautification of women. My series is executed from a feminist perspective and deconstructs the male gaze by expanding the confines of gender; rather than focusing on a singular aspect of femininity, which tends to be politically airbrushed. I consider the ‘imperfections’ that make us
all human, along with the aspects of life that tend to be overlooked. ‘Vagina Dentata’ features portraits and texts to present women whom I find inspiring. I intend to capture their dynamic energy and shed light onto the indomitable strength that they encompass.
Vagina Dentata Yasmine Akim yasmineakim.com Yasmineakim@gmail.com 73
My work attempts to investigate the relationship between sound and image, working closely with an analogue architecture in both music production and my photographic practice. With an interest in collecting and experimenting in modular analogue synthesis, my aim was to produce a slowly evolving ambient electronic soundtrack which I would later playback in the studio space, working with
Matthew Walker matthewbrandonwalker.com mwalker95@me.com 74
contemporary dancers having them respond to the piece. I would later take the film and cut the sound piece into the acetate derivative of the underground soviet x-ray vinyl black market. My goal is to continue with this work using image synthesis from the prints to develop new sounds and bring them into new music projects.
Acte II: Collecting and Staging
Julien Martinez Leclerc julien-martinezleclerc.com contact@julien-martinezleclerc.com 75
This project is a collaboration between mother (photographer) and daughter (model, writer). The child appears isolated and lonely in a surrealistic world from which there is no escape. Her only companions are fantastical
Domestic Creatures Małgorzata Arciszewska malgomma.com malgomma.co@gmail.com 76
animals and plants that seem to question her presence and want to exert their authority over her. As the child develops, these images prefigure the challenges she will face as powerful instincts begin to make their presence felt.
I have been exploring the dichotomy between care and destruction. Self-cannabilising; the paradox of eating myself to become myself, yet in doing so, deconstructing and recycling myself. Beauty, horror, desire, revulsion, fear, fascination. The photograph is a lie. Drawings that are raw and filled with genuine expressions.
The Female Digestive System
JĂşlia de AraĂşjo Tavares cargocollective.com/ailujjjulia ailujjjulia@gmail.com 77
ISOLATION: I’M FINE Paris Tsang paristsang.co.uk contact@paristsang.co.uk 78
Following an investigation on digital culture and the relationship between humans and machines, ‘Know Thyself(ie)’ explores the notion of self-representation through photography in the online world. The methodologies applied in the production of the work aim to metaphorically manifest the author’s belief on the notion of identity in social platforms.
Know Thyself(ie) Filipa Martins filipamartins.com fm@filipamartins.com 79
BA (Hons) Photography 2017 Individual pages of this publication were curated by the students themselves. Catalogue Team: Dorota Beau-Ingle Irene Gonzalez Victoria Jouvert Kim Leuenberger Fernanda Liberti Cameron Williamson Course Leader: Beverley Carruthers Tutors: Matthew Hawkins Harry Hardie Tom Hunter Sophy Rickett Paul Tebbs Esther Teichmann Technical Team: Wendy Ennis Guy Baker Mary Jennings Daniel Salmon Burkhard Vogeler Adrian Wood Typeface: Helvetica Neue Paper: Starfine White, Fenner Paper Graphic Design: Weronika Rafa Printing & Print Finishing: Scott House Tony Yard Binding: Diamond Print Services
With special thanks to Tony Yard and Scott House for the production of this publication, and the tutors and technical team for their support.
London College of Communication Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6SB arts.ac.uk/lcc #LCCDegreeShows @lcclondon @lcclondon /londoncollegeofcommunication