Truman Review.
CONTENTS 1-4, Simon Bendix Borregaard 5-10, Kerry Fransic 11-16, Stevie Hockaday 17-22 Tomas Soltanos 23-28 Alexandra Gedert
Middlesex university took up the 3rd floor in the Truman brewery to exhibit London their collection of graduating creative students. As the Fashion catwalk came to and end the exhibition took off with a bang, with a wide range of viewers flying in from all aspects of the creative industry. It goes without saying that whilst entering the exhibition everyone knew they was going to be in for a great exciting time and, well we sure was. The work in the exhibition shown the true dedication of Middlesex students as well as the begging of the new generation of creative’s that are to come.
Simon Bendix Borregaard
Simon is a Danish photographer living in London. Specialising in portraiture with a twist of controlled environmental fashion. As I was approached by Simon’s work I was immediately drawn into the world that he had created through in imagery. He displayed work that had been inspired by childhood memories. This instantly was communicated from an idea that started right through to the final imagery that was produced. I can certainly say that Simon had one of the most exciting displays at the Truman Brewery; displaying childhood toys
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alongside research. This got my attention from the word go
‘The series is a self analytical reflection but i can somehow step away from each image by using other people to represent myself, leaving me behind the camera and therefore in control.’
I felt child like playing with the toys and relating his images with memories of my own. I instantly liked the way that his imagery conveyed the innocent of being a child and looking at these images felt like a visual representations of his past and recollections about his childhood. The series is partly investigated both himself as well as the public communicating a visual aesthetic for whoever may be interested. I researched more into Simons work by looking online at his portfolio. Other images that he has produced strikes me into the style in which he works in.
K e r r y F r a n c i s .............................. The fashion communication and styling exhibition was the first part that I walked into. It was easy to spot straight away that other exhibitors had been drawn in to a certain piece of work. As I walked over to where everyone was gathered it was clear straight away to see why so many people were intrigued. -
Not going to be 21 for long.
This beautiful display of sporadic and natural images, captured the eye of the public. Inspired by the works of Nigel Shafran and Mark Borthwick , kerry displays the insights and realities of life at 21. When I first looked at her images I wanted to know more about the idea behind it. The images displayed on a wooden cork board reminded me of 21 year old bedroom with a wall full of memories, then I looked through her booked and it all became images that turned into a story of an adventure. The layout of the booklets were clean and simple, which worked really well with the relevant imagery giving you chance to look at the images and not be overwhelmed with a jam packed page of information. It gave me chance to relate my experience of being 21 to hers.
Interview Q. What inspired you to do you final degree on your subject matter/
did you originally an idea or did you work up to it throughout your previous projects? My FMP 1 and 2 were quite contrived and controlled and I wanted FMP 3 to be something more personal which was much more of a challenge for me.
Q. How did you manage your time through 3rd year? Printing takes up a lot more time than you would think so I always created a timeline for each project to allow time for the finial editing. Q. Who are you interning for? or whom did you intern for throughout university? Throughout university I interned for Doll Productions (Calvin Klein, Louise Gray, Pam Hogg), Dazed & Confused and A.I. PR. Q. What are you doing now? I am now the account executive at A.I. PR for A.P.C, Sunspel and Ally Capellino and account manager for Cheap Monday and Zoe Lee. I have also continued with photography and recently shot at Bestival for i-D online.
Q. What was the best part of your degree? Confidence building. Q. What would you do if you could do it all over again? I would set my aims higher in terms of final projects and make sure they are communicated across to industry. Q. Not going to be 21 for long, how have you spent your time being 21? During 21 I experienced a lot of changes personally and career wise, I was either working really hard at uni or being really drunk. Q. Would you change any of that time? I’d worry less about boys/everything. Q. Your work is very promotional/photography based, what made you choice this route? Has your work always been in this style? I studied photography at foundation so the promotion aspect was quite natural when photographing fashion. Q. Do you feel that your work is received by the viewer the way in which you planned I hope so, I wanted my final project to feel relatable and my first two projects to make you understand the themes of the collections. Q. Who’s work inspires you Nigel Shafran, Mark Borthwick, Jamie Hawkesworth.
NOT GOING TO BE 21 FOR LONG
Stevie Hockaday
He’s the urban Barbie on the block. He certainly captured some well deserved attention as his model strutted down the catwalk in an oversized baby pink bomber coat with a fur rim round the over sized hood! For me this was the look that took the show. This fashion princess just loves to create the perfect sporty baby spice and he does it with style!. Pink is the colour of the season so Hockaday’s predictions are right on point with his baby pink, silver and white coloured pallet. It is clear that he is inspired by the urban world that our generation lives in today, he plays around with a stylistic grisliness and pop princess couture. The bubble jacket is one that needs to be on the market, I may add that I will be the first to purchase and I am no woman seen in any colour than Black. His work doesn’t look like it’s come from a graduate but someone that has been in this industry fro years. Its clear to say that Stevie’s work is professional, clean and excited and everyone including myself is excited to see what is going to happen next.
These are the looks that stole the show.. Not only myself but the audience eyes lit wher the urban barbie walked down the catwalk with the over sized bomber lined with a fur hood.
Tomas Soltonas
In just 5 epic images Tomas has delivered us the insight to our future through his own eyes. He captured my attention immediately with is big bold images displayed by telling this own story. I instantly felt the communication between the photographers eyes to the story he was telling to his audience. He unique portrait style with a hint of stylistic fashion summarized the world that we live in now and the future that lies ahead. It’s like it all started from a dream, a dream about the future. Big Brother is one of my favourite images out of the 5 story sequence. I felt intrigued by the way I was being watched looking at this image. The reality is that we are always on camera so was I being watched and was she watching me watching her; all these question started to for fill my mind. I decided to research more into Tomas Solantos after I had seen is work in the Truman Gallery. I was surprised when I started to look at his website, he doesn’t just communicate the in-depth future that lies within us but the beauty between people and the world that we live in. His portrait capture that emotion between the camera and the subject. I am attracted to his work and i am keen to see what he will bring forwards in the near future. Motherboard My prediction of the future mankind is that all the humans will have small microchips installed in their living body. We will be a live devices and our mind will be connected to one information web. The main brain of it will be the motherboard. It will collect and process all the information from our minds. New Kind New technologies made our life faster. Amount of information human process is greatly increasing everyday. In order to cope with this information flow our bodies are changing and adapting to a new way of living. Big Brother Our life is becoming a reality show. You never know how many people are secretly watching you. For me it is an interesting question, how many times I was captured on cameras I don’t even know about. New Reality Influenced by Internet and social networking the majority of young generation separates it’s life into two parts. They have one life, character and face in vastness of the Internet and sometimes absolutely different life in our understandable real world. However my prediction is that these two realities will connect into one new realm. The King of Energy My vision of the future god is that the corporation, which will control energy, will be Ruler of the planet earth.
Q. When did you first become interested in photography? A. After school my parents wanted that I would study somewhere. I had no idea what I want to do and photography was an option. I think during the college and university time I’ve got more and more interested in it. Q. Did you always know that you wanted to specialise in fashion photography? A. I still don’t know where I want to specialise. I like fashion photography but I can’t imagine myself as a fashion photographer. The industry looks for my not the place I want to be. At the moment I want to work with video. Q. Who is the photographer that most inspires you? A. I think there is couple of photographers I could mention, such as Guy Bourdin, Nick Night, Paolo Roversi, Richard Avedon or Helmut Newton. However I could say that not just photographer’s work inspires me. For example, my last project was based on Japanese animation. Q. What was your experience like throughout university and how did this change throughout 3rd year? A. I’m looking at university kind of skeptic. I think that the work you put in and how much you interesting making you better artist. At First year when I came I wanted to leave. I thought that it is waist of time. Second year was the same thoughts. Third year I decided to finish. However the last year was really great. I think I was enjoying the project I was doing and overall fell really happy living in London. Q. How did you find your style of photography? A.I don’t think I have a style. I didn’t produce enough work from which you could tell my style or at least I can’t. For me, every new project is a challenge and it can look totally different from the previous one. Q. How did you feel when your work was being exhibited at the Truman show A. I felt great and as well confused a little bit. I was happy that I finished university and can move on. Truman show was kind of a point, a reward after being three years in university. Q. The way you present your work is very clean and bold, did you try other media and experiment in other ways to present your work before you was happy with your final result? A. The style of this project was futuristic, so I tried to guess what kind of presentation would fit. I don’t have much experience about framing and mounting and what looks good for particular things. However I think I was lucky and the prints looked ok. I was happy 90% Q. How do you want your work to be communicated, is there a message you want to send to your audience A. I didn’t try to send any massages. It was just my own vision of the future.
Q. How do you find inspiration for your starting points/ your themes that you want to concentrate on for a certain project? A. Most of the time it comes from nowhere, and then you start thinking of that idea, with a time you developing in your head and then you start making it. The finished project most of the time looks a lot different from what you had in your head, but I think all of this process is a lot fun. Q. If you could do it all over again what would you do differently? A. There is always something you would like to change. However I’m pretty happy with that project. Q. What are you doing now? What’s the next part of your journey as a photographer? A At the moment I’m back to my country and preparing for one-year travel to South America. My intention is to make an exhibition from my travel images after I come back. Q. What was your starting point for the imagery you displayed at the Truman show? A. The starting point was a dream I had a year before I started a project. Q. Do you have any particular favourite themes that you like to work on? A. I don’t thinking much about that. You have an idea and you working with it if the next idea is totally different than you exploring something different. Q. Did you intern/assist whilst studying if you did, whom did you intern with and where? A No, I was working different jobs to support myself in London. However I think it would have been nice to assist a good photographer.
Alexandra Gedert -
Graphic Design
She is the woman without many word but her powerful imagery speaks out loads and clear. Bold, Loud and creative are the three main elements that came to mine whilst exploring Alex’s work. Her 50’s Milkshake campaign was certainly my favourite out of her displayed work and portfolio. Pastel colours combined with bold writing and stimulating images, it’s clear that Alex likes to have fun with her work and not take everything so seriously. With this approach has come some great results. The development within the project tells the story of her journey to create and define her style of work. The way she presented her work was fun and lively and instantly made me want to be involved with her work. she created the attention she needed to sell the product in front of me. This is the girl that the industry needs to capture before she takes the marketing and branding industry by storm.
Alexandra’s work instantly cought my eye as soon as I endtered the room titled graphic design and illustration. The way she presented her work was clean, bold and clear. You could see what she was communicating from her work to the viewer. Her work is fun and playful and Ill be looking forwards to seeing her work in the future.
S h i E r l i m a k i
The menswear designer that stole the show and won the Julian chars award! She caught the attraction of the crowd during the fashion show, bringing us some menswear clothes that meant business. Striking clean silhouettes combined with neutral beige black and silver colour pallet. The eyes of the audience was instantly pleased. No wonder this girl won, I’m sure we are expecting great things to be created from this talented graduate.
Ball’s Magazine