PUBLISHED BY BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
CREATIVELY DESIGNED BY TAMI OKOYE
The reset button has been pressed. The integrity of society has collapsed, and the world has entered a state of uncertainty. However, amongst the uncertainty and the unknown, creativity thrives. Hierarchies and titles collapse. The rules are rewritten. An artist isn’t tethered by restrictions or boundaries. The standards are raised and a new creative vision emerges. This is the creative vision of Unmute Photo. Birmingham City University’s photographic class of 2021. Multidisciplined in their practice, BCU’s photographic departments excelled within the unknown. Experimental, creative and innovative, a new generation of photographer’s work spans multiple genres, infirming and tackling an array of societal topics, whilst showcasing the students latest work and creative vision. The foot is firm on th accelerator. The ability to create and visually innnovate hasnever been greater. A new generations coming to forefront, with a new vision and a new direction. The future is uncertain, the once silent are unmuted and creatively untaimed. Birmingham City University proudly presents Unmute photo. BCU’s photography class of 2021. The new face of photography and the creative industry.
THE ARTISTS
LIMINAL SPACE ETHAN DAVIS
Ethan is a portraiture and street based photographer. His project acts as an exploration into how society in contrast to their environment can deliver different perceptions to an audience. In delivering different perceptions, Ethan looks to question how his targeted audience’s perception of environments and their experience can create different narratives and developing concepts within images.
@ETHANDAVISPHOTOGRAPHY
LIFE CYCLE OF A ROSE HANNAH WHITEHOUSE
Life cycle of a rose is Hannah Whitehouse’s final major project showing the white rose and all its stages of development. A symbolic way to show how the last year has been, dealing with Coronavirus. As a white rose is symbolically used to show innocence and that is what we were as a society when it first hit us in March 2020. A white rose is also commonly used in remembrance so its to pay respect to those we have lost during this terrible time.
@HANWPHOTOGRAPHY
MOSLEY MAGAZINE TOM AUCOTT
Tom is a social portrait and landscape photographer. His project Mosley magazine follows a wild campaign road-trip through the lake district, the western scottish highlands and the isle of Skye. Resonating into the theme of escapism and freedom. Issue 1- fresh air tells Tom’s story, gives advice on equipment, and narrates a number of mini-stories through portraiture, landscapes and lifestyle under the genre of adventure photography.
@TOMMYAUCOTT
EMPTY SPACES SKYE BLEWITT
Skye is a documentary photographer. Her project titled empty spaces explores how we associate memories with certain spaces and places, memories that impact us in one way or another. Influenced by Skyes curiosity and interest surrounding the current state of the world, due to the circumstances created by covid-19. Skye was keen to explore how and why empty environments can generate certain feelings and moods.
@SKYEIO
PANDEMIC PRISONERS HENRY GILLBORN
@HENNERS_PHOTOGRAPHY
THE NIGHTINGALE BIRD EMILY JACOB
As a contemporary photographer, Emily’s work explores the use of dance and movement looking to express the movement of the nightingale bird. A bird that symbolises love, goodness, creativity and is a voice of nature. Equally, the name is also the name of covid-19 hospitals built in 2020. Working with a choreographer and professional ballet dancer, Emily created a moving image piece and photos influenced by this year’s journey using a nightingale bird as a symbol. Implied with themes and concepts from societies experience of what individuals have delt with and experienced during the covid-19 pandemic. Emily collaborated with composers, musicians, costume designers, dancers and media students.
WWW.EMILYJACOB.CO.UK
REMINISCENCE HEATHER KIDD
Heathers project entitled Reminiscence explores notable events of the past 20 years by representing them as fashion statements. Her work explore a wide range of topics from terrible tragedies such as the Anthrax attacks of 2001 to light-hearted events such as the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. Her project also incorporates many of my own personal interests such as LGBT issues, gaming, and royal history.
@HEATHERMARIEPHOTOGRAPHY
MORE THAN WHAT THE NEWS SAYS CHARLOTTE ROBINSON
More than what the news say is a portraiture project by Charlotte Robinson, highlighting the mistreatment of the Filipino community due to the current pandemic. As a person of mixed ethnicity herself, this project was a way or being able to speak up about these issues, and how us as Filipinos feel when we are mistreated if our identity due to micro-aggression. Working with different generations, this project is to show unity, and how we are more than what the news say.
@CROBINSONPHOTO
MOSO - THE ART OF DELUSION CORINA PAPADOPOULOS
Exploring the concept of hyper-realism in an attempt to challenge Baudrillard theory whilst creating a series of work which serves as a testament to the raw a pure idiosyncrasy of human nature. Thus, exploring the human psyche via abstract digital painting which is meant to be read in a symbolic matter where the subconscious interprets the artwork on its own ethos will be reinforcing our primitive senses.
@MISS_CORNFLAKE
DO I PASS? JAMES NAYLOR
‘Do I Pass?’ illustrates a want to best understand through self-portraiture the connection trans men hold to masculinity, which at times finds itself toxic and hard to navigate. Hegemony and the pressure to uphold a traditional masculine gender to pass, has been a long regarded battle for trans men and has often caused discomfort in individuals seeking masculinity. Finding it difficult to accept that we can find comfort as men when men have long since held the representation for being seen as oppressive towards women, this project hopes to shed light on the vulnerability of young queer masculine youth in contrast to the hegemonic expectations of the white cisgender hetero man.
WWW.JAMESNAYLORPHOTOGRAPHY.CO.UK
THE PHOTOGRAPHER IS ME NATHAN MCGILL
WWW.NATHANMCGILL.CO.UK
Nathan McGill (b.2000) is an emerging visual artist, writer and curator based in the United Kingdom who utilises the medium of photography to produce socially engaged projects that explore the interrelationship between people and place. McGill’s most recent body of work ‘The Photographer Is Me’ is a participatory arts photography project in collaboration with a community of West Midlands based asylum seekers. Catalysed by the desire to shift the power dynamic within photography, the project set out to host virtual workshops with intent to educate, inform and cultivate a safe space for participants to express their creativity.
FACEBOX FACEBOT YASMIN JONES
WWW.YASMINLJONES.CO.UK
Yasmin explores our relationship with our data and the nature of personal data extraction by software developers. The viewer is invited to participate in an interactive experience and hand over their facial data in exchange for this entertainment. In turn they lose control of their face data as the distorted images they have made through their interaction are uploaded to social media. This is created in response to the software term Blackboxing which can be used to describe the way in which we are kept ignorant as to how our data is used online by the ease of use of the platforms we inhabit.
NEW GENESIS GEORGE HARRIS
WWW.GEORGE-HARRIS.CO.UK
George is a British photographer and aspiring creative director with a background in fashion, beauty, and editorial photography. His latest creative practice, titled the new genesis analyses how societies placement of faith is in a state of transition. Constant lust and aspirations chasing validation and social acceptance has made society place their faith in the act of consumption. It is thus consumerism and the act of wanting an idealistic lifestyle become the new form of religion. George’s work explores this transition and contrast between religion and the movement of consumerism, exploring their properties whilst questioning weather society will find inner peace and happiness amongst consumerism and social validation.
PURPOSEFUL ACCIDENTS DERVLA FLINTHAM
Looking into automatism and my own conscious mind in the sense of creating images and art. My intentions were to take images in an instinctive way, rather than with purpose or meaning, however contradicting myself by not having a ‘meaning’ is in itself the meaning. From Freuds’ research, he explains that in peoples artwork you can identify past experiences, interests etc about the artist, even if it wasn’t intended to be included by the artist, my project is about further exploring this mindset through the use and visual output of a camera in a hope to understand deeper ones unconscious mind.
@SHOTBYDERVLA
BUBBLE SPLAT PURPLE SARAH MAHI
Mahi’s Final major project is based on the theme of colour. Mahi experiments with the many ways one can explore colour specifically with liquids through the lens of psychedelic art. Throughout the process of her final major project, Mahi investigated the different types of motions and surfaces that liquids produce through the experimentation with photography and videography. Taking inspiration from 60’s psychedelic light shows, specifically, the Joshua Light show Mahi created the triptych “Bubble Splat Purple” by using similar methods that were practised by the artist Joshua White. The triptych was created by manipulating several liquids. This process was repeated multiple times until Mahi got the desired aesthetic.
WWW.SARAHMAHI.COM
SHOP SMALL CHARLOTTE WESTALL
For the FMP project, Charlotte took a different direction with her photography by exploring the still life/product photography. Shop Small is a small zine that showcases three different small businesses that need our support during this weird time of lockdown and businesses being shut down or closed. As a small business owner myself, I wanted to show support to other small businesses with the project. In the zine, it features the products the small businesses sell and an excerpt from the owners about their small business on what they do and how it started.
@CHARLIWESTPHOTO
THE MATERIALISTIC VISTA SAMANTHA WOLSTENHOLME
WWW.SAMMYWOLSTPHOTO.WEEBLY.COM
Samantha Wolstenholme is a landscape and mixed media photographer based in Halifax. The Materialistic Vista is a collection of work that shows the effects humans are having on the environment. The pieces highlight a range of issues such as littering, burning fossil fuels and fast fashion. The aim of this work is to bring to light how much damage humans are creating on the environment. Sammy hopes to generate knowledge through her work about the ongoing and increasingly worrying effects of climate change. She also hopes to show the small, simple things that society can avoid in order to be kind to the planet and slow the effects of global warming.
3D RENDERING SIMRAN VIM
WWW.SIMRANVIM.COM
Simran’s FMP is based around 3D commercials and advertisements for Japanese-inspired, London Dry Gin, Kokoro Gin. As a product and advertisement photographer, Simran wants to delve further into more immersive and advanced methods of advertising, hence the adaptation into 3D work. The future of advertisement is very expanse, therefore Simran hopes to develop and experiment further wither her work to create more creative methods of advertisement videography and photography.
MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL JADE TOMES-MORGAN
WWW.JADETOMESMORGAN.CO.UK
Jade is a conceptual experimental portraiture photographer. Her project Manic Pixie Dream Girl serves to answer the question, what next? What happens when the movie ends, when the boy is past saving, what happens when the girl doesn’t die. With the looming coming of age notion that is graduating what comes next when you never thought you would get that far. Questioning the notion of a fixed conformative future as a bisexual polyamorous woman, how my wants and identity are seemingly at odds with each other when it comes to things such as marriage. As well as how my mental health effects my relationships to others and how I view the notion of future in relation to my past.
STUDYING ECHOES LETICIA STELLA SZABO
Combining art approaches and photography, ‘Studying Echoes’ explores the theme of limiting beliefs in a dream-like aesthetic. The title refers to the original event that caused this belief to form in an individual, and the inner work of identifying and tackling them. This mixed media photography series is intended to raise awareness and encourage its audience to further explore this issue in order to find a technique to overcome their own negative beliefs.
@LETICIA.STELLA.SZABO
FUTURISTIC FUSION AMNA SOHAIL
WWW.AMNASOHAILPHOTOGRAPHY.SQUARESPACE.COM
Amna Sohail is a Birmingham based architecture photographer. Her latest work explores architecture in developed parts of the Middle East; in contrast to western architecture. Analysing the differences modern architecture combined; whilst exploring surrounding landscapes and scenery. Collaborating with a calligraphy artist, the element of calligraphy and mixed media looks to represent Middle Eastern and Islamic culture, expressed through the form of collage. Collaborating with an Islamic charity, Amna’s finals work takes the form of photo collages in the form of a zine and a 3D rendered model in conjunction with hyperlapse and timelapses. All proceeds raised by Amna’s zine will be going to an Islamic charity.
THE DEEP END PAULINA BLUMBERG
@PAULINAB.PHOTOGRAPHY
Paulina is a landscape and experimental photographer. Her project titled ‘In The Deep End’ explores the damages which our landscapes are currently facing. As a landscape photographer paulina believes it’s important to bring awareness to the current conditions landscapes are suffering whilst looking at preserving the landscapes through her photography. The images have been put through a series of damaging effects to mirror their harsh reality from the effects of climate change.
GRIEF AND TRAGEDY DYLAN BARRON
@D.BVISUALS_
Dylan Barron is a conceptual visual artist, who works across multiple creative mediums. His work often highlights and subverts subject matters that are polarising in society, such as political and social issues. His recent work showcases the immense complexities of human behaviour and the artist’s representation of grief and tragedy.
THE PANIC ROOM & OTHER EARTH JENNA ARNOT
WWW.JENNAARNOTVISUALS.CO.UK
Jenna is a creative mixed media artist and experimental photographer. In her latest work The panic room and other earth, she constructed two juxtaposed bodies of work. The first project being an installation piece titled the panic room which explores methods of depicting reality. Negativity becomes overwhelming; in which Jenna’s work looks to reflect how media can influence fear and control during the pandemic. Her second body of work Other and earth explores the concept of a dream world in which society can escape. Influenced by surrealism and expressed through manipulation techniques, her work disrupt perception and the gaze by physical intervention of paint upon images. Jenna’s final outcomes look to be physically interactive in which the sensory elements of her work would ideally have a physical audience to complete her work.
HOME ALONE DUKE AGO
Duke is a portrait and lifestyle photographed. His latest project Home Alone is a photographic mixed media project that highlights the challenges faced by the hikikomori community. The Japanese term refers to those who totally withdraw from society and seek extreme levels of isolation. This is a complex issue that affects nearly half a million youths in Japan alone, these types of people exist across the world from various demographics. At the time of creating this project, the world has been subjected to multiple national lockdowns, causing people to confront their own forms of isolation and loneliness. Hearing about people’s experiences in lockdown made me think about those who have had to live this way for years of their lives for their own reasons.
@DUKE.VZN
WE ARE WHO YOU ARE TAMI OKOYE
@TAMS.VISUALS
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
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