THE SOCIAL CLUB The social club: a place, which harks back to certain romanticism in the leisure time of students and workers, the locals and the unfamiliar. The series presents portraits of organisers of the Live at Leeds event in 2013. Each of the girls was friends or friend of friends and had an extensive contact list across Leeds. Music and alcohol, fashion and pool, all formed part of a setting, which felt unique to the location, in the iconic Brudenell Social Club.
CONSTRUCTING ORIENTALISM Manipulation, light-leak and long exposures are all skills that nowadays can be constructed digitally and applied with the click of a button. With a physical construction of a set, the subject is entrapped in a physical space where there is a unique frame to draw the viewer’s curiosity inwards as the viewer questions what is being suggested through the meaning of both a physical as well as metaphorical construction.
CHALLENGING ORIENTALISM Taken from the multi-platform project, the stills illustrate frames taken from an accompanying video shot by Yoni Cohen. Directed and photographed on location in the dimly lit interiors of a typically ‘Oriental’ location, the images initially present to us a challenging narrative. From the elaborately decorated interiors with the ornate and woodcarvings, the images are distinctly Chinese. The models direct, open gazes challenge perceptions on culture and fashion, tradition and expectation.
LUSTRE Lustre is a series combining both narrative as well as a series of botanical inspired prints designed by Christiana Eaton. From the natural undergrowth by the edge of a lake, to the carefully manicured trailing plants of the greenhouse, the images reference the colourful visual language of the Pre-Raphaelites in a re-imagination of a rich vivid and painterly-like location.
WABI SABI Wabi sabi is about a collaborative process with graphic designer, Eve Warren and designer, Lizzy Knight, who have collectively drawn up a large creative brief that has been inspired by the natural landscape of Yorkshire. The project looks at the conceptual exploration of the ideas of ‘Wabi sabi’, a Japanese concept that deals with the fragility found within the Eastern definition of beauty. It focuses not on what is logically considered beautiful, but on what people feel is beautiful. Using the medium of photography and moving video, the viewer is invited to seek out detail and imperfection in the image they wouldn’t normally seek, creating a series of images, which present a delicate tension within the work.