DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY
DEGREE SHOW BA (HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY
VISUAL ARTS
BA (HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY
GRADUATES OF 2025
The students featured in this catalogue have demonstrated exceptional dedication and hard work, producing photography, video and interdisciplinary work that responds to a rapidly evolving visual culture. Approaching lens-based media from various standpoints and methodologies, the authors of these collected works delve into many current issues being debated within culture in exciting and visual ways.
This year’s degree show and catalogue includes works spanning the genres of documentary, fiction, fashion, landscape and truly hybrid approaches, addressing a broad range of subjects, themes and techniques in making images. With the recent advancements in AI technologies and the unending rise of new digital platforms, photography and media production are at a crossroads. The students’ works are not just responding, but actively shaping the future of visual culture in exciting ways. Many of the works within address this volatile state. Zoe Pinnick turns piles of everyday plastic into glowing, colour-streaked still lifes. She uses a technique called photoelasticity (it reveals hidden stress inside clear plastics) to hint at the very real stress our planet bears under mountains of waste. Sophie Hannant creates portraits that feel part diary, part cinema: she projects handwritten texts onto her sitters, wrapping each body in layers of personal history and emotion. This year’s catalogue is filled with contemporary images and artists who aim to set new trends in image-making, and we are thrilled to share them with you.
We hope you consider this next generation of artists who have invested their time producing exciting and original ideas. We want to congratulate all our students for contributing thoughtfully to our visual culture and thank the staff, friends, and family who have made it possible.
Dr. Mark Kasumovic Programme Leader BA Photography and Video
@axddie.art
ADAEZE AKANDE
GLIMPSE OF MY MOTHER’S LAND
A Glimpse of My Mother’s Land is a visual exploration of passing moments across Kenya, captured through the lens of movement and distance. Shot from a moving car, these images reflect my deep sense of curiosity and connection - an awareness that every passerby holds a vivid, complex life. Blurring the line between documentary and the dreamlike,
I frame strangers in moments of everyday beauty, where faces soften and landscapes expand beyond the immediate. This work is both personal and universal, a tribute to my relationship with my mother’s homeland and an invitation for viewers to reflect on presence, change, and the quiet stories that surround us.
@alexandra_baranova_photography
ALEXANDRA BARANOVA
alexandrabaranovaphotography@gmail.com
My body of work is a selection of photographs that focuses on grief and loss; by adding a range of mixed media into my pieces, it allows the work itself to feel more personal and carefully detailed. Each image is a representation of the pain and grief that most people have experienced in one way or another. Through this ongoing journey I have realised that some days can fell bright and positive,
while others can feel grey, dull and never ending. This is reflected in my images, where each one focuses on different emotions, demonstrating that grief is not linear, but a rollercoaster of emotions.
@ohm_atish_photography
THE GRACE OF THE HUNT
atitpoungkhram28@gmail.com
As a wildlife photographer, I find endless fascination in observing birds, each one a symbol of nature’s subtle elegance. My work focuses on capturing the beauty and uniqueness of different bird species, particularly in moments that reflect their vivid colors, swift flight, and hunting precision. Whether it is the stillness of a perched kingfisher or the powerful dive of an osprey mid hunt, these moments reveal behaviors that are often missed by the untrained eye.
Every image in this series is the result of patience and preparation. I spend hours waiting for the right moment, practicing camera tracking techniques to follow fast moving birds in flight. Through my lens, I hope to share not just images but the excitement and wonder of these fleeting encounters in the wild.
@ben_tom12341
This work delves into University rugby and how we try to tackle the stereotypes and stigmas of University sport. Throughout the year I have followed my team to show our progression as people and as a club from a 2 year losing streak to finishing joint top of the league in what is many of our final years here at DMU.
@benwaterfield_jpeg
BEN WATERFIELD
benwaterfieldjpg@gmail.com
This project is a high-energy, multi-sport cinematic montage created to showcase both the vibrancy of university sports and my development as a videographer. Throughout this year, I’ve been exploring ways to elevate my visual storytelling, focusing on dynamic camera work, dramatic lighting, and a polished cinematic style. Drawing from my own experience, where joining American football in my third year transformed my university life, I wanted this video to highlight the
excitement of team sports and encourage others to get involved. Beyond the action, the piece subtly promotes the positive impact sports can have on wellbeing and social connection. Inspired by the work of former DMU student Lucas Dove, who’s work showcases university sports in a cinematic style, this video is both a creative milestone and a visual invitation for students to discover the value of sports at university.
WHERE THE ROAD ENDS
My work for this exhibition, Where The Road Ends... , is a combination of both film and sound. By exploring the often over-looked richness of daily drives, this piece reveals the power of life inherent in the most ordinary journeys. The short film captures life’s quiet moments and lively interactions, using a vehicle to experience these details with or without sound, narrated by me to showcase my own personal experience of driving.
To amplify this, I’ve created an immersive soundscape that through surround sound, transports the audience directly into the heart of these experiences, creating an illusion of being present, fostering a deeper, sensory understanding of everyday connections found on the road.
@portal_photography_
CHARLIE PORTAL
charlie.portal@yahoo.co.uk
Eco Warriors is a visual exploration of the intrinsic bond between women and the natural world, celebrating both environmental awareness and feminine strength. This project seeks to highlight the vital importance of preserving our environment while emphasising the deep-rooted connection between women and what we call ‘Mother Earth’. One of the central visual strategies I employed was the use of low-angle studio portraiture.
By photographing my models from below, I aimed to portray them as largerthan-life figures, emblematic of both physical and mental strength. These strong stances serve as a metaphor for resilience and empowerment.
@elizabeth_oldham.photography
My project titled Enveloped is an installation expressing the experience of processing painful memories, specifically when attempting to reclaim a sense of safety after experiencing an act of violence or assault. When attempting to heal from my own experiences I found myself enveloped in the past and my emotions. Unable to vocalise my grief or my frustrations. To help convey and recognise these feelings I revisited emotional locations
and documented them through photography. I have used these textile images to communicate the journey and story of myself, as well as the story of friends and strangers that resonated with this experience. I hope that my work encourages others to search for a form of expression that allows them to begin healing and find their voice.
@freyadowling.photos freyadowling@icloud.com
I am an emerging photographer who is passionate about documenting authentic human experiences. The Calm Before The Storm explores the diverse ways people cope with stress, trauma, and the complexities of life. I am fascinated by the personal routines, habits and moments of calm that individuals create to find balance and healing amid chaos. Through my art, I seek to highlight these coping mechanisms, not as solutions or judgements, but as deeply
human acts of resilience and survival. I aim to create space for empathy and understanding, inviting viewers to reflect on their own ways of managing life’s challenges. By focusing on the quiet, often unseen practices that sustain us, my work reveals the strength found in vulnerability and the universal search for peace and meaning. Exploring this topic through documentary style photography allows me to create authentic and emotionally resonant images.
@jrw.captures
We Are Who We Are is a personal and political exploration of queer identity, representation, and the ongoing fight for equality. Through portraits combined with graphic elements and personal quotes the project enhances the voices of queer individuals, sharing their lived experiences and confronting harmful media stereotypes. I have presented this in three zines, each focusing on a different element of this broader social issue. Alongside this are documentary photographs from
protests supporting transgender rights, highlighting the real-world impact of underrepresentation and discrimination. This work is close to my heart as it reflects the issues faced by much of the queer community. By inviting viewers to engage with authentic stories, I aim to challenge mainstream narratives and encourage empathy, visibility, and deeper understanding. This project serves as a visual protest, a celebration of identity, and a call for justice.
@kjbcaptures contact.kjbcaptures@gmail.com
This project reimagines traditional pet portraiture by blending digital illustration with photography; to explore the personalities, fantasies and emotional bonds we share with our animal companions. By overlaying hand-drawn, cartoon-inspired elements onto candid dog portraits, I aimed to elevate everyday moments into playful narratives that reflect both the character of the dogs in the images and the imagined worlds they might inhabit.
Each image invites viewers to see animals not just as subjects of an image, but as storytellers in their own right. Drawing inspiration from comic art and animated media, the work balances visual humour with heartfelt connection. Tails of imagination is ultimately a celebration of joy, companionship, and creativity and an invitation to see the magic in the mundane.
LAUREN DANGERFIELD
BEYOND THE LESSON PLAN
Beyond the Lesson Plan explores the lives of current teachers and the persistent challenges they face within the education system. It aims to shed light on the pressures experienced by teachers, often unseen by those outside the profession, including students and parents. The work features documentary-style still life images in both colour and black & white film, accompanied by interviews with teachers. Direct quotes from these conversations are included throughout.To contrast the teachers’ voices,
I’ve incorporated drawings by the youngest children at the school I worked with, creating a striking juxtaposition between perception and reality in primary education. The final outcome is an interactive digital platform presenting this exploration. My inspiration came from working as a teaching assistant during a difficult time in life, which led me to discover a passion for both teaching and photography. This experience revealed the chaotic yet deeply rewarding nature of a teacher’s role.
For this project, I have created a visionary photo book that explores sustainability within fashion by redefining the appeal of second hand clothing. Through a collection of vibrant and visually engaging images, this book challenges stereotypical perceptions of pre-loved fashion, presenting it as trendy, stylish and fashionable. This series features female models styled in second hand pieces, posing in expressive and eye-catching stances, highlighting confidence and passion for pre-loved items. Each photograph is carefully crafted, using vibrant colour palettes, experimental.
lighting and a variety of fashion trends to reflect the potential for sustainable style. By merging fashion photography with an important message, this series aims to inspire an audience to see second hand clothing as a creative and stylistic choice, whilst pushing to change the perception of pre-loved items. This project highlights my personal photographic development as I continue to explore the convergence of visual storytelling and important messages. I hope my work encourages new conversations around ethical and fast fashion, whilst provoking a shift in how we view and value our clothing choices.
LILLIAN COHEAD
Shot Through Code explores the evolving and often uneasy dialogue between human creativity and artificial intelligence. Through photography, I decided to investigate artists’ varied responses to AIgenerated art, ranging from fascination to frustration and optimism to resignation. Using cables, wires, and digital motifs as recurring symbols, the work visualises the tension between organic artistic expression and the synthetic flatness often seen in AI-produced imagery.
These photographs invite viewers to consider not just what AI makes, but what it omits, with its nuance, imperfection, and intent. By framing these conversations through a visual lens, I aim to document a moment of cultural shift in which artists are asked to redefine or defend their role. This project doesn’t provide answers. It asks, ‘What happens when creativity is automated, and the spark is replaced with a script?’
@lucy.healy__
lucyjack22nd.wixsite.com/my-site-1
My photographic project explores the quiet but powerful return of nature in places altered or abandoned by human presence. I document through close/ detailed shots of how plants and nature are slowly reclaiming territory once dominated by urban life. This project reflects resilience, not just of nature but of time itself, breaking down what we believed to be permanent.
I aim to evoke both awe and reflection: awe at the beauty of nature’s persistence and reflection on our ecological footprint. This project invites viewers to consider what remains when we leave and what it truly means to coexist with the world around us.
@mart_aphotography
martapammi.wixsite.com/my-site-2/home
This project explores the personal, complex, and frequent politicisation of abortion through storytelling. Using photography and video as a medium of empathy and defiance, I aim to challenge stigma and create space for voices that are too often silenced. Driven by the belief that reproductive rights are human rights, I decided to portray my own perception of the subject, and at the same time leaving a door open to those who might have different opinions, aiming to create a safe, compassionate and understandable space for everyone.
Each image (captured with intention and sensitivity) is a reflection of a real experience - my own - and the grief, anger, relief and resilience I gained from it. Rather than offering answers, this piece of work invites viewers to sit with the emotional weight of choice, autonomy and consequence. This series is both deeply personal and unapologetically political, asking us to see the people behind the headlines - not as symbols, but as human beings.
@raffertybaggaley
RAFFERTY BAGGALEY
WHEN THE FUN STOPS
My photographic work explores the emotional and financial toll of gambling addiction, using fashion as a medium for storytelling and social commentary. At the heart of this project are handmade T-shirts featuring images of scrunched casino payout tickets symbolising desperation. These garments are available for purchase at blanctag. co.uk, with 50% of profits donated to gambling addiction charities.
Alongside the garments, I curated a short video that portrays the cyclical, damaging nature of gambling as a toxic relationship. The project also includes a series of photographs that document the T-shirts in everyday contexts, encouraging reflection on how addiction hides in plain sight. Through this work, I aim to raise awareness and provoke dialogue around a widespread but often hidden struggle.
For my final year photography degree show, I created a stop motion video composed of over 300 frames. This video is paired with a song by an artist I discovered while working with Soft Touch during my final year. The video visually interprets the lyrics, using the words as inspiration to craft a story. Each frame was carefully edited to reflect the emotions and themes expressed in the song, creating a narrative that complements the music.
This project allowed me to explore the connection between visual art and sound, highlighting how still images can be brought to life through movement and rhythm. It is an expression of how storytelling can transcend mediums, inviting viewers to experience the song in a new, visual way. The process deepened my understanding of patience, detail, and the power of combining music and imagery.
@sabzphotography1
A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME
This series, A Little Bird Told Me, is a quiet exploration of the delicate harmony between wildlife and its natural habitat. Through carefully composed images, I invite viewers to pause and observe the subtle characteristics that define these often-overlooked creatures. The owl, with its piercing gaze and silent poise, represents wisdom and stillness, captured in its natural moment of watchfulness. In contrast, the ducks reveal a more communal, fluid energy,
moving through water with both grace and purpose. By presenting these birds within their authentic environments, my aim is to highlight the intricate balance of nature and the individuality of each species. This work is as much about presence as it is about detail, allowing viewers to see beyond feathers and form, into behaviour, personality, and place. It is a reminder that in nature’s quiet corners, there is always a story being told if we choose to look and listen.
@s.hannantphotography
sophiehannant04@gmail.com
Dear Future Me… , focuses on exploring individuality and how each person views their future selves. I approached this concept through handwritten letters addressed to the future, a personal and reflective practice that seems less common today. I wanted to revive this idea, particularly within my own demographic, as a way to reconnect with self-reflection and personal growth. I produced handmade stands of varying heights to display the portraits. This variation is meant to evoke the sense of a crowd, symbolising the diversity of thoughts and perspectives people have about their futures.
The handwritten letters are projected onto each subject, merging their thoughts with their visual identity. The full letter is displayed on the back, offering viewers deeper insight into each individual’s mindset. Through this work, I hope to encourage people to reflect on their own personal journeys in life and perhaps feel inspired to write their own letter as seem within this project.
@tbp.visuals_ tbpvisuals03@gmail.com
BREAKING BARRIERSILLUMINATING THE OVERLOOKED
Breaking Barriers - A Virtual Reality Journey through the Struggles of Disability and Mental Health. My project is a virtual reality experience designed to raise awareness and educate people about the often-invisible struggles faced by individuals living with disability and mental health challenges. By immersing users in realistic, first-person scenarios, the experience aims to foster empathy and a deeper understanding of what it means to live with these conditions.
To ensure authenticity, I’ve worked with a friend who shares her personal journey,
allowing users to hear firsthand about the emotional and physical challenges she faces daily. For those who are unable to access VR technology, I’ve also developed an interactive website version to ensure accessibility and broader reach. This project is not only about storytelling, but also about advocacy, giving voice to those who are often unheard and encouraging society to rethink its perceptions of disability and mental health. It’s an educational tool and a call for greater compassion and inclusivity.
@tobyhayes_photography
tobyhayes24.myportfolio.com
During my time at university I have grown to love photos and videos especially in the sporting area. I dreamt to enjoy it so much I decided to make a massive project highlighting my sporting career at De Montfort University. J ourney Behind the Mask is a video highlighting a found passion I gained from university, the video consists of stories from the start of my first year all the way up to present day. It consists of stories like injuries, triumphs even huge achievements such as making an England training squad.
@authentography._ authentography@gmail.com
My Heritage is…? is a campaign for cultural representation and identity within Leicester and De Montfort University through fashion and portraiture. This editorial-style magazine will feature at least 30 individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, each styled in traditional clothing, accessories, hairstyles, and makeup. The project highlights cultural pride, unity, and community in a multicultural academic setting. I aim to blend style and storytelling and am driven by a desire to push creative boundaries, experiment with colour film photography
for the first time, embrace bold visuals that reflect the vibrant nature of the theme. Inspired by fashion publications like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan, as well as culture-driven photography. Also, by including a media ad featuring people of various ethnicities and body types. The message is clear: ‘Multiple ethnicities, one community’, a celebration of inclusion, identity, and collective heritage.
@zpphotography.uk zpphotography.uk
ZOE PINNICK
ILLUMINATING WASTE
In Illuminating Waste, I explore the hidden beauty and overlooked consequences of single-use plastics. Using the optical phenomenon of photoelasticity, I reveal the stress patterns locked within disposable objects- those we touch for moments but which linger for lifetimes. This work transforms mundane waste into luminous forms, compelling us to reconsider the materials we consume on a daily basis.
Through light and lens, these discarded fragments are reframed not just as environmental threats, but as visual metaphors for strain, fragility, and our entangled relationship with convenience and accessibility. By illuminating the invisible, I invite viewers to pause, reflect, and question: What are we really throwing away, and is it all worth the consequences?
ACK NOWL EDGE MENTS
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Programme Team: Matthew Pell
Sally Hossack
David Soden (aka Honest Dave)
Dr. Tove Dalenius
Dr. Andrea Jaeger
Professor Lala Meredith-Vula
Special Visiting Lecturers:
Amber Banks-Brumby
George Miles
Chris Neophytou
Visual Arts Lead: Haley Morris-Cafiero
Programme Technicians: Jim Boulton
Lyle Jackson
Nigel Essex
Ady Kerry
Publication Designer: @mattevansdesign