WE ARE: The RPS Women in Photography Magazine - March 2022

WE ARE The RPS Women in Photography Magazine

Cover Photo: Concealed/Revealed by Frankie McAllister

March, 2022

WIP Committee

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Teri Walker

Julie Derbyshire

(Chair)

(Member Advisor)

Charlotte Jeal

Teri Walker

(Social Media Manager)

(Interim WE ARE Editor)

Vacancy

Alice Chapman

(Social Media Manager)

(WE ARE Assistant Editor)

Victoria Stokes

Lorraine Wales

(Events Co-ordinator)

(Web Designer)

Amanda Schonhut

Vacancy

(Treasurer)

(Magazine Designer)

In This Issue 5 SELFIES: Women in Photography Online Exhibition

6 My Journery to ARPS Distinction

by Alison Mees, ARPS - WIP Member

14 Flawed Beauty

by Paloma Tandero

20 Muslim Women Should Not Stand Out Interview with Jodie Bateman

25 Japanese Storytelling Gallery View by Yuki Miyake, White Conduit Projects

54 Take Me to Live With You Interview with Sonia Lenzi

62 The Final View Interview with Sayuri Ichida

72 Are NFTs For Me?

by Gabriella Muttone - WIP Member

78 Empty Nest Syndrome; A Documentary Photography Project

by Carol Olerud, FRPS - WIP Member

84 Distinction Success - Fiona McCowan, FRPS Reprint of RPS Landscape Magazine article Winter 2021/2022 - WIP Member

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Dear Members, Welcome to the 2nd issue of WE ARE, The RPS Women in Photography Magazine.

We're so pleased to be celebrating women photographers by publishing the latest issue of our magazine on International Women's Day. The depth of talent represented by these photographers who took time to write articles and participate in interviews for this edition is truly impressive. I would like to extend our gratitude on behalf of all members to each of them for sharing their stories and work with us.

Call for entries for our SELFIES: Women in Photography online exhibition is open for submissions from 8 March - 30 April. A few of our members have already stepped up to support this exhibition. Alice Chapman's image A Photographer Lost in Lockdown was selected to run with our WIP In Focus article in the March/April issue of the RPS Journal Magazine. Frankie McAllister's Concealed/Revealed features as the cover photo of this magazine. Gabriella Muttone, Kirsty Wilson, Sarah Haskell and Carol Olerud have also provided selfies for us to use to promote this new project. I hope that you will be encouraged to submit your own selfies for the online exhibition.

I'd like to remind everyone that donations are open until 31 July, 2022 for our NEW Bursary. The RPS Women in Photography Group, in partnership with our Honorary Chair, Karen Knorr HonFRPS, is offering a bursary to support a female or female identifying postgraduate student (student on photography course) in the development of a first project upon leaving university. We will also work with them to help share their work from that project within the RPS. Click here to donate.

Our goal in 2022 is to grow our membership. The RPS has more than 10,000 members and we have less than 200 of them in our group. Certainly room for growth for us. We will do this by developing projects and programmes that engage our members. It's a bit of trial and error at this stage to see what works or not. I would like to encourage everyone to please weigh-in with feedback on what we're doing currently and to bring any fresh, new ideas up for consideration. We want to deliver value for membership and we have the autonomy to create our own projects that do so.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone for your continued support of Women in Photography.

Enjoy the magazine, Teri Chair, RPS Women in Photography

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Call for Entries SELFIES: Women in Photography Online Exhibition 15 June - 31 July, 2022 Self-portraiture has been used as an artistic expression by artists since the early painters. Selfie, defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself….”, is the latest, and more accessible, iteration of the art form. Both allow the photographer to show us how they perceive themselves, and how they wish for us to see them.

With this exhibition, we are asking female and female identifying photographers, to step out from behind the lens in celebration of the talented women in our profession.

Inescapable by Kirsty Wilson

Entries will be accepted online from the WIP website 8 March - 30 April, 2022.

- Limit two photos per photographer.

- Open to RPS and Non-RPS Members.

Torn by Gabriella Muttone

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Distinction Success

My Journey to ARPS Distinction

by Alison Mees, ARPS

Photos by Alison Mees, ARPS

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Since I watched Born Free at five years

old I have had a fascination for Africa, especially its cats. I dreamed of having my own lion cub but, living in Essex, that proved a little difficult.

I have always had an interest in cheetahs. I really admired them and felt they had a tough life. As a single mum raising her family by herself, the smallest of the Big Cats in Africa - with those amber coloured eyes - really pulled at my heart. They still do to this day.

My dad loved taking photographs. He gave me my first camera when I was eight years old – a basic point and shoot. I went out everywhere with him, mainly in Old Leigh, to photograph the fishermen and cockle boats.

Over 30 years ago I took my first holiday to Africa, and I was not disappointed. The sounds, smells, vibrant colours and wildlife took my breath away and stole my heart.

For 16 years I was living and working in Africa; Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. My husband and I were running safari camps; wildlife was a part of my daily life. I had the opportunity to go out in the field with the lion and cheetah researchers. This is where I gained so much in depth knowledge. It also changed my photography. I started to record behaviours, interactions and ID shots. I spent hours sitting and watching.

From this, my knowledge and understanding of wildlife photography has grown hugely.

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In March 2020 the pandemic hit the world and no one was travelling anymore. The safari camps closed and I returned to the UK where I have been ever since. But, for me, I still wanted to do something connected to conservation and cheetahs. In April 2020 I became a volunteer for the Cheetah Conservation Fund, helping them with awareness workshops and fundraising events. It has also given me the opportunity to share my stories and photographs of Africa with people via Zoom, hopefully giving them a little sunshine in the more gloomy times.

When I returned to the UK, I had the time to go through the thousands of photos I had taken over the years. I wanted to try for my LRPS (Licentiate), but I was not sure if my photographs met the required level.

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Photography is also a very male dominated world and, as a woman, sometimes you lack the confidence to push yourself or believe you are as good as the men.

I spoke to a friend of mine who is a photographer and chatted about trying for my LRPS. He actually told me that my photographs were at the ARPS level and I should aim for this. I read through the RPS website, looked at previous panel examples to give me an idea of what they are looking for and the standard required.

I selected 30 photos I felt were good enough to submit. My photographer friend went through each one in great detail and gave very honest feedback, some positive and some negative – however, this is the only way you learn.

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I then started the work of going over my images. Some I disregarded and replaced, others I worked on the processing. I only do very basic post processing - I like to capture the moment in camera.

When I had 15 plus five extras that I was happy with, I booked a 1:1 review through the Natural History Panel. I gained some valuable feedback on my selected images.

Again, some feedback was very positive, and other feedback covered where I either needed to work on the image or replace it.

I submitted my panel in September 2021. It was a digital panel and the review was done online. I was so amazed and extremely pleased that I had succeeded to gain my ARPS. I felt it was a real achievement.

From the age of eight years old to now, there’s been a journey in my photography.

My dad would have been so proud of me.

If anyone is thinking of going for a Distinction, I would really suggest you go for it. Take the feedback on board and learn from it. When you gain that Distinction, it’s an amazing feeling.

I want to continue to share my love of Africa and its amazing wildlife, and the opportunities to photograph it with other women. I’ve set up Women on Safari; an eight day safari experience to the Masai

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Mara, Kenya in 2022 and 2023. Travelling to the Mara Conservancies where the wildlife is abundant, it’s also an opportunity to experience the safari camps that work to support the local communities. I want to share my experiences; my stories of the lions and cheetahs and of living in the bush. But more importantly, I want to give confidence to women who travel on their own; giving a sense of safety, peace of mind, and female companionship. Safaris are still largely male dominated. The opportunity to be on safari with women who share a love of nature, wildlife, conservation and photography is a unique experience.

For further details about Women on Safari please contact me at alisonmeesphotography@gmail.com If there is enough interest, I would be happy to take a Women in Photography Group on their own Safari. Please get in touch and we’ll see if we have enough participants to schedule one.

My website is www.alisonmeesphotography.com.

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Flawed Beauty

by Paloma Tandero

Paloma Tendero (b.1988) is a visual artist that works across photography and sculpture exploring ideas around genetic inheritance and identity. She was born in Spain, where she graduated from BA (Hons) Fine Arts at Complutense University in Madrid. Following that, she graduated from MA Photography at London College of Communication, where she won a mentorship award with her project Inside Out. Since then, she has been participating in artists in residence programs such as Sarabande, The Alexander McQueen Foundation in London 2020, KulturKontak in Vienna 2018. Her works has been exhibited in A Picture of Health at the Arnolfini.

Flawed Beauty, Series 2016 Digital C-Type Photograph ©palomatendero

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We relate to the outside world through

our bodies. The body enjoys, suffers and is the container of our emotions, organs and thoughts.

Most human activities are experienced corporeally. We don’t always need words to explain what we feel or define what we are suffering for because our bodies communicate these messages to us so immediately intimately. Some theories explore the idea that our motions and expressions are not purely biological attributes, and they can be changed by our culture. The faces we learn and how to move our bodies are part of our personalities. If the body sends us messages, the message sent by the body will depend on the individual experience we have each lived.

An important part of life is that we are made from others: in me, I can see my parents, and at the same time, my grandparents. We take and receive qualities from each other. In the same way we inherit the colour of the eyes, we take genetic disorders and habits that influence us throughout our lives.

As a visual artist, I use photography and sculpture to explore themes around genetic inheritance, heredity, identity and cycles of life. My artwork comes from my personal experience with illness: a form of chronic kidney disease I inherited at birth.

I could say that my body has been compromised by its own genetic history, by all its familial features and traits — characteristics that remain outside of my control. It is the union of these opposing forces — the struggle between my biological designation and my self-will — that has led me to explore the subject of the body and inherited DNA.

Inside Out, Series 2014 Digital C-Type Photograph ©palomatendero

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My first projects started with the exploration of somatising, the subconscious transformation of psychological conflicts into organic symptoms.

And, likewise, how a physical problem becomes an emotional issue. Inside Out was the first multidisciplinary project where I incorporated photography, and other mixed media practices, examining the body as a container, with the ability to communicate more intimately than words can. I performed this piece by contorting my body into a position resembling a “beautiful” classical sculpture and wrapping an imagined depiction of my “flawed” internal body around myself. I looked at the influence of genetic disease, passed along family lines, which renders the body vulnerable to an involuntary destiny.

Some of my artistic influences come from women artists, such as Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo and Hanna Wilke. I admire the way they deal with their struggles and traumas, by returning dignity to a sick body, or documenting the reality of their physical and mental health. I understood that their physical and psychological struggles were rendered visible through distortions of their bodies, which fragmented, doubled, turned inside-out.

We could say that the body has a natural life of its own, and we suffer periods of change, pain, and metamorphosis outside our control. It seems the body is a friend when it is healthy, and an adversary when it is sick. We refuse to coexist with illness.

Susan Sontag calls disease the night side of life, as an uncomfortable citizenship, adding: “Every person at birth has dual citizenship in the realm of health and the kingdom of the sick.

Although all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later everyone is forced, at least for a time, to identify themselves as citizens of that other place” (Illness as Metaphors, 1988*, p. 2) It is that duality — the union between two divided worlds — where my art practices fall. Looking for an interpretation of this co-existence of the healthy and the sick. Where illness and pain don't require an obvious outward manifestation to be acknowledged as real, and to illustrate the 16

invisibility of some illnesses, to make them seen, layering these ideas visually around my body, to highlight the politics of body representation.

By using both sculpture and photography, I play around with temporality — with the fragile existence of our bodies. I reflect on the vulnerability of the physical shell and its genetics by drawing parallels with our inherited cultural ideas of beauty, and the “perfect” body.

Some of the greatest classical sculptures in the world are broken and missing limbs, however they are precious and appreciated by society without anyone questioning their flaws. By portraying myself as a sculpture on a plinth, enveloped by imaginary cysts, I bring to life the beauty in the flaws and errors that can occur in the body, as I strive to remember that organic processes are linked to us, and it is by denying the basic realities of our bodies that we become strangers to ourselves.

Humans aspire to have the same attributes of the gods: ageless, deathless. But for a woman to be a “Venus”, she must be a goddess of love, beauty, sex and desire, prosperity and fertility.

The unrealistic ideals become a burden and take us further from ourselves, instead of inspiring us to be grateful to live with our imperfections, to create freedom out of our flaws. This is the subject I had in mind when I made On Mutability, exploring these ideas around bringing life to the world, balancing the internal and external through papier-mâché eggs, made of empty egg cartons.

Photography has the power to extend our bodies’ capabilities. With a camera you can be the photographer, the viewer and the model at the same time. Acting as our eyes, a camera is an extension of our body that allows us to share with other memories, permanence and the fight against time passing.

By raising the questions that form the themes of my work I invite the viewer to explore their relationship with themselves, their body and subject of illness. After all… joy, pain, birth and death are our universal experiences. palomatandero.com

Inside Out, Series 2014 Digital C-Type Photograph ©palomatendero

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Through Myself, Series 2011 Digital C-Type Photograph ©palomatendero

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Muslim Women Should Not Stand Out WIP Group’s Honorary Chair, Karen Knorr HonFRPS, interviews Jodie Batemanfor WE ARE Magazine.

Jodie Bateman is a fine-art photographer who was born and raised in South London. Her first interest was in the way that photography can convey social messages and how she could use the medium to express personal feelings.

Since converting to Islam in 2017, Bateman’s work started to shift and her interest now is in investigating and questioning the stereotypes associated with being a Muslim living in Western society. Bateman intends to expose the difficulties Muslims experience in the West, and hopes to bring awareness to the situation and ultimately a change in society’s attitudes. Bateman is particularly interested in how Muslim women have been poorly represented, especially because of their choice to cover up and their dress style. Since migrating from London to the rural town of Godalming in Surrey, her work began to focus on her presence as a Muslim woman in smalltown English society. Bateman’s work explores the question of how to belong. She photographs herself and her family in thought provoking ways using medium format film photography. She challenges us to think in new ways about the people around us.

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Photos by © Jodie Bateman

KK: What made you want to use and study photography? Why photography?

I fell in love with photography at a young age. I was told growing up that I should do what makes me happy. So, when deciding for college and university, photography was always my first thought. I love the process and the control I have behind the camera and how I am able to express myself in the process of shooting an image; having it, editing it, exploring the context behind photographs.

Everything about it really is why photography.

It’s like going into another world - it’s so powerful.

KK: During 2020 and 2021 you produced three bodies of work which you presented to me via Zoom during lockdown. Can you describe these projects to us?

In the first project, The Odd Born, I shoot my own extended family. I’ve always liked the intrusive type of photography - like Richard Billingham. Also, shooting my family is easy and comfortable as I have access to them. I love documentary photography and I think my family’s dynamic is intriguing and interesting enough to point the camera at it. I started shooting them when I was an undergraduate.

KK: Tell me about that title The Odd Born and what it means to you? How many works are in this series?

I have a folder edited down to around 50 images mostly shot on digital and some with a disposal film camera similar to one used by my mum to document our family. The title is something my mum used to say to me as a joke growing up so I’m just kind of playing with that.

In my second project, Muslim Women Should Not Stand Out, the series of work I created was a response to a time in my life where I was being told how to dress and behave as a Muslim woman. I have also posed the model (my sister) in ways that show what the beautiful things in Islam are to me. I was doing a project alongside it which was so negative and hurting me so I wanted to create something beautiful.

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KK: What do you mean by beauty? You mention beautiful things in Islam. What are those “beautiful things” that you are developing?

At the time, I was researching the negative stereotypes of Muslim women and I came across a lot of hate speech and misconceptions of the religion. Yet my religion is so beautiful and peaceful. I wanted to capture this somehow. There are several things in the religion that changed my life so much and brought peace and meaning to me. For instance: the prayer, making “dua" (calling to God saying personal prayers like speaking directly to God), pointing your finger whilst saying the shahada (declaration of faith) daily with the prayer, the niqab and hijab covering up as a Muslim, which I have tried to interpret in these images.

The third is my all-time best project My Hijab Has a Voice: Revisited . This project was based around the negative stereotypes there are around Muslim women; about the hijab, choosing to cover up etc. I just became so passionate to try and change people’s minds and get people to hear from a Muslim woman directly.

KK: The Quran at its strictest seems to be against representation. How do you reconcile your practice with this? I understand the Quran does not explicitly prohibit visual representation of any living being. It uses the word musawwir (maker of forms, artist) as an epithet of God. Muslims have interpreted these prohibitions in different ways in different times and places. How do you interpret it?

Yes. In Islam it is said that image making is a very big sin. Long ago, when the Quran was sent to us, there was no such thing as cameras yet.

I do question myself a lot about this and there are two different opinions among the scholars.

First being that only if you paint, draw or sculpt living beings with faces, it is prohibited as it is trying to mimic and ‘create’ what God has.

Second, that taking a picture is capturing an image, not creating one.

I believe that taking a picture of the creation is ok so long as you don’t manipulate (i.e., in Photoshop) by changing the body size or even removing one spot from the person’s face etc.

KK: What about humour, are you interested in it?

I believe with some subjects it’s good to have humour.

It could even be used as a form of mocking people’s bad ways in a clever way. I would love to be able to do that.

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KK: Presently your work explores the representation of women in Muslim culture by turning the camera on your sister, family members and yourself. How did you start, and could you tell us about the work process?

I started with self-portraits. I was a single mum in my third year of Uni. I had become a Muslim. I am a little shy/awkward to put myself out there by asking to shoot other people, so I turned the camera on myself. I really enjoyed it. I never imagined I would ever do self-portraits because I hated to be on the other side of the camera. But it was fun! As I began to research more, I discovered paintings and scenes I wanted to recreate. I needed someone else to help me do that and I love working with my little sister. She is my muse and we have fun together. My project developed and became personal. I thought that as a convert, it’s an interesting story to tell. I had all this research and I needed to express myself and share my story and experiences first.

KK: You seem to be referring to 19th century Western painters, particularly Orientalism and the Pre-Raphaelites. There is also an Indian miniature painting of the idea of capturing “rasa” or flavour and emotion. Have you

explored those?

To be honest I haven’t actually stepped out of looking beyond Western type paintings. It’s a good idea you’ve put forward to explore other paintings. I am intrigued to learn more now.

KK: Which contemporary artists and photographers inspire your work?

To name but a few: Lalla Essaydi; Shirin Neshat; Richard Billingham; Karen Knorr; Anna Fox; Nick Waplington.

KK: In your early undergraduate work, you experimented with written text that you inscribed in the fabric of your clothes. What changed in your work as you now work differently?

My research broadened and there is a lot more information and context in the images. It seemed the text wasn’t needed anymore, although I do hope to continue to work with the text and fabrics again. I think it’s a beautiful idea and can really change an image.

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KK: Covid has given you more time to think and consider your work with less stress around childcare. I think the problem for women who are still the main carers in the family is often how to find the headspace and also the finances to develop one’s photographic practice. What about online submissions? How has that impacted on your work and how it gets received?

KK: That is great news that you are developing a new project. Can you reveal to us how photography makes you feel safe to take risks?

Yes, I do agree. The hardest thing is finding the headspace during my years as a student. I would only find that time at night when my son was asleep. I would stay up late drinking coffee, doing my work and then up early in the morning drinking coffee, trying to get through the day.

It’s really hard but it’s all worth it. Not having the finances is holding me back a lot which is really frustrating.

Visit Jodie’s website to see more of her work.

Motherhood makes it harder to be flexible and get work, or to even create work. But at the same time, it makes me more determined to work harder. Covid has also helped by making work online more accessible and it’s easier to collaborate with others online. I don’t have to worry about childcare so much.

Online submissions have been fantastic. I apply to as many as I can. It’s great exposure and I gain experience talking about my work.

KK: What are your future plans?

I am currently working on a new project which allows me to come out of my comfort zone. I’ve told my story and shared my experience with the hijab and I’m now branching out to other Muslim women to make the project broader and more impactful. I would love to become a teacher one day so getting my PGCE is in the plan. I will also focus on getting more experience in the art world and to get more work done with my own photography projects and to keep putting myself out there.

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I believe it’s because if you care about something so much, if your heart and mind is in it deep, the obstacles and risks are just something you overcome. Because I am in control of the situation, what I capture, what I edit, it’s all up to me.

A Gallery View

Japanese Storytelling

by Yuki Miyake at White Conduit Projects White Conduit Projects opened in November 2014 in Islington, central London. It is an independent gallery for contemporary art exhibition work by Japanese, UK and international artists. It showcases a variety of media. The gallery specialises in solo presentations showcasing works concerned with Japanese related subjects. We are just off the fruit and vegetable stands of Chapel Market. It’s always buzzing with locals. Islington is very diverse in terms of class and race, and is a culturally matured city spot. In our time here we have been honoured to exhibit a selection of photographic media by women artists. We open the archives to share some of this work with WE ARE Magazine along with our most recent exhibtion.

Visit www.whiteconduitprojects.uk for more information.

Emptiness no Other than Form, printed on archival Hahnemuhle rice paper and mounted on screen with mulberry, cedar wood, and silk. Daitoku-ji, Obai-in, Kyoto © Karen Knorr

Eugenio by Sonia Lenzi

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Once Only Only Once

by Karen Knorr, HonFRPS Solo Exhibition in Kyoto Japan 11th April to 11th May 2018 in Kyoto 18th January to 27th January 2019 in London

Framed Photos by © Karen Knorr

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Every Encounter Treasured, Daitoku-ji, Obai-in, Kyoto printed on archival Hahnemuhle rice paper and mounted on screen with mulberry, cedar wood, and silk. White Conduit Projects, London © Karen Knorr

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Karen Knorr has been working on Japanese themes since 2012.

It was her

former collaborator, Olivier Richon, who introduced us to her.

We had Karen’s first show in 2016 with a paper screen designer, Yukari Sato. This led us to be involved in further expanding Karen’s Japanese series. In 2017 Karen was invited into Obai-in temple in Kyoto by calligrapher and head priest Tagen Kobayashi. It was in April 2018 that she first exhibited her work as free-standing Byobu screens, in a solo exhibition at the Daitoku-ji complex in Obai-in temple. At the same time, Karen had a joint show with Shiho Kito at Zuium-un in Kyoto.

These screens were made of cedar wood, mulberry, rice paper and silk, and combined with photographs printed on rice paper. These traditional screens were made by local artisan Heiando, in collaboration with Karen. The photographs are transformed into one-off unique handmade objects with the aid of Japanese master craft techniques. We have presented this Once Only Only Once series in the UK. The title of this exhibition evokes a dedication written by Kobayashi upon their first meeting.

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Only Once, Daitoku-ji, Obai-in, Kyoto by © Karen Knorr

Every Encounter Treasured, printed on archival Hahnemuhle rice paper and mounted on screen with mulberry, cedar wood, and silk. Daitoku-ji, Obai-in, Kyoto © Karen Knorr

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Intoxicated by the Moonlight, Daitoku-ji, Obai-in, Kyoto © Karen Knorr

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We Are Going To Need Some More Coffee; City Vignettes from Tokyo and Buenos Aires

by Maria Guerberof 27th September to 28th October 2018

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Photo by © Maria Guerberof

Photo by © Maria Guerberof

During the Kyoto stay, l met Maria Guerberof who had been nominated for a KG + Award Kyotographie in 2018. Guerberof is originally from Argentina, Buenos Aires. She and her family had no choice but to leave Buenos Aires, escaping its political chaos. She is now based in the UK and France.

City Vignettes is a photographic project by Guerberof. Her series captures her daily wanderings around the city of Buenos Aires during the political and economic collapse of Argentina in 2001. This also comprises Tokyo. Through photographs, Guerberof reveals the commonalities between the chaotic city of economic collapse and the opposite city of the nationwide middle-class Tokyo. Her works present an ominous scene of power in capitalism.

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Photos by © Maria Guerberof

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Photo by © Maria Guerberof

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Echoes and Transformations

by Wiebke Leister 20th October to 9th November 2016

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Photo by © Wiebke Leister

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Echoes and Transformations looks at the boundaries between embalming and enmasking: being in a skin and under a skin; in and under a mask; looking at a mask and seeing through a mask as something that equally changes one’s gait and one’s voice while playing with sensations of displacement and transformation. The work treats the human face less as a façade but as an object that – even though central to our understanding of what it means to be human – is only ever in the process of approximating a subject: being filled by a subject; worn on the face of a subject.

The main reference of Echoes and Transformations has been the teaching of Japanese Noh theatre, in which the mask works as an extension of the actor: nuanced like a face, while the face itself is shown as an impassive mask. When the mask is placed onto the face, the actor becomes enmasked while the mask has become enfaced. The work meditates on the moment in space and time when the mask folds onto the face and how a relationship between object and actor is established across the gap between two surfaces. The images seek to visually translate this sense of a living object into photography.

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Performance with Kaho Aso, 2 Nov 2016

Performance with NaoKo TakaHashi, 20 Oct 2016

As a part of the exhibition, 15 minute performance pieces with acoustic sound - various traditional flutes and Kotsuzumi drum by Kaho Aso and Naoko Takahashi - exploring language with electronic sounds coincide with a de-collaged publication by Leister.

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Photo collage 2016 Two double-sided digital prints, tricolour 70 x 50 cm, individually folded with certificate of Authenticity Performed publication edition of 40 © Wieble Leister

Photo by © Wiebke Leister

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Blue Passages

by Shino Yanai 11th September to 15th October 2016

Photo by © Shino Yanai

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Blue Passages - Installation at White Conduit Projects

The exhibition documents in photography and video Yanai’s recent performance in which she followed the perilous mountain route between France and Spain that was made by the German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin in his doomed attempt to escape the Nazis in 1940.

The show focuses on ideas of migration, ethics, and personal and public history. It draws inspiration from Walter Benjamin’s life and from the works of Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan. Yanai’s performance expresses her distrust of the modern world and her anxieties about the concepts of race and nationhood. The flaming torch is a symbol of hope and a call for unity and peace.

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Photo by © Shino Yanai

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Photo by © Shino Yanai

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Installation at White Conduit Projects - Photo by © Shino Yanai

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Yōkai

by Helen Maurer and Angela Moore 30th January to 27th February 2022

Number One by © Angela Moore and Helen Maurer

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Helen Maurer and Angela Moore’s collaborative work gives shape to certain natural elements that are immaterial and ‘difficult to grab’. The artists combine the visual potential of light, water, and glass to create site-specific installations on the riverbank, made of colour and sand and, as with the metamorphosis of Yōkai creatures, their work changes in appearance. Photography plays a crucial role in this art due to its ephemeral and transient state.

In this series, light trespasses beyond the glass frames to create painted shapes on the sand that are transformed in response to their surroundings. Their photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most flourishing. It's like a metaphor for life. The exhibition is inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro's In A Pale View of Hills novel, which symbolises the river as a decade and as rebirth.

These exhibitions are based on socially shared subjects, and at the same time showcase works that have been visually analysed with the artist's private stories. The subjects and motives may be of interest in Japanese traditional culture; a cross between the artist's own upbringing and the surrounding world history, or something to do with Japanese myth - a collection of works in which various media are conducted in photographs.

Ayakashi Ultraviolet by © Angela Moore and Helen Maurer

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Golden Duck by © Angela Moore and Helen Maurer

Moon by © Angela Moore and Helen

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Spirit Plane by © Angela Moore and Helen Maurer

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Take Me to Live With You An interview with Sonia Lenzi

©Take Me to Live with You - Interior IV, Eugenio

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Eugenio by Sonia Lenzi

©Take Me to Live with You - Interior II, Francesco

Sonia Lenzi is a photographer and visual artist. Her artistic practice adopts an interdisciplinary approach and revolves around interrelated themes concerning identity, memories of people and places, mortality and gender. She uses photography to investigate, establish and recreate social relationships through signs, symbols and gestures. She graduated initially in Philosophy at the University of Bologna, then from the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in Painting, finally graduating in Law. Her photographic project, It Could Have Been Me (2015), was shown as an installation at Bologna High Speed Railway Station and presented at MAMbo, Museum of Modern Art in Bologna. Lares Familiares was performed in Naples and first exhibited at the Archaeological Museum (2016), and then at the Italian Cultural Institute in London (2019).

Last Portrait was presented at the Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths College, University of London (2019), and Take Me to Live with You has been exhibited at Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon (2021). Sonia lives and works in Bologna and London.

Teri Walker interviewed Sonia for WE ARE Magazine.

Photos by Sonia Lenzi

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WIP: Thank you Sonia for taking the time to speak with the RPS WIP. I see that you studied Law and Philosophy at university before the Academy of Fine Arts. Why have you pursued a career in photography?

Actually I trained as an artist at art college and then I decided to study philosophy at university as I was interested in a theoretical or conceptual approach to art. At the same time it was possible to attend the Academy of Fine Arts. My interest for law came later: it is fascinating to study how society is framed into rules.

I have always photographed, but I started to dedicate myself to photography nearly ten years ago when I realised it was the tool for reflection I have always been looking for. It is inevitably about our experience and relationship with the world, so I see it as an existentialist tool; a way to explore and investigate the meaning of life and how our lives are all tangled.

WIP: How would you describe your work?

I have an interdisciplinary approach and I am very much interested in how photography works as a metaphor of our relationship with reality - the phenomenological world. To put it into Hannah Arendt words, in The Life of the Mind: “In this world which we enter, appearing from nowhere, and from which we disappear into a nowhere, Being and Appearing coincide”.

I am more concentrated in the process than in the single images themselves: sometimes in conveying a meaning through a combination of images and texts; or in a sequence that I can create in a book or in a space; or by involving in this process individuals or communities.

The documentary mode, or conceptual documentary mode, is another way to define my practice. History, as we know, and experience, are a construction and so are often single documents of what we see. You have to put them in a context to make them work.

©Take Me to Live with You - From Tryptic II, Giancarla

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©Take Me to Live with You - Interior II, Giancarla

WIP: Your Last Portrait is a beautiful and moving project described as ‘reinforcing relationships between women’. Can you tell us more about how this project developed?

The question I started the project with is: how would we like to be represented and by whom (especially when it comes to what can be defined as our ‘last portrait’; the one chosen for the tombstone, in Italian cemeteries)?

The pictures placed on tombstones represent us forever, in a way. In a feminist perspective, I imagined the choice of how a woman wanted to be represented was made by another woman; building and reinforcing the bonds between women by a narrative based on a reflection on our relationships as women. Each of the imaginary women who chose the picture says something about the other woman, who was her mother, grandmother, daughter or even just friend or lover.

We sometimes don’t know who the ‘chooser’ was in terms of familial relationships. I often present this work in a performative way, such as public readings where women are asked to choose a relationship and develop the narrative behind it. I went to five different Italian ancient cemeteries and I found the images on tombstones. So the

pictures are ‘portraits of the last portrait’. Then I wrote the texts.

WIP: You have published a number of photobooks, each using a different format.

How do you approach these projects and what influences the final look and feel of each book?

As I said, I believe photographs work in a context and books can also travel more easily than exhibitions. They are physical objects that you can hold in your hands, take to bed with you, use as manifestos, or display as an exhibition themselves if they have detachable parts. They are also democratic objects as they are usually affordable and collectable too. They give food for thought not just about single photographs, but about how a photographer interprets reality through photography.

Culture has always been disseminated through books and it was a woman to publish the first photobook: Anna Atkins Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843-1853). The internet plays an important part in how understanding is shaped, but I believe that since we are physical human beings, we need to deal with physicality to understand better. We need objects.

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Take Me to Live with You - Exhibition - Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon

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WIP: Your latest photobook Take Me to Live With You has recently been published. Please tell us more about your book and how this project came to be.

I have always loved visiting the houses of others and imagined living in them. When my father died I decided to look for him in other houses; the ones of people who could have been the same age as my parents and were close to him or to the values we shared, such as civil and women’s rights, justice and democracy. We can’t afford to lose these values as we can’t afford to lose those people. I have involved in this narrative people who are part of the collective memory of Italian society, having joined the partisan movement, feminism, culture and politics and the fight against terrorism and the Mafia. It is a meditation to pass on to future generations, seen through houses and objects that belong to these people.

The project was exhibited last December at Blue Sky Gallery, the Oregon Centre for the Photographic Arts, and the book has been just published by Kehrer Verlag.

“process of mirroring between people, regarded not just only in a psychological, but also in a social and ethical sense, and on the concepts of identity, family, memory, and even death. Sonia Lenzi has been building for years her photographic projects, which are mobile, open, and subtly marked by the principles of participatory art, or at least of art based on relationship”.

The seven participants form an elective family, set in the foreground of a personal Italian history.

To underline this, the book cover and end page papers remind one of the colours of the Italian flag, but in a different shade.

I also produced a special limited edition of prints to mark the occasion of the release of the book, which are a way to support the project and participate in it. The prints will be unique and feature the people I asked to take me to live with them and a detail of their homes. The prints come with a copy of the book. At the moment they are available at Blue Sky Gallery and Choisi Bookshop in Lugano, Switzerland or please contact me about them at info@sonialenzi.com

As Roberta Valtorta writes in her essay: it is a

©Take Me to Live with You - Still Life II, Suzanne

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©Take Me to Live with You - Interior I, Giancarla

WIP: What’s next for you? Any new projects in 2022 that you can tell us about?

I am working on several projects, but I can certainly tell you about another book that will come out soon by Artphilein Edition. It is about the desire to communicate with young generations, seen from a mother's prospective this time, instead of the daughter’s prospective, as in Take Me to Live with You. It is focused on young women experiencing difficulties related to gender appearance, which they may not yet be fully aware of.

At a certain point in life we lose contact with them and we would like to establish again a relationship. I looked for my daughters through other young women, projecting this desire on other young women I met along the Regent’s Canal in London. I wish I could protect them from the difficulties they inevitably will have to face.

But I don’t want to anticipate too much about it, as I hope to have the chance to talk with you again after the book will be published, in the Spring. Its title is Looking for my Daughters. A book of Love and Worries.

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The Final View an Interview with Sayuri Ichida

Photos by Sayuri Ichida

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Sayuri Ichida is a London-based Japanese artist working in photography. Ichida’s practice focuses on themes of self-identity, reflecting her own memory and life experience. In her photographs, she explores the complexities of emotional state by portraying the human form. She also examines ideas of loss and mortality by utilising photo archives.

After graduating from Tokyo Visual Arts College in 2006, she began her career in the commercial photography industry; first in Tokyo, and later in New York. In 2015, she decided to shift her focus to art photography, eventually leading her to the University of Westminster where she completed an MA in Photography Arts in 2021.

Her work has been recognised at numerous exhibitions and has received multiple awards.

She won the Japan Photo Award in 2016 for her Deja Vu series - inspired by the memory of her childhood doll’s house. Her series Mayu - named after a Japanese ballet dancer - was selected for several group shows presented at Unseen Photo Festival (Amsterdam, 2018), Photo Saint Germain (Paris, 2018), IMA Gallery (Tokyo, 2018), and Asama International Photo Festival (Nagano, 2019). Her work featuring Gabrielle Chanel’s Paris apartment was on exhibit at IMA Gallery as part of CHANEL’s Mademoiselle Privéshow in Tokyo. She was selected to participate in the group show, TODAY is - Next generations of DAIDO MORIYAMA in 2019.

Teri Walker interviewed Sayuri for WE ARE Magazine.

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WIP: Hello Sayuri, thank you for taking time to participate in an interview for WE ARE Magazine. Can you please start by sharing with us why you became a photographer?

Thank you so much for inviting me. I am honoured to be part of this issue.

I was fifteen years old when I started taking pictures on my first film SLR camera. My father bought this camera for his work to make photographic records of defects found in air conditioning systems at a nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture. He also had a habit of taking pictures on a disposable camera, not only of our family events but also ordinary moments, such as my mother hanging the laundry, me working on my homework, to name a few. And he used to let me take family portrait pictures on occasions like family trips. I naturally gained the belief of becoming a photographer from these experiences, and I have followed the path I envisioned as a child ever since.

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WIP: Which photographers have influenced you over the years?

The beauty and simplicity in Harry Callahan’s works have influenced my work. Callahan’s experimentation with lines of his subjects depicts sculptural elements in his photographs, which signifies other motifs. One of his most notable works, Weed Against Sky (1948), is a good example. While the title states it is a plant, it could be seen as female thighs. Some images from my new series Absentee have his influence; for instance, a close-up shot of my limbs resembles a mountain range.

Francesca Woodman’s self-portraiture is another influence on my Absentee series. I started working on this series in the middle of the first significant lockdown in 2020, and because of self-isolation I began to photograph myself in my personal space. I admire Woodman’s way of portraying the female body from a woman’s viewpoint. As her work reflects her psychological state by displaying eerie poses while employing curves of the female body, Absentee is a photographic documentation of my emotional state during the global pandemic.

Shōji Ueda’s cinematic imageries inspired my collaboration with a ballet dancer, which resulted in my series named after her, Mayu. Ueda’s famous dune series depicts surrealistic scenes which resemble Salvador Dali’s paintings. Also, his perspective composition is reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s paintings. I studied the spatial relationship between the background and the subject through his work.

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WIP: You began your formal training in Japan before moving to the UK, via New York. What influence have the different cultures had on your work?

The influence of Daidō Moriyama has been significant in photography education in Japan and I was advised to mimic his shooting methods during my study. Therefore, my early practice began with snapshots of people on the street in Tokyo (mainly homeless people).

My mother was a big fan of American culture, so I grew up watching American movies and listening to American pop music. For this reason, I even had a nostalgic feeling when I moved to New York.

Some people told me that the colours in Deja Vu - one of my first series - is reminiscent of the New Color Photography movement, and I think American cultural influence is the reason.

WIP: Why did you make the move from commercial to art photography?

After finishing my photography course in Tokyo, I pursued becoming a fashion photographer.

However, I did not find myself a good fit in the industry because I simply could not keep up with how quickly fashion comes and goes. And I was sad to see that fashion photography follows the same short cycle. I genuinely wanted to create something more lasting. Also, I wished to connect with my audience through visual narratives in my work which I found difficult to achieve with commercial photography.

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WIP: Have there been any particular challenges to being a woman photographer that you've had to overcome?

Having been in the photography industry, I have encountered situations in which I was the only female crew. And I experienced being excluded from meetings simply because the rest of the team believed that having a female member in the male team is awkward. Sadly, this kind of situation is still very evident in Japanese society - where sexism has historically been deeply embedded in the culture. Fortunately, with the younger generation, things are beginning to change. But being a woman photographer can be an advantage as well. There is a sensibility that comes through in my work that derives from my experience as a woman.

WIP: What advice would you give to young women just starting out in the photography industry?

It may sound cliché, but my advice would be to be honest in their work and to themselves: be unafraid of taking risks and ignore the noise.

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WIP: Do you have new work or exhibits coming up in 2022 that you can share with us?

My project titled after my mother’s name Fumiko won a solo exhibition prize as part of PhMmuseum 2021 the Women Photographers Grant. The exhibition will be held at PhMmuseum Lab in Bologna in Spring. The dates will be announced soon. My mother passed away from lung cancer in 2006 at the age of 47. I have wanted to photograph her and, because she is not here, with this project I composed her portrait using archival materials from my family album. For me personally, the project is also a response to processing her death. In addition, I aim to self-publish an artist book with this project this year.

I also plan to release the second edition of my book Absentee, and my Mayu series will be on view at Tennoz Fureai Bridge as part of Tennoz Art Festival 2022 in Tokyo between 1st and 31st March.

Website: www.sayuriichida.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ the_final_view/

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Are NFTs for Me?

by Gabriella Muttone

Gabriella Muttone is an Italian/Canadian/American portrait photographer and photographic artist recently relocated to the south of England. She studied fine art and photography at the prestigious Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto.

Her photographs have appeared in fashion and lifestyle magazines as well as being a featured photographic artist at MOPA San Diego and The Houston Center of Photography exhibitions. Gabriella’s boudoir images have won silver accreditation at a recent international Portrait Masters competition. Gabriella’s work focuses heavily on the female form and portraiture. Her visual stories are inspired by her own experiences encompassing the many challenges and triumphs as a woman and a woman photographer of this era.

The NFT marketplace has inspired Gabriella to learn how to work with technology responsibly for an additional avenue on her journey forward to share her art and her unique creative voice with collectors worldwide.

Photos by Gabriella Muttone

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What on earth is an NFT? Are NFTs for me?

As I start my journey on creating my next personal body of work, I am thinking about whether I should create it as an NFT art series. I can say without a doubt that as I start this article I know very little about NFTs. Nothing really, other than that they exist, that there is a lot of buzz and a lot of money attached to some of them and that one of the most reputable art auction houses, Sotheby’s, launched it’s first ever NFT art sale in April 2021 with a digital artist known only as PAK, that generated 17 million dollars of revenue.

What is this thing with all this hype that is so confusing to grasp? This thing that incorporates many varieties of digital content including digital art? Is this digital marketplace really a viable investment platform for artists and collectors or is it all just an over inflated hype bubble that will burst into nothing? What is this thing that is unlike anything I have ever known? And how will I do it?

Should I do it?

As I start to research the answers to my questions I become even more intrigued and decide that the only way to truly know if NFTs are for me is to actually create my own NFT collection and to put it up for sale. All right then, I am doing it.

So where do I start? I think I had better get an understanding of what an NFT actually is first.

NFT stands for Non-Fungible-Token. OK, so what does non-fungible mean? Fungible means replaceable, thus non-fungible means nonreplaceable. And token is the unique cryptographic asset on a blockchain that cannot be replicated, changed or removed. Attaching a token to my artwork will enable it to be bought and sold as a unique digital asset on a digital marketplace with a digital wallet on a blockchain.

More on digital marketplaces in just a bit.

What is a blockchain? One definition I came across states that “blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transparent decentralized

transactions powered by miners that run nodes (computers) with gas to include tokens such as NFTs which require smart contracts to verify their authenticity on a blockchain which is distributed across the entire network of blockchain computer systems". Phew! What? Basically a blockchain is a secure digital public ledger of transactions.

Ahhhh, ok, I think it is starting to make some sense to me but all these new words and terminologies are hard to understand and wrap my brain around. I have created a glossary of terms with simple definitions at the end of this article that may be helpful if you are also having this problem.

So let’s carry on shall we. Now, I understand that by attaching my artwork to a non-fungible-token on a blockchain, I am attaching a unique certificate of scarcity, verification and ownership, or rather a smart contract, to my artwork that cannot be replaced, reproduced or removed.

When someone buys my NFT they own that certificate that gives them the right to share a visual digital representation of that artwork . It is theirs to keep or they can resell it. And because a buyer is not the creator they are not the copyright holder. And just like in the real world of physical prints, only I, the creator, can reproduce the artwork. Yes, that is correct, I can reproduce a different NFT, just like I would make another print, from the same artwork which will have a different unique certificate of scarcity verification and ownership attached to it. Cool. Another sweet perk to being the creator is that I can choose to include a royalty tax in the smart contract which will give me a percentage of the sale every time it is resold to another buyer in the future. Yes! And, if I wish to sell the copyright to the buyer as part of the smart contract at the time of the sale I can do so. Yet, unless it is a very big payoff, it is generally always best to retain your copyrights. To sum up just a bit, an NFT will always be verifiably unique and scarce. Once it is minted it can never be replaceable, reproducible or removable from the blockchain. Since one NFT can never be confused with another, this is very desirable and of great value to collectors.

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Sotheby’s website states that “they (NFTs) allow for online assets to have verifiable scarcity and ownership that cannot be manipulated. The NFT not only provides collectors with novel assurances of scarcity and ownership, but exposes them to the unique features with which technology can endow artwork”.

Fabulous, right? Now, let’s move on to the NFT marketplace. I will need to choose a marketplace on which to sell my digital photographic artworks for collectors to buy.

There are a number of marketplaces to choose from. Each with its’ own look, requirements and limitations. Different marketplaces will have different file size and file type limitations, so be sure to check that your chosen marketplace will work well with your chosen e-wallet and that it is the ideal marketplace to host your artwork. I chose OpenSea as my marketplace and MetaMask as my e-wallet. They connect well with each other. I am thrilled that OpenSea offers me lazy minting since I do not want to spend money upfront to mint my tokens but rather, I wish to defer the costs to the buyer at the point of sale. I won't actually store NFTs or cryptocurrency in my e-wallet. Instead, my ewallet provides me access to my digital assets which all exist on a blockchain. It does so by providing a private secure key to that address, which allows my e-wallet to authorize transactions.

But I must say, from what I have researched, decentralization itself is nothing new. I believe there are pros and cons to both decentralization and centralization in any network. The ideology of decentralization for transparency, security, speed and the distribution of power to everyone instead of one localized central network of authority has it pros and cons. In a perfect world it would be wonderful if any system would eradicate fraud and theft and misuse, but there seems to always be those that will try and find a way to corrupt the intrinsic ideals of any system.

We are human after all.

Another topic of concern worth discussing sooner than later is how NFTs impact our environmental health. Just one single NFT transaction requires more energy than over 100,000 credit card transactions. Wow. But the processing for mining and certifying NFTs is changing quickly with newer and better protocols in development to decrease the amount of computer energy required. There is a need for a greener way moving forward.

I now know a lot more about NFTs and how they are created. Do I feel that there is a place for me in the NFT marketplace? Are NFTs for me? Yes, I think so. And yes, I see this all as a viable investment platform for both artist and collectors. But I strongly believe that I need to do my best to participate in a responsible manner.

Now, once I have my series created, I will post it up for sale at either a set fixed price or for auction.

I can choose to allow the buyer to download a copy of the file or other material through a link. I add a title and description and choose what percentage of royalties I wish to claim from each future sale and push 'Create'. That’s it.

I will photograph and create my NFT series by hand, one at a time with traditional digital photographic applications and without the use of code generated quantities in the thousands. I will share my results in my next article. Yes, let’s see what happens next in my NFT journey, shall we?

I wonder why all this digital currency and digital asset stuff started to begin with? We have a working group of currency and trading networks already in place … don’t we? Is the decentralized digital network better and the way forward? A bigger discussion for another time.

There is so much more to NFTs than I had imagined. And I am fairly certain there will be much more to come and that they are here to stay.

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Glossary NFT: Non-Fungible-Token, a unique cryptographic token that cannot be replicated.

Digital Asset: electronic files of data that can be owned and transferred by individuals.

Cryptocurrency: is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.

Ethereum: a decentralized blockchain platform that establishes a peer-to-peer network that securely executes and verifies application code, called smart contracts.

Digital Wallet: also known as an e-wallet is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency and units for goods and services.

Marketplace: online platforms for both sellers and buyers.

Minting: the process of recording and verifying the legitimacy of digital transactions on a blockchain. Crypto minting uses a Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol.

Mining: the process of recording and verifying the legitimacy of digital transactions on a blockchain (a digital public ledger). Crypto mining uses a Proof of Work (PoW) protocol.

Lazy Minting: the minting process is pushed forward until someone actually purchases a token.

Proof of Stake: uses randomly selected miners to validate transactions and is the newer form of cryptographic proof in which one party (the prover) proves to others (the verifiers) that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended.

Proof of Work: (PoW) uses a competitive validation method to confirm transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain and is the original form of cryptographic proof in which one party (the prover) proves to others (the verifiers) that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended.

Smart Contract: programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met.

Blockchain: a digital public ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems that records information in a way that is difficult or impossible to change, hack, cheat or remove.

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Miners: participants that use hardware to run algorithms on specific software to verify transactions on the blockchain and add those transactions to the public ledger.

Nodes: can be compared to small servers that store blocks of data. All the nodes are connected to each other and they continuously exchange the newest information on the blockchain with each other.

Decentralized Network: in a decentralized network, anyone can participate and transact on the ledger that run and are powered by a distributed network systems that run and are powered by distributed network servers.

Centralized Network: in a centralized network, only known and identified parties can transact on the ledger that is run and powered by a single network server.

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EMPTY NEST SYNDROME

A Documentary Photography Project 2016-2020

by Carol Olerud, FRPS Photos by Carol Olerud

In 2016, the last two of my three children left home at the same time. Suddenly I was not a

mother in the same sense as before. I had been a stay-at-home mum. I was so busy raising three children born within a five-year period, that I had never stopped to consider what I would do once they left home.

I fell into the cliché of empty nest syndrome rather heavily and discovered it was a real thing!

As part of a Master to Master photography group, I decided to try to photograph my emotions and created a long-term project. We had a mentor and, with the whole group, we discussed the project together as it developed. All of us had various personal projects.

A very difficult task lay at hand. My first images came over as if someone had died.

Interpreting my feelings, it actually was a mourning process I was going through. To analyse this, it was put to me to photograph other people who had gone through the same thing.

SELFIE: Empty Nester by Carol Olerud

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I found five other mothers, and one father, happy to share their thoughts and to let me take photos. I interviewed them as I was photographing them in their homes and in the rooms of their children. Then I rephotographed myself in the same way.

What memories did they have and, in particular, what did they miss from the time their small children lived at home?

Most of the women had professional jobs. This actually made little difference to their feelings.

Motherhood is a huge responsibility for women and a large part of their identity. When grown children leave home for whatever purpose; study, work or travel, a void is left behind.

Many practical things also change. Less food is needed – adjusting to cooking less amounts.

Washing clothes is reduced, let alone any mess needing tidying up. Watching hectic schedules vanish, more freedom and time is suddenly available.

Most of these women felt a sense of loss, loneliness and a longing for a time gone by too fast. A period of adjustment was needed to accept the next chapter in life: an appreciation of a parenting job well done and satisfaction that you achieved your task; a sense of pride that decent human beings were out there in the world doing their own thing.

Soft toys, cherished animals and nostalgic memories remain.

I finished the project to an extent that I had something for our group exhibition which took place November – December 2021. However, I have many more photographs! To make a

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small selection that tells the story is not an easy task. Ideally, I would like to make a book.

During the exhibition, I spoke to many visitors and very interesting conversations emerged.

One person was very surprised to see the photos and read the text – she had not experienced anything like this at all when her child left home. She was quite amazed, though she could clearly see the emotions in the panels of photos.

Emotions felt by people are just as diverse as people themselves.

However, when you see someone on Instagram for example, suffering publicly when her son goes off to study in another city – well I completely felt a connection. Judging by the many comments below the post, many others feel the same sense of loss: grieving for a time that has ended. It was quite overwhelming to see but also really good. More people should share their feelings on this subject, so it becomes normal for those that do suffer.

By sharing my project, I hope more women in particular, but also men, can accept that empty nest syndrome is a real thing. Some time is needed to process this new phase of life, some grieving and longing for the days when babies, small children, then teenagers very much needed their parents. It is okay to feel sadness.

But as you see your grown children emerge as adults, making their own choices, being happy; well, a whole new world unfolds. For instance, we recently celebrated our eldest daughter’s wedding!

However, if severe depression emerges, talk to your health care provider.

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Each panel represents one mother (or couple) contemplating life. This work is a small selection of the project that was photographed over a period of four years.

Thank you for sharing your feelings with me, Lotte, Ad and Jenneke, Marjan, Amanda and Helen. You have all helped me go through my empty nest syndrome.

www.carololerud.com to see more of Carol's work.

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Distinction Success

Fiona McCowan FRPS Despite Fiona living in the Cotswolds, a long way from the coast, she wanted to do a project based on the sea. By the sea is where Fiona feels most at home, where she feels happiest. It was important to Fiona for the project to be something she felt passionate about. The questions and answers, as well as images that follow, hopefully will inspire members to think about a project to pursue in 2022.

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Landscape Magazine Winter 2021/22

Photobook Fellowship - 22 October 2021

Supporting Evidence

Landscape Magazine Winter 2021/22

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Front cover In 2013 I took a 6 month sabbatical to study French at Nice University fully intending to return to my rewarding corporate career. However, after 6 months enjoying having time and energy to do the things I wanted to do I decided not to return. The decision was heavily influenced by the untimely death of my best friend from cancer and her advice of ‘carpe diem’.

I have always had an interest in art and photography so in February 2015 I borrowed a camera and enrolled on a local Introduction to Digital Photography course. The course was one day a week for 6 weeks and was a great way to learn the basics. I was hooked! I got my first camera, a Canon 70D for my birthday in May. Keen to learn more I signed up for the OU/ RPS Digital Photography - Creating and Sharing Better Images course. After completing the course I joined the RPS and worked towards my LRPS which I was awarded in July 2017.

My primary photographic interest is landscape, particularly minimalist seascapes, abstracts and intimate landscapes.

Ed: How did your project come about?

Despite living in the Cotswolds, a long way from the coast, I wanted to do a project based on the sea. By the sea is where I feel at home, where I feel happiest. It was important to me for the project

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to be something I felt passionate about. I can happily spend all day at the coast with my camera, ideally somewhere remote and without people! The first ‘fine art’ image I took was by the sea in France on a workshop in 2016 and I knew immediately I had found what I wanted to photograph going forward.

Ed: How long have you been working on ‘In the Offing’?

At the 2019 RPS Landscape Group Conference in Malvern I discussed my initial thoughts about ‘In the Offing’ with Paul Mitchell FRPS at an informal session. I had prepared the first draft of my statement of intent and printed about a dozen small sample images. Paul was supportive of the idea and encouraged me to progress with my project.

The images in the book were taken over a period of 4 years. The locations are not obvious but are all very personal to me.

Ed: The images used in your submission - are they taken digitally? Did you consider taking them on film?

All the images in my book were taken digitally. As I only took up photography in 2015 all my photography has been using digital cameras. I love my Canon 6D Mk II so haven’t been tempted (yet) to try film, though people who work in film and other processes like Deborah Parkin, whose work I adore, do inspire me.

Landscape Magazine Winter 2021/22

My Blurred expectations.

Ed: The images included - were they always taken with a book in mind?

No. In 2020, during lockdown I took a brilliant one day online RPS workshop on concertina books with Alex Hare. I love books and the idea of combining handmade books and image making really appealed. After doing another couple of online workshops with Alex and Lizzie Shepherd I knew I wanted to do ‘In the offing’ as a handmade book.

Ed: Was the design and making of the book as important as the taking and selecting of the images? How many images did you have to select from and how long did this process take?

Hundreds and what seemed like a very long time! I had initially thought about a book submission for the Visual Art genre. When the new Photobook genre was announced in spring I was

Landscape Magazine Winter 2021/22

delighted as the guidelines reflected what I wanted to do: “All elements will be considered that make up your photobook submission, from the images to the colour of the text. What form of photobook you present is under your creative control”.

Sequencing a photobook is critical as it affects how the images and content are perceived. I spent many hours researching the ‘art and process of sequencing’. I also took inspiration from studying the work of some amazing photobook artists including Shona Grant, Edward Ruscha, Alec Soth, Joe Wright and Marianthi Lainas (an external advisor to the RPS panel).

Ed: Can you describe your book?

The book is a hand-crafted, hardback book measuring 22 cm square and covered in Ratchford navy book cloth. There are 48 pages with 21

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My fears.

photographic images plus text pages, printed on Fotospeed Matt Ultra 240 paper. The front cover has a small (6.5 cm square) inlaid image (incidentally taken on a RPS Landscape Group workshop in the Outer Hebrides). I spent ages choosing the end papers, finally selecting a Japanese Chiyogami Blue Melville paper. It is housed in a black presentation box with a descriptive card.

The offing is the distant stretch of the ocean still visible from the shore. The book epitomises my study of the offing and is divided into 4 sections - my blurred expectations; my fears; my dreams and my yūgen.

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Ed: Can you explain to the readers your ideas around mixing images and words?

All of my handmade books are a mix of images and words. I love language so I enjoy being able to combine my images with words. The words are a mixture of my own and from others, mainly poets and sometimes lyricists. I can spend hours looking through poetry books (or the internet) for the right words to reflect the emotion I felt when I took the image.

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Ed: The images included in the book - are they printed commercially or by yourself? If by yourself, what was your thinking behind the decision?

My book is completely handmade and I printed all the images myself at home. I use a Canon 100S to print all my work including my handmade books, prints, greetings cards etc. I like having control over all aspects of the bookmaking process.

Ed: Did you need to include a panel in your submission? Can you explain the process of submitting a book?

You submit your book, you don’t include a panel for the Photobooks genre. All forms of photobook are acceptable, including hard or soft cover photobooks, zines and handmade books.

The panel requires a minimum of 2 copies and a maximum of 8 copies for printed books and 1 copy for handmade photobooks. I hand delivered my book to RPS HQ as I live about 25 miles from Bristol.

Ed: If there is one piece of advice you could give to the group’s members about applying for a distinction, what would it be?

Just do it! It is hard work, time consuming but ultimately very rewarding. If I am allowed to give a second piece of advice, it would be to book a 1:1 review. My session with Iñaki Hernández-Lasa FRPS was invaluable, giving me the confidence to submit.

I would also like to thank Mark Reeves ARPS for his advice and help.

Finally, I need to warn your readers that photobooks can become an expensive obsession!

A brilliant resource for anyone interested in photobooks is Euan Ross’s Biblioscapes website and podcast.

Ed: I ask all successful applicants - when and how long did you take to write your statement of intent and how many versions did you make until you were finally happy with it?

For the photobook genre you submit supporting evidence rather than a statement of intent. Your supporting evidence can range from a few words to a full thesis or research document. If you exceed 1500 words, they request a 500 word summary. I lost count of the number of versions I drafted before I was finally happy with it!

My dreams.

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My yūgen.

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Details and dedication page (top).

Final page (bottom).

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Distinction Success

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Fiona McCowan FRPS

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#photogsunitedforukraine

Credit: Victoria Stokes, ARPS

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