What are you looking at ?
BA Hons Photography 2021 University of Huddersfield 01
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What are you looking at? If the past year could be categorised by one word, then I would like to propose that word is uncertainty. The Covid-19 global pandemic has, of course, introduced a level of uncertainty that we have not encountered before as various governments and institutions attempt deal with the potential consequences of the virus using a variety of models. Our own government has cycled through variations on social distancing, travel restrictions and several national lockdowns that never seem to fully meet the challenges presented by this ever-mutating virus. This uncertainty has infected all aspects of our lives, from the medical and sociological to the political and economic. While the virus has posed the most direct risk to the elderly, it could be argued that those most affected are the younger generations, those emerging from schools and universities into more precarious and uncertain times.
Liam Devlin
The students who graduate this year could be characterised as the generation facing more challenges, more uncertainty, than their parents or grandparents’ generations and it would be hard to argue with that characterisation. However, this is only part of the story, that there is hope that these younger generations will find the solutions to the challenges we face, because the arrival of the Covid virus has perhaps only exposed the fragility and deep inequality of the systems we’ve built over the past 60 years. Uncertainty is in reality an integral aspect of our lived experience and perhaps one of the greatest skills we can develop is to learn to live and thrive in the face of uncertainty. That a recognition of the precarious nature of our social systems is also a recognition of the possibility of change, of the potential to build a better, more equitable and sustainable society. This year we as a course team met with the graduating cohort of students to speak candidly about the difficulties, they faced in their efforts to complete their studies. Importantly, rather than lament the limitations placed on us by the national lockdowns we spoke about the situation as a challenge to be met with creativity and ingenuity. We spoke openly as a collective, recognising that if we were to succeed this year it would be through helping each other. The result is a truly remarkable cohort of graduating students. Students who have looked deeper within themselves and found a strength and resilience that has been a wonder to behold. Students who have not only faced uncertainty, they have used it as a motivation to question conventional norms, whether that is gender, sexual or racial politics, questioning the various roles photograph plays in shaping our understanding of the world. They have collectively met and overcome the significant challenges they faced this year and the work on show here is a testament to their tenacity, intelligence, and creativity. Pay attention, look, listen, and learn.
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David Bloor
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Isabel Boaden
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Dylan Brown
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Jiazhi Cao
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Jordan Carter
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Federica Cerniglia
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Freya Clack
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Zeenat Cosr
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Siobhan Denison
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Jane Frieslaar
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Daisy Hadcroft
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Heather Harrison
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Edina Hotic
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Harley Kelly
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Jonathan Longworth
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Rory Mason
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Elizabeth Medling
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Jo Morley
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Jemma Naylor
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Saskia New
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Lydia Panther
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Keir Pardner
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Jodi Pearson
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Melissa Pierce
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Sam Shepherd
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Courtney Wade
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Liam White
62 Rachel Wood
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David Bloor
The Mind is a Wonderful Place
The Mind is a Wonderful Place was created to invite the viewer in to explore the world with David and feel free with their own thoughts, as well as putting his own thoughts through handwritten notes from his personal journal. Attempting to create a connection between himself and the viewer.
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Isabel Boaden
Long Hair Don’t Care
A project exploring the female body as a rejection of the objectifying gaze, using domestic objects and performative self-portraiture. It portrays how women are viewed by society and the stereotypes tied to them. Hiding parts of the face with hair challenges and engages the viewer with a confrontational gaze, while acts are performed.
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Dylan Brown
Object Reflection
Object Reflection acts as a contemplation on human vision and how we see the world. By using labels generated through object detection programmes, they would act as prompts to interpret and photograph the words given, from a human point of view.
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Jiahzi Cao
Tangled Age
This project focuses on exploring the identity formation hidden behind everyday life. Trying to defy expectations probably won’t change the trap, which seems to have been there forever in life. Trying to solve it is a positive way, but we may never escape it.
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Jordan Carter
Physique des Femmes
Jordan Carter’s project Physique des Femmes aims to portray and normalise all women’s body shapes and sizes in fashion photography, using French styling to bring out each model’s unique style and compliment their body shape challenging conventions of what is perceived to be the ‘ideal body’ in the fashion industry.
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Federica Cerniglia
GMT plus one
GMT plus one is a visual exploration of the diasporic experience, of the complex forces that shape our understanding of identity and sense of place. Through natural warm light and familiarity, the images are personal imaginations of Sicily, on a landscape that has been adapted but is yet to consider home.
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Freya Clack
High Rise High Risk
Kingfisher House, Huddersfield, was built with aesthetics and low costs placed higher than health and safety. Residents were given 3 hours’ notice to leave after West Yorkshire Fire Service issued a prohibition notice with 220 fire safety issues. This project focuses on highlighting companies putting lives at risk for profit.
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Zeenat Cosr
Sabr
Sabr; An Arabic term translating to mean patience and perseverance, it is considered a fundamental Islamic value. Cosr’s series of images showcases how Muslim women can fall back onto Islam in moments of need and strife by showing an intimate view into religion, culture and faith.
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Siobhan Denison
Katie
‘Katie’ is centred around my 19-year-old sister’s life with quadriplegic cerebral palsy. My aim for this project is to shine a light on disability in a sensitive way by showing the relationship my sister has with her family and the things that she enjoys doing in daily life.
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Jane Frieslaar
The Time is Out of Joint
In a disjointed world shaped by the pandemic, this body of work explores the way in which Jane Frieslaar’s daughter has encountered and responded to the surreal experience of lockdown. Responding to the feelings that we have all experienced, Sienna contemplates her isolation.
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Daisy Hadcroft
Ladylike
Ladylike is a project born out of lockdown, creating characters through self-portraits as a way to explore what femininity means to Daisy. Taking inspiration from the 1950’s era, looking at beauty adverts and the standards women were expected to uphold at the time, Ladylike aims to break those stereotypes for women.
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Heather Harrison
she/her - he/him - they/them
Heather’s project is titled “she/her - he/him - they/them” and relates to the use of pronouns. Pronouns are the way a person chooses to be referred to according to their gender identity. The project itself explores gender fluidity, which refers to change over time in a person’s gender expression, gender identity, or both.
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Edina Hotic
Silence
‘Silence’ is a deliberate dissociation from the human presence in a time where it isn’t difficult to do so. The disconnect within the world became the very centre of this project, embedding herself within familiar spaces, Edina used photography as a tool to forge a deep-felt connection between the body, space and mind; uncovering the comfort found in the silence amongst all of the noise in the world.
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Harley Kelly
Humanoid, 2021
Harley Kelly leads us through contemporary surrealism to represent manipulation of the human form by using everyday objects, domesticated scenarios, reflections and framing. Kelly conceals the facial features to direct the viewers’ attention towards the natural atmospheres besides the unique human formation. By unnerving the viewers’ attention, the use of tonality is used to create an ambiguous meaning or story.
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Jonathan Longworth
The Tide Is Coming In
During the 1970’s, Huddersfield demolished a large chunk of its classical Victorian architecture in an attempt to modernise the town. Now, 50 years later, Huddersfield is on the cusp of a second rebirth. Exhibited here are segments of these structures before they disappear from view, leaving the visually unrecognisable to remain in their place.
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Rory Mason
Untitled
Within this diorama based project, miniatures are used to produce a forced perspective in order to convey the stories and characteristics surrounding Old Norse Mythology. Utilising David Levinthal’s iconic, similarly styled imagery, the photographer uses additional unorthodox techniques and postproduction choices in order to faithfully, yet cinematically adapt the fabled sagas to a photographic medium.
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Elizabeth Medling
Untitled
Memory is complex and sometimes we have a lack of it. Dementia causes this. Elizabeth’s project is about her nana’s journey with the disease. It focuses on her family’s relationship with her nana and demonstrates how they cope with the fading moments and her absence. Looking at Multimodal techniques and influenced by Larry Sultan and Mathew Finn.
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Jo Morley
Untitled
Jo Morley’s project is about showcasing summer fashion in a look book. Her work features models and product photography to be able to advertise the fashion garments in a look book. The work produced has been made both on location and in studio.
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Jemma Naylor
Tron
Jemma’s project “Tron” explores the relationship between herself and her Nana through a series of portraits. Jemma uses colour and pattern as a way to represent her nana’s bold and defined personality, whilst using touch to represent family connection, closeness, and to project a feeling of maternal warmth.
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Saskia New
Colour Balance
‘Colour Balance’ is an experimental and artisanal approach to food photography. The project focuses on creating balanced, sculptural models out of everyday food items in a minimalistic, fine art-based style. Themes of colour grouping run throughout the work, focusing on how different colours perform under studio lighting.
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Lydia Panther
14 x 4
Lydia Panther’s project ‘14 x 4’ focuses on her mum’s breast cancer journey and their relationship as a mother and daughter. The title relates to the first tumor that was picked up, it was 14 x 4 mm. This is an insightful discovery into the positive aspects behind a cancer diagnosis.
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Keir Pardner
Untitled
Highlighting traditional skills, products and the livelihood of an old English cottage, or Cottagecore, through a catalogue which reflects on the modernday lockdown. A diary across coping throughout a pandemic, a guide of mental health from isolation, a portal into a world of nature and beauty; a distraction from reality.
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Jodi Pearson
15 Funerals
15 Funerals is a project reflecting on loss while remembering the memories over time. It is an insight into a family who has dealt with great loss over the years and the process of someone trying to find themselves through a collection of images left behind. The project is a documentation of life.
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Melissa Pierce
Pandora’s Box
This series of staged black and white images represents how we were forced to retreat inside our homes and left to our own devices whilst in and out of lockdowns. The work communicates the challenging relationship between subject and their domestic spaces within times of struggle and uncertainty.
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Samantha Rowan-Scaife
Away
“There’s no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw something away it has to go somewhere.” – Annie Leonard
She sees the ‘Away’ as not a physical place but a mental one, a place in their minds that they have forgotten about.
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Sam Shepherd
Untitled
This project is showcasing the change in architecture of council funded initiatives to promote the local area and to help create a better local environment. Between all these initiatives is a founding idea of long-term progression while retaining past cultures and principles. From affordable housing to entice younger people from city centres to preserving the areas deep historical attachments to markets that have stood for hundreds of years.
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Courtney Wade
Mythos
Mythos explores myths where the patriarchal narratives have demonised strong women. Courtney’s work challenges the Male Gaze by allowing women to express their sexuality. By mixing both still life images and portraiture, Courtney brings together juxtaposing ideals of femininity and masculine ideas of strength, in a dreamlike atmosphere typical of myths.
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Liam White
Video is Monitored
A documentation of Omegle webcam encounters for the BLM, LGBT and TRUMP interests. Including both live feed and pre-uploaded miscellaneous imagery, the archive includes the profiles of the solely anonymous; fundamentally recognizing an amalgamation of themes from representation, identity, pop culture trends and social-political contexts.
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Rachel Wood
Commercial Fashion Portfolio
Rachel Wood’s portfolio looks closely at women’s fashion and high-end products. Whilst researching Wood realised that brands start to incorporate flowers and colours into their campaigns once it becomes spring, therefore she decided to experiment with flowers and their symbolism. Wood’s work shows her aptitude at shooting both on location and in a studio setting.
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