BA Photography · Kaleidoscope · Graduate Publication 2021

Ba Photography / The University of South Wales

Part 1

Part 1

Introduction Laura Noble Bethan Charles Laura Deakins Chloe Harris-Pike Chloe Allford Bethany Kimber Annalise Hill Thomas Geoffroy Booker Skelding Adonia Williams

Contents - Part 1

Ciaran Hicks Niamh Matthews Bethan Wiltshire Bethan Lowri Davies Tom Keighley

Published by University of South Wales BA (Hons) Photography

Designer: Tom Keighley

University Of South Wales 86-88 Adam Street Cardiff CF24 2FN

Design Consultant: Oliver Norcott

Copyright: © University of South Wales, 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publishers.

Colophon

The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-909838-52-9 Printed by: Taylor Brothers, Bristol Published: June 2021

Producer: Bethany Kimber Creative Director: Peter Bobby Editors: Peter Bobby Eileen Little Guest Writer: Laura Noble Steering Group: Beatrice Bogunovic Lucía Ballesteros Laura Deakins Bethan Eckley Hollie-May Gibson Tom Keighley Bethany Kimber Lida Solaymantash Hannah Watkins Chloe Harris-Pike Zack West

Kaleidoscopic!

Laura Noble

A Kaleidoscope is the perfect theme for this catalogue. With the rotation of another year, a fresh crop of graduates emerge after three years spent looking, listening and learning. This cyclical pattern is destined to repeat, yet each year we find some new spark or perspective to demand our attention. The theme perfectly reflects that ever changing, unpredictable and intriguing moment as graduates step out into the shapeshifting world of photography. Their work is varied and subject to change, charging this moment with a sense of urgency.

Notwithstanding its position as that most democratic of artistic mediums, photography is forever in flux. As new and improved technologies develop, they advance hand in hand with the evolving process of photography. Yet, at its core, the taking of a photograph remains a simple event - whether analogue or digital – it uses light to capture visual moments in our world that would otherwise be lost.

Like the many glass shards within a kaleidoscope, each student uses the light to find their visual voice, themselves becoming the mirrors reflecting our world back at us. Throughout this process they find their own ideas, aesthetics and viewpoints to investigate. These projects are the fruits of such labours, exploring a diverse range of personal themes using a genus of lens-based genres, styles and techniques. They dig deep, unearthing what is so often right in front of us and barely given a second glance. Some have looked back to help clarify the present.

Others have demanded change and shown us what that may look like. There is a sense of community here, as optical

counterpoints complement one another, allowing every project to shine both individually and collectively.

These images challenge stereotypes and present alternatives to seasoned archetypes. Many themes are explored here and lightweight they are not.

Rallying against gender, societal and patriarchal bias, three different approaches challenge the unrealistic norms of the fashion world. Using selfportraiture, Bethan Charles embodies fictional characters to strengthen her resolve using 1960’s styling, echoing a time of female empowerment and revolution through fashion. The domineering forms of Brutalist and Modernist architecture act as a backdrop to Laura Deakins work to challenge male dominance in the built environment.

Andi Davies uses fashion as a level with which to prise free the grip of gender bias, presenting tomboys in her personal collection of brightly coloured streetwear.

Many of the insecurities and pressures of modern life are studied here, framed in the context of personal experience.

Bethany Kimber looks at the shallow, misleading and confidence-crushing worlds of social media and online dating.

She reflects on her life as an adolescent, questioning the waning potential for romance. The psychological effects of isolation are faced by Bethan Eckley whose self-portraits document the positive things she has done to boost her self-esteem at a time, when more than ever young adults struggle with their mental health.

Realising the importance of home since leaving it, as the oldest of seven children, Sam Stevens with the help of his four youngest siblings, presents the rural idyll of a small holding farm in Llangeitho.

Thomas Geoffroy looks to his mother for inspiration, sharing insight to her life by re-interpreting the family archive using 23 family Super-8 films to construct her narrative from childhood to that of a young woman. The importance of heritage passed on through family and a great grandfather’s journey to Cardiff from the Caribbean drew Kai Flowers to discover more about the influence his culture has had has upon their own and Cardiff’s cultural landscape.

Coming to terms with rejection by the Christian community they grew up with and losing continuity with the past due to their LGBTQ+ status, prompted Booker Skelding to take a new path through the ever-diminishing places of worship in Wales to search for a way back to their faith. This journey of discovery and hope encouraged them to help others in the same situation. A perilous journey of another kind was found when the documenting of a dangerous convergence of five roads known for a proliferation of accidents collided with the much older history of the site itself. Tom Keighley’s images intersect the gruesome past of the site where two Catholic Priests were hung drawn and quartered in 1679 to the present danger of this spot known locally as Death Junction.

Whether internal or external, each narrative reaches close to home as we are invited to share the observations of this collective

of graduates. In this brief moment, they all reside together, finding their own light to refract and project. With the smallest rotation of the barrel, new connections form and everything can change.

These fresh voices are all on the cusp of new adventures. It is my pleasure to invite you to look back and reflect with them via these pages as they rotate upon an axis with no beginning, middle or end. Sit back and enjoy but keep the circle turning. © Laura Noble Artist & Director of L A Noble Gallery / FIX Photo Festival BIO: Laura Noble is an artist, collector and Director of L A Noble Gallery and FIX Photo Festival. She is also a curator and writer known for The Art of Collecting Photography, with primary essays in numerous monographs. Laura is a proud feminist and activist for equality across the arts sector. As a nominator and judge on many photographic prizes, awards, competitions and residency programmes her commitment to photography includes a volunteer program, regular portfolio reviews, mentoring and consultations for photographers at every stage of their career. She is often curating, reviewing and attending photography exhibitions, fairs and festivals around the world and lecturing internationally at universities and institutions on all aspects of collecting photography, professional and gallery practice. She continues to write extensively in numerous books and journals globally and is always keen to see new talent.

Bethan Charles

What a Beautiful Creature You Are

Fashion can be a great tool for empowerment of the individual. This project was made during the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic, and involves an exploration of Sixties fashion culture. Both the 1960s and the present day share fashion as a major cultural signifier and tool for self-expression, identity shaping and escapism. At a time when young people like myself feel that the world holds little hope or prospects for our generation, this body of work is about escaping from the current reality, back to a time perceived as more playful, free and empowering. This work aims to create a sense of fantasy away from the world as it is, in an attempt to channel the power and energy of this decade.

I’ve constructed the images in a self-built studio environment to create fictional characters inspired by 1960s fashion pages. With the Covid pandemic context enforcing a necessary self-reliance, each photograph was fully crafted using myself as the model, stylist, and photographer with no one else present.

This solitude has enabled me to think about ways in which I could shape my own identity, and gain confidence and self-love. Self-confidence, body issues and body dysmorphia are factors that weigh heavily on young people in public forums; in this project, in these times, I created a space that only I could enter encompassing both the current moment and a vibrant past.

Laura Deakins

Our Own

The female form is one of the oldest depicted motifs in visual art. But with such art forms comes the objectification of the female body. Best described in Laura Mulvey’s seminal essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1973): “Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/ female.” The work of Our Own addresses the misconceptions about the female form perceived through the male gaze, finding a place for it within a male created environment – Brutalism.

The women mimic the rigid and linear formations of the architecture through body language, enabling them to find their place amongst these buildings, constructed by men. Whilst they illustrate their ability to take on typically masculine characteristics, they also embrace their femininity and own their bodies, directing the viewer to ideas of authority and female power.

Chloe Harris-Pike

Ego

This body of work is a personal reflection of my own demons with fashion. That overwhelming desire to have more and more, never reaching satiation. We are surrounded by the ideals of society and the in-built desire to fit in, human nature drives the psyche to seek gratification, often in material forms. A desire that has driven me to forget the person I really am, presenting to the world a materialistic image, that is as short lived as the fashion trend that created it. A world where the consumer becomes the consumed.

Exploring theories of consumerism, this project questions both our physical and emotional desires for possessions regardless of our needs. My own need for social acceptance has propelled me to create an alter-ego which through material form has become more important than the person I am beneath.

The realisation is that no matter how many shoes we buy, we only have two feet.

Chloe Allford

My Fashion, Your Choice

My Fashion, Your Choice is a photographic series dedicated to a consumerist society that begs the question: can we consume our way out of consumerism? Fashion is the world’s second largest polluter, contributing to both pollution and waste, resulting in long-term damaging effects on the environment. My Fashion, Your Choice works alongside the consumerist mind, allowing the audience to feel in control of how they respond to the presented issue.

Consumerism is a taught behaviour that has had a significant impact on Western culture and will continue to do so for a long time. This body of work aims to encourage the use of purchasing second-hand fashion as an alternative way of shopping, which will allow consumers to buy still—but through more sustainable methods.

Think Smart, Shop Smart, Look Smart.

Bethany Kimber

The Vulnerability of Us

The Vulnerability of Us has been produced to highlight and expose the highs and lows of dating as an adolescent in the 21st century.

From online dating to the perils of incompatibility and fading romances, the raw nerve of uncertainty for a young adult can be rocky. The constant reminders from social media that you may not be enough puts pressure on couples and singles alike. The ideas behind this series stem from my own experiences with online dating as a young adult. The inhabitant(s) of these images symbolise the digital space of

these dating apps, all on one platform but not knowing who exactly is sharing the space on someone else’s account.

Are young adults losing touch with romance due to technology? Is it possible that viewers of these photographs might reflect on their own romantic needs and reignite their romantic flames? As Helen Fisher says “having a romantic drive is natural” (Why We Love, 2005) and we should not starve ourselves of it.

Annalise Hill

Into the Woods

Into the Woods is a landscape-based project taking you on a journey through Fforest Fawr, Tongwynalis, Wales. During the day Fforest Fawr is a picturesque forest and the backdrop to Castle Coch, the perfect place for a family day out.

When the sun beams through the forest it is filled with wildlife, with day trippers, and with experienced nature enthusiasts who are all enjoying this beautiful

landscape. However, when night falls the forests’ golden memories, present during daylight, are replaced with darkness in close proximity to unfamiliar inhabitants.

This series of work aims to illuminate that transition from day to night. When the sun has set the atmosphere of the forest changes, giving rise to an unsettling fear within your body.

Thomas Geoffroy

A Showman’s Daughter

(Video, 07:45 min)

A Showman’s Daughter is a conceptual documentary moving image piece.

I was given the opportunity to work with twenty-three super 8 films from my family archive, and with them I produced a piece that documents the life of someone growing up within a travelling showman family, namely, my mother. I come from a family of travelling showmen and I have always been told stories of that lifestyle by her and her siblings—but I had never seen or felt it for

myself. The sequences were selected for those that featured my mother as a main point of focus. We see her transform from a young child sitting in the middle of a speedway track into a young woman.

Through those films, the countless conversations with my mother, and the process of making this piece I was able to see and feel those years of her childhood with a kind of clarity that had eluded me before.

Booker Skelding

Finding My Religion

This project began with the title Losing My Religion, however during the four years of its development, the project took an unexpected turn and the title Finding My Religion became more appropriate. The work was born from a need to document this loss of religion for the purpose of exploring the difficulties faced when one does not conform to the traditional ‘religious’ lifestyle.

Yet another church closure in a small Welsh mining community prompted the

beginning of what was a painful journey.

At the age of twenty, I experienced rejection from my church and its parishioners, resulting in deep feelings of shame, over the realization of my LGBTQ+ status. The images narrate this emotional experience of abandonment and loss with the intention to help others who have experienced the same ostracization. This is also a journey of hope.

Adonia Williams

meet with a friend...

Everyday there is something else…

workout with my friend...

Everyday there is something else… is a set of 18 self-portraits that aim to reveal the battle with my mental health during this pandemic and throughout the many lockdowns necessitated by the global health crisis. The photographs were made during uncontrollable anxiety attacks which took place just before events I had planned for myself. Suffering from poor mental ill health just isn’t loud screaming or excessive crying as some of the stereotypical ideas claim, it can

be feeling completely empty, numb, and useless. There is a persistent exhaustion and frustration borne of battling your own thoughts. For the duration of this global pandemic many individuals have been affected in relation to their mental health, especially students. Making the invisible more visible is a step toward understanding more fully the impact of what we have collectively experienced on certain individuals this past year.

theory driving test...

go shopping with mum...

Ciaran Hicks

MAN

MAN is a project dedicated to helping raise awareness for men and their mental health.

Within our society men fall under the expectations of how men ‘should’ behave and how they should adopt masculine traits such as strength, stoicism, dominance and control.

However, many people struggle to live up to these expectations which is why men feel like they cannot talk about their

problems. This work, taking inspiration from David Horovitz’s Sad, Depressed, People, represents men at their lowest, hoping to show that you are in fact not alone and that there are thousands of people just like you. Worsening mental health is a growing problem within our generation and it is important to create work aimed at a deeper understanding of it.

Niamh Matthews

Internal Abstraction

As an aspiring clinical photographer, I have a keen interest in the body. In this latest project I set out to explore our perceptions of inner anatomy. Our association of inner organs with death, among other psychological responses, contributes to the reaction of disgust viewers experience when confronted with visuals of inner anatomy. Internal Abstraction seeks to challenge this perception of the inner body by utilising

the transformative powers of the camera.

I present the body’s interior in a different context to medicine and laboratories— using the framing, the focus, the colour and the lighting to create an aesthetic aside and apart from the kinds of photographs we’d expect to see in those settings. My aim is to transform what is usually met with abhorrence into images of beauty and curiosity.

Bethan Wiltshire

Controlled Variables

Controlled Variables is a project that documents the changes of a location over the course of eight months. During lockdown I had started walking daily and visiting one location in particular which I would pass on my route. Each day I would notice differences such as spotting wildlife or weather changes and this helped to form a new perception on the place. I decided to photograph this location every week to compile a

series of images that were essentially the same in camera but allowing natural differences to play a part in the final images. I have titled the work Controlled Variables because the project felt like an experiment to me. I was in control of when to shoot and in what conditions, which allowed me to become the director of the weather in terms of how I wanted it to appear in my images.

Bethan Lowri Davies

Overwhelming Intricacies

Overwhelming Intricacies is a series of photographs that seeks to visualise the need to hyper fixate on a particular point of interest. The work came about as I made note of how I interacted with the world surrounding me: I took the same route to a specific location every visit to keep a controlled view of the world and avoid overwhelming changes. Although keeping to a precise route for the journey,

once I reached the destination, I used the attributes of the trees to guide me, moving from surface to another.

Choosing to focus on a specific detail within the landscape destination was drawn from just how overwhelming and overstimulating the whole view all at once can be. The work is not about the details themselves but rather about the process of being drawn in each direction.

Tom Keighley

Death Junction

How does a location change once you learn something significant about its past? Does this information change the ‘aura’ of the location? Do you experience the location differently?

These are the questions that I have asked myself since discovering new information about a place that I walk past almost daily—Death Junction: a busy junction near central Cardiff. Its dark and shadowy past piqued my interest to uncover the multiple narratives and infinite histories that are possible and ever-present within a single spot on

the map. I have been searching for the micronarratives within this one location to see what these tell me about the bigger picture of events occurring in the wider world. Death Junction itself is a microcosm for the chaotic movement around it: the flow of people’s lives, how they linger, wait for instruction, how they interact with everything and everyone around them.

How does this place unknowingly reflect its past and present socio-political climate?

I need not know why we are brought here to suffer

Part 2

Part 2

Lida Solaymantash Sam Stevens Kris Škopek Kai Flowers Andi Davies Hollie-May Gibson Bethan Eckley Zack West Hannah Watkins Samuel Powys Lucía Ballesteros

Contents - Part 2

Chloe Hyde Beatrice Bogunovic Harriet Dyer

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This publication and show wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support of a number of significant individuals, companies and organisations.

Beatrice Bogunovic, Lucía Ballesteros, Laura Deakins, Bethan Eckley, Hollie-May Gibson, Chloe Harris-Pike, Tom Keighley, Bethany Kimber, Lida Solaymantash, Hannah Watkins and Zack West.

We would like to give special thanks to: Laura Noble, Oliver Norcott, Tom Keighley, Ian Mountjoy and all at Taylor Brothers, Bristol, for their significant contribution to the realisation of this project.

We would also like to thank the following USW photography staff: Gawain Barnard, Sarah Barnes, Peter Bobby, Clara Giaminardi, Carol Hiles, Celia Jackson, Eileen Little, Ian Llewelyn, Magali Nougarède, Jude Wall, Matt White and Ian Wiblin, as well as the numerous industry guests who have visited USW over the last few years and shared their work, knowledge and experience with us.

The steering group for this project first met back in the Autumn of 2020 and have worked hard, under challenging circumstances, to bring this project to life. Led by Bethany Kimber they met regularly, collectively agreeing on a title and a vision for this project; allocating various roles to the eleven strong team, including design and marketing. As a result, considerable thanks must go to

Finally, we would like to give a huge thank you to all those that generously donated to the Kaleidoscope project, for which we are extremely grateful.

Lida Solaymantash

Tarof

Tarof is a Persian word, which refers to an Iranian form of respect, an art of etiquette that emphasizes both kindness and equality.

For Persians food is not just a meal, but rather a culture which they use to express their identity, community, values, and creativity. This collection is made within a home environment, embracing its vibrant colours and flavours. An important backdrop is the Persian Rug— they’re renowned for their richness of colour, variety of remarkable artistic patterns and quality of design.

Representing the care that goes into home cooking, and making use of the warm undertones within the images, I intend to project a feeling of love and passion. Cooking and styling the food myself, I’ve learned to make even the simplist dishes look delicious. These images are filled with authentic history and Middle Eastern flavours. They celebrate comfort food when you need it the most. It is a true taste of Persia, passed down by generations. This project aims to educate the uninitiated to traditional Persian culture via the food that is central to it.

Sam Stevens

Mae’n Hawdd Pan Ti’n Ifanc

This documentary project explores the relationship that I have with my siblings, as well as their intricate relations with each other. I am the second eldest of seven children, four of whom still live on our small holding farm in Llangeitho, in Mid Wales, where the project Mae’n Hawdd Pan Ti’n Ifanc takes place.

This body of work is a testament to my admiration for my family as a whole and as individuals. Despite centring around only the youngest four children, it is a comment on a lifestyle that passed so

fleetingly for me and the eldest siblings, one that I want to capture in a way that my family will never forget.

I was born in Portsmouth, raised in Swansea, but lived out my teens in Llangeitho. As a teenager I despised the idea of living in the countryside, I couldn’t imagine it could make me feel anything but loneliness. It wasn’t until I left home that I realised how my love for my home had grown, and how I cherish that quiet rural solitude.

Kris Škopek

Perception

As the title suggests, this project is about perception. I’m one of those people that tend to stick with routines and once they learn how to do something one way, they practice only that and don’t try new things. Even more, once I get interested in a topic, I focus only on that. So, through this project, I wanted to overcome myself and make something different.

To change my perception, I worked under various influences. I experimented in a variety of ways to unshackle myself from all rules I’d been taught and had

previously relied upon, even to the point of shooting blindfolded. Just like the locations and objects photographed, the equipment used was picked spontaneously on the spot. Over the past eight months, I have created six mini-series each displaying a distinct narrative. Through Perception I am hoping to encourage others to not be afraid to let go of control and break the preconceived walls of their own perception.

Kai Flowers

Tyring to Find You

Inspired by the recent Black Lives Matter movement, my project stems from my own heritage and identity, but also around a beautiful culture which thrives here in Cardiff Bay. Acknowledging our complex ancestries and understanding where we come from gives us a sense of belonging and a sense of pride. I recently discovered my own family’s past—my Great Grandfather emigrated to Cardiff Bay from the Caribbean and started my family here during a time when racism

was very much alive. Despite this he became part of such an important generation of people who brought Caribbean culture to the United Kingdom, which to this day still makes me proud.

This body of work is a journey beginning with his arrival, through to the cultural influence of the Caribbean, and onto my own family. Discovering and uncovering my family’s past is a search for my own identity.

Andi Davies

IN YOUR FACE

IN YOUR FACE is a fashion editorial that responds to a specific identity that society has created—the ‘tomboy girl’ challenges our culture’s expectations of girls and the normal conventions of fashion. Speaking as someone who has been categorised as a tomboy, the project has a personal resonance.

A characteristic of streetwear that stands out is oversized and baggy clothing. The tomboy style gives a sense of self, confidence, and protection that culminates in a powerful demeanour

capable of the defence and retaliation against the prejudice attached to nonconventional women and girls. Both this attitude and the associated clothing bring unwanted negative attention, especially out in public.

IN YOUR FACE speaks for the girls who have been victims of this prejudice and to remind people that femininity is not just dresses and skirts. Wearing men’s clothing does not make you any less of a woman.

Hollie-May Gibson

Boots and Braces Don’t Make a Racist

Ask yourself, what does a racist look like?

I am interested in the subcultures that exist within the working classes. Having come from an industrial town, as a young girl I encountered a skinhead in the late 90s and was fascinated, this experience inspired me to create my latest project, Boots and Braces Don’t Make a Racist.

Skinheads originated in London’s EastEnd council estates with a merging of cultures between the British workingclass youth and the West Indians, creating a culturally diverse and

accepting subculture. However, in the 1970s the National Front drew in large numbers of this British working-class and caused a division within the subculture, engineering a clash of beliefs.

Over four chapters, I explore members of the Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice movement who position themselves in opposition to mainstream characterisations of this subculture. The portrait of each man, created through character studies, aims to expand our understanding of this divided organisation.

Bethan Eckley

Project Sanity

Project Sanity is a series of 12 selfportraits which examine my personal journey through the 2020 global pandemic. Each image demonstrates a different activity taken up during this difficult time aimed at alleviating the subsequent mental ill health as a result of the world closing in to stop the spread of the virus. Since the start of the pandemic significant numbers of adults in the UK have admitted to suffering with some type of mental illness. Due of this, websites such as the NHS and Mind

have advised people to keep active to help boost their self-esteem and resilience.

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has been a global disaster, documenting this time when the world came to a halt in order to embed positive memories arising out of shared hardship is the aim of this project and the challenge to others to embrace both change and continuity post-pandemic.

Zack West

Hiraeth

Hiraeth is an in-depth view of our sentimental attachment to objects, and specifically focuses on students, many of whom are living away from home for the first time. My project utilises both photography and scannography alongside a brief statement provided by each subject to create a comprehensive look into these persons and the role that these items play in their lives.

Hiraeth started, in earnest, before I moved to university myself, after a brief

conversation with my nanna in which she handed me a keepsake that she said would always remind me that home was only a phone call away—something that provided me with a sense of comfort in what was a nerve-racking time. My project aims to form an understanding of the link between people and objects whist also looking at the specificity and materiality of each memento itself.

Hannah Watkins

NO FACE DETECTED

No Face Detected is a two-part series: A Digital Lie and Fantasy in Reality.

The series focuses on the morphed self-representation of two differing generations within the social media platform Instagram. It demonstrates how facial images are transformed with the use of filters in order to meet the beauty standard of looking perfect as well as the imperative to be accepted online. As filter technology advances their continued use becomes

normalised, even expected. A Digital Lie demonstrates the truth behind filters and how digital imagery is defining facial features online. Fantasy in Reality portrays what these filters would look like in real life. It questions whether filters are having a negative impact on identity and self-confidence. No Face Detected invites you to step away from the screen.

Imagine what these filters would look like in the ‘real’ world!

Samuel Powys

The Aftermath

(Video, 04:51 min)

The Aftermath is a short film implemented with a poetic narrative that visually transcribes and addresses the environmental issues caused by deliberate forest fires in the South Wales Valleys. These fires regularly set the once scenic Valley alight, drastically changing the visual appearance of the surrounding landscape, turning the land into ash and dust. The poetic narration also touches upon other appropriate topics that are relevant to the context of the film. These

topics include lockdown conditions, as well as the ongoing lack of jobs and activities for youngsters in the Valleys.

The film stylistically mimics promotional travel material and tourist advertising, but the narrative contrasts with this and provides a new perspective of the landscape. Through its visual approach, it gives the sense that there is a higher power able to observe the change in the landscape and the diminishment of its once unmistakable identity.

Lucía Ballesteros

Transcend

Transcend is a series of environmentally inspired colour photographs featuring models covered in plastic. These photographs were taken in a variety of locations in Cardiff, Wales, in order to reflect and raise awareness of how litter pollutes our green spaces. I juxtapose the synthetic plastic with the living and natural. To reflect the feeling of being stuck inside our planet’s saturation with plastic, each model holds a different pose which simulates being trapped by this material.

The clothing on the models points to the immensity of this issue, covered as we constantly are by these pollutants.

But Transcend is also energised by the suggestive power of each individual to make better choices. I aim, here, to motivate people to take action, unwrap yourself and your desires from plastics in every form and strive toward more positive behaviour. Help our planet reclaim its health.

Chloe Hyde

Lady of the Lake

Lady of the Lake is a project based on the Welsh mythological enchantress Nelferch. Hers is a tale that has been passed down from generation-togeneration, however, each time the story gets slightly altered just like the game of Chinese whispers. Without access to the original story, we have no other choice but choose among interpretations.

My work explores this and allows my

audience to decide for themselves what version of the tale they want to connect with. My imagery consists of a collection of unsettling black and white naturebased photos all taken at the location of this tale. The resulting images have been taken in a way that encourages you to think about what you’re truly looking at and invites you to view things from a new perspective.

Beatrice Bogunovic

Locked Down

Locked Down is a series of images that represent the reality of what happened to smaller independent towns with more locally owned businesses during the pandemic. Propelled by the ongoing lockdown starting back in March 2020 I wanted to show how the towns in the Rhondda Cynon Taff area in South Wales were affected. Over the course of this most recent lockdown, I captured images of shop fronts shut down across the main town centres of three towns in the area. This allowed me to expose

what was left of the towns and record the totality of the economic devastation.

The towns were run down prior to these lockdowns but not to this extent.

Since starting this series, I have seen new shops emerging and others closing down permanently but overall businesses that have existed in these areas for generations have remained there with local support. Communities have come together, but the impact will remain for a good while yet.

Harriet Dyer

OUT OF ORDER

OUT OF ORDER is a body of work that records the neighbourhood of Cathays through the eyes of the university students who live there. Cathays is the third most populous borough in Cardiff, with 52.8% of its population being aged 20-24. The density of students in this area provides a completely unique living experience. A blend of portraiture, still life and landscape, these photographs are shot in a raw and gritty documentary style to capture the dirty and fast paced student culture. Wide angle and close

up shots give depth to the different scenes, bringing you into and revealing the detail of the streets and households the students inhabit. Cathays police ‘Operation Saturn’ deters noise, litter and crime within this community, and points to the double edge sword of being a student. They are perpetrators of these anti-social behaviours, yet most significantly, the victims of unfair living standards and practices by letting agents. It is ‘Out of Order’.

Ba Photography / The University of South Wales