Source: Graduate Photography online

Source has uploaded this years photography graduates on their website. I am familar with this process as I was part of the submissions last year myself.

There are a number of vastly eduacated people planned to make a selection of their favorite submitted work including Susan Bright, Trish Lamb and of course John Duncan and Richard West.. However I’ve decided to offer my slightly less educated/informed favorites here, it’s always nice to get some sort of recognition (even if it is from a low renter like me).

I have use the categories to define my selection and chosen two from the large categories -Documentary, Portraiture and Constructed- and one from each of the others.

Here goes:

Portraiture:

Kamile Matulaityte

I Found this series, visual interesting from the outset, nice to see an alternative take on maternal bonding, such an often used topic.

Alberto Maserin:

What an absolute delight. Simple concept and well executed. As with Kamile’s work the subject matter of religion has been tackled by all and sundry. The killer here is that hint of humour, so difficult to create austere work which makes us smile. Really great stuff.

Commercial/Fashion

Marianne McGurk

No doubt I’ll be accused of favouritism here, as I know Marianne and studied at Blackpool College myself, however I think most will be able to see some truly innovative fashion work here. As a student it’s so difficult to attempt to emulate the high end photography found in the likes of Vogue or Dazed and Confused with there bottomless budgets and high profile models. Marianne has done what all aspiring fashion photographers should do and that’s work within her means. She has used a mixture of excellent photographic technique with shear imagination to create a surrealist yet contemporary set of images, top stuff.

Landscape

Sarah Franklin

There is real simplistic beauty to these images that I found really appealing. Maybe it’s the colours maybe I am romanticising due to having always lived by the sea, but I don’t care. These images appeal to me on an aesthetic level, and on some emotional level, as far as photography goes that’s as good a reason as any to celebrate this work.

Documentary and Photojournalism 

Stephen Townsend

Street photography is something I NEVER do and for the most part that is due to my fear of invading someone’s privacy, I have no issue with people doing that in fact I think it’s amazing it’s just not something I have ever felt comfortable doing. This is maybe the reason why Stephen’s work resonates with me. I think if I was forced to make some street work this is the sort of thing I would do. I am not suggesting that there was some fear involved in producing Bruce Gilden-esq street photography it’s just what I feel when I look at the work. My self projected assumptions aside, the images are curious yet beautiful.

Jack Boniface

Well If I am  to be accused of favouritism or bias I may as well be consistent. Jack is another fellow Blackpool Student. This seires did catch my eye however before I even knew it was his work. These old lookout and defence structures are the sort of thing ethnographers get excited about on a daily basis and are often the subject of the topographics movement. What’s interesting is this other worldly feel about them. The choice to photograph at night and artificially light them, give these structures a different dimension, something distant and unnatural, which really makes you question their current and past purpose.

Constructed/Staged

Ann Wickham

Ok so I am going to find it quick difficult to articulate why I like this work so much, I just can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s the nerve it takes to create a piece of work like this, maybe it’s my inert disgust and television and the circus that surrounds it, maybe it’s the seemingly impossible pairing of peculiar portrait with grainy screen cap that just seems to feel really wrong and really right at the same time…. Who knows but who cares, I love it..

So that’s you’re lot, well done everyone for completing the degree It’s no mean feat, however the difficulty now is to continue to create work and develop your practice, good luck all.

Stephen Gill

Currently feeling a little stranded, I feel it’s appropriate to look at a photographers work I have a personal vested interest in. Stephen Gill does not fall into any one of the conventional categories associated with photography (sill life, portraiture, landscape etc) and instead pushes his concepts and ideologies to the forefront. It is this approach to photography that I feel I can relate to. Possibly this is due to my current inability to place my own work in one of the aforementioned categories, however I also believe that restriction to a certain category within art is a contradiction in terms. Conformity is one thing but strict categorization is an entirely different area and in my opinion, at it’s core, destructive.

Still life?

Landscape?

Portraiture?

Of course many artists can maintain creativity within the constraints of a certain category, but in most cases these categories are obtained through personal choice. The destructive qualities of categorization are embodied by those who feel compelled to label themselves as one thing or another. As a student photographer I am learning, in the conventional sense, however no matter how experienced we are there is an ongoing element of inherited knowledge. It is important not to forget that, and when an opportunity presents itself not to dismiss it if it does not fall into “your category”. Style is nothing without substance.

It seems somewhat counter productive to mention any one of Gill’s portfolio pieces as there is so much to be gained by viewing them on his website. Each set of images come with a small caption giving some insight into the basic premise of the piece. However do not let that fool you into thinking there is nothing more to Gill’s work than quirky idea’s.  There is a deep social and in some cases political commentary running through all his work that can be overlooked if approached without scrutiny.