Photography

BA (Hons) Photography

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Photosight is a collective exhibition hosted by final year photography students of the University of Cumbria.

“Photosight, as a concept, is hugely relevant today. When the world around us is changing at a rapid pace we need photography to record, measure and make sense of these unprecedented times. The photographers in this collective have been working towards this the culmination of their degree, not imagining the conditions we find ourselves in. Here they offer a considered, intelligent and engaging visual response to the world we live in.

When asked to speak to the qualities and strengths of this group it is their engagement with social and political issues, their exploration of health and history and their capacity for close observation that stand out. I applaud the quality of work that they have produced, the reach of the subject matter and the resonance with the real-world issues they engage with. It is with great pleasure that I can commend these individuals assured that theirs is the vision of the future.”

Dr Sarah Bonner
Programme Leader BA (Hons) Photography

Mark Attwood

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Bradford-by-the-Sea

Bradford-by-the-sea explores the idea of economic strife as a frequent and fundamental cause of change of small communities in modern-day Britain.

By placing a focus on the people of Morecambe whose heritage lies in Bradford, we can summarise why the economy of the time led so many to migrate from one place to another. This body of work focuses on community and group identity and seeks to show pride in the subcultures and stories of individuals involved.

The town of Morecambe received the label Bradford-by-the-sea and would not exist in its current form if not for the city of Bradford and the blended heritage which they both share.

Jamie-Lee Best

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Abandoned

Exploring dereliction and neglect of historic buildings on the West Coast of Cumbria.

This work examines the changing industrial past and history of the region and the communities that were dependent on these key buildings and installations.

Stories of local employment, childhood and the effects of war, echo around these empty shells, telling us that our locale is ever changing and still shows the evidence of its past, that can be seen as memorials, often overlooked.

I want my photographs to make people feel the way they would feel as if they were standing at the site of the building themselves instead of looking at a photograph.

Casey Brennan

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450,000

With the new way of living in 2020, adapting to the lifestyle of being in quarantine has been extreme. With all of our leisure activities, hair salons and restaurants being closed due to Covid-19 our key workers in the supermarkets have been able to keep their doors open for the nation.

This work explores and documents the working environment during lockdown and now being a key worker myself at Tesco, it aims to show the adaptions and safety measures put in place to keep customers and colleagues safe in these testing times. The company has 450,00 employees.

For me it was very important to document these conditions as the pandemic has shaken up the United Kingdom by withdrawing our freedom, to try and save lives. This current cultural situation needs photographing so people in the future can piece together how we got through. They may be unprecedented and unrepeated times.

Savannah Crosby

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The New Normal

The New Normal explores the challenges and changes that society has had to adapt to in order to protect the ones we love, as well as ourselves, from COVID-19.

When looking out the window, the world seems normal but once outside, you realise how abnormal it really is. Streets are usually full of people, now they are empty.

Many things taken for granted, are now banned.

The only way to see our families is through a window or a computer screen. This work documents how life changed during COVID-19 and what became “The New Normal”.

Daniel Dockeray

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Joy of Getting Old

Some people think life stops at 60 but they a wrong. Enjoying Life and being part of a community is not age dependent. In this project I have been going around clubs documenting older people enjoying and making the most of their social time. Here they are pictured having fun and living life to the fullest, not letting their age stop them.

What was something of a pastime is now valued even more and seen in a new light. The ‘Grumpy Old Gits’ Club,’ based in Allenby welcomed being part of the project. This project investigates what it is to have a sense of community.

Silloth Under Lockdown

Continuing to document the local effects of Lockdown, this work takes a close view of my home town, Silloth and is in response to the sparse empty feeling of once popular places.

Silloth usually brings in thousands of people every year to enjoy the many festivals, the outdoors and especially the seaside. With the outbreak of Covid-19 the whole county is on shutdown not allowing anyone to leave their houses. In this project, I am trying to show the impact that Covid-19 has had.

Kelly Hamilton

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Organic

During the Covid-19 lockdown period, the nation was advised to stay home as much as possible and only go out if extremely necessary. For me, this created a new appreciation for the beauty of nature and the outdoors, realising how much we took it for granted when we weren’t in lockdown.

I started to notice all the intricate details in leaves and the different patterns and textures created with the bark on trees. The intention with this project is to remind those struggling with the current situation that the world is still turning. The flowers will still bloom, the grass will continue to grow and soon enough we will be able to enjoy it even more than before.

Zoe Lyons

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Restricted Interaction
“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea- bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here forever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.”
Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf found peace with solitude using the time to help her create. Solitude and isolation are often a great experience for the creative mind allowing time and relaxation to allow the ideas to flow.

Our isolation has been enforced and mixed with fear of an invisible enemy, throwing cemented plans to the wind. Because the confinement and restrictions are not our own choice it makes the feelings associated with it a much more difficult experience.

We as humans are a social species and so much is gained when people interact, collaborate, help and care for others, develop relationships, and become active members of groups and communities. Covid-19 has given us all a common ground with the perfect stranger, allowing us to say hello, smile and ask a genuine ‘how are you?’.

Megan Mavin

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Passing Time

The world has come to a halt because of COVID–19. By documenting a small closed community within Carlisle this work shows the domestic effect on their restricted lives within strict governmental guidelines.

The ability to cope, sleeping patterns, views from bedroom windows, housemates, food and unnaturally good weather all speak of a repetitive world from a personal perspective.

Lockdown has completely dismantled any semblance of normality and there is no end date to be estimated. We can just wait, be sensible and look for the end to Covid-19.

Each day goes by as if we have a countdown to when we can leave our homes freely again and see our families and friends. We simply cannot see when this may end, all we can do is pass the time.

Jordan Mossom

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Daytime Disability

Daytime Disability is a documentary project which brings an insight into the daily life of a disabled person living with a severe life-threatening condition, in this case Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). It is a deeply personal, intimate and honest series of images. The project documents the day-to-day activities of Jordan and the role of his support staff have to help him with his activities and to ensure he can live as independently possible.

This autobiographical project attempts to bring the viewer into the scene through a series of images that look in at what is going on at that moment, but then also attempts to put the viewer into Jordan’s shoes with images that show what is going on from his point of view. It has brought out emotions from Jordan that are normally hidden behind closed doors, mainly out of embarrassment at having to rely on medical equipment and support staff to retain independence. It has taken lots of confidence for him to show some of these emotions for the first time, in a project that will be seen by many people, far and wide, from the public to friends and family and fellow photographers.

Further information can be found at: https://www.musculardystrophyuk.org

Alan McNeish

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The Demise of British Manufacturing

This work aims to highlight how many engineered good are imported into rather than produced in the UK. Consequently, global trade contributes hugely to pollution and this climate change.

Cheap labour, consumer demands and company profit margins are all to blame for the Demise of British Manufacturing. Bearings which are literally essential for machine parts and to make products for industry are made in Finland or Japan.

This is one of many examples that acts as damning proof that we as a society are producing a dangerous amount of CO2, and this should force society to act against rapidly increasing pollution in the world today.

Cameron Paterson

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“One Man Tells Tale” & Other Parts

This two-part series addresses two different aspects of documentary photography. With this work Cameron Paterson is questioning representation and narrative with a series of self-portraits and character studies, examining the absolute truth associated with photography as a form as evidence.

Drawing on existing aesthetic and technical decisions, often associated with the connotations of objective documentation, this project uses those established techniques against the genre. Paterson presents images and stories as truth, even though they are completely fictitious. These are all brought together in the edit in a criticism of the documentary genre.

Nathan Pullan

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4924

4924 refers to the store number of the Stanwix Sainsbury’s Local supermarket. The World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 as a worldwide pandemic on the 11/03/20 and it has had an enormous impact on countries all over the world. Supermarkets have had to change the way in which they operate in order to minimise the spread of the coronavirus.

This work looks at how food retailers have changed shopping during lockdown, whether that’s the way colleagues must work or how customers now must shop. New measures have been put in place to protect colleague and customer safety during the pandemic following guidelines given out by the government.

Many key workers they would rather be at home where they are safe. However, they continue to do their bit in order to help others. 4924 documents supermarket life from an inside perspective.

Shay Ralh

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Confessions of Love and Hate

The world has quickly changed over the past few months, with many of us left with more questions than answers. Inspired by the confessions of others from all walks of life, “Confessions of Love and Hate” started as a way for me to visually interpret the answer people had given to three simple questions.

What would you like to confess right now? What do you love? What do you hate?

With the world in turmoil in these current times, it was also a way for people to share their thoughts on life and their feelings. These were then in turn interpreted into images. These can then be interpreted back into thought by whoever may choose to view this. Ultimately, these interwoven layers of thought and response comment on not just life, but also the people around us. What comes to your mind as you get to see what a small part of the world is thinking?

Harry Renton

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Hiccup

In the summer of 2019, I was sent a text message by my girlfriend’s mother asking if I could stay out for a little longer because they needed to have a chat with their daughters. A few hours later when I arrived home I was told by Poppy, my girlfriend, that her mother and grandmother have Huntington’s Disease. She then told me that there was a fifty percent chance that she, her sister and her cousin could have it too. Over the course of a year this project has documented the love and connection shared between a family living in the shadow of Huntington’s Disease.

My close connection to the family has allowed me to observe and capture intimate moments in all of their lives. Rather than focusing on the disease I’ve tried to capture the love and connection shared between this family, one perhaps unlike any other family I know. Honesty, love and compassion are the foundations of their relationship.

The title ‘Hiccup’ was inspired by a medical term that refers to an interruption of the HD chain resulting in a hiccup thought to slow down the onset of the disease.

Joe Saunders

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We Will Remember Them

An ongoing body of work looking at different aspects of remembrance. This work takes place across many memorial sites from areas in France and Belgium to the local memorials in the towns and villages around Dumfriesshire. The aim of this body of work is to state that remembrance is every day, not just one day a year. This work has been inspired by the great importance of not forgetting the brave souls who sadly lost their lives to secure our freedom. This project will not only look at the memorials of the Commonwealth, but also German and Jewish memorials, as they too suffered tremendous loses during both World Wars.

We Will Remember Them They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Robert Laurence Binyon

Chloe Simpson

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Working Animals

This body of work explores working animals, otherwise known as draught animals, within a rural setting. Animals have historically been used to help with agriculture and have been trained to carry out tasks or to provide for us.

Animals are essential to our lives whether we are directly in contact with them or not. Some animals provide food and clothing while others aid the process for farmers. The project seeks to educate the audience about the way life works around farms and the relationship between the workers and the animals. The project also seeks to celebrate this relationship and demonstrate the continuous work that puts food on our tables.

Kirsty Smedley

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Red Trails

“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
James Baldwin

It has been hypothesised that changes to the epigenome can be passed down to multiple generations of an organism. Within this body of work, similarly I am examining the generational trauma and the effect of gendered racial microaggressions and traumatic stress that is inflicted on black women.

Red Trails is an exploration of self-identity and race through navigating a personal expression of my own trauma.

The images aim to highlight the complexed emotions which women of colour face due to gendered racial microaggressions /discriminations and racism through the use of my own self image as a way to confront this difficult narrative.

Muted, manipulated, red and monochrome. These are expressions of feeling states which aim to share my own personal journey in trying to navigate these difficult issues.

Thomas Vincent

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Wide View of Nothing

All over the British countryside housing developments pop up that destroy valuable agricultural land and potential wildlife habitat, which are then replaced by expensive, identical rows of houses. All the while throughout our towns and cities, empty spaces and absent lots stand vacant; previously developed space with potential for repurposing into affordable and less environmentally destructive living space. The purpose of these ‘imagined’ panoramas is to illustrate the sheer extent of space in Carlisle alone that could be redeveloped yet remains in disuse.

Each of these images are in fact photocollages. Multiple photographs digitally stitched together to form one seamless and purely imagined landscape.

BA (Hons) Photography

Mark Attwood ​

Jamie-Lee Best ​

Casey Brennan ​

Savannah Crosby

Daniel Dockeray ​

​Kelly Hamilton ​

Zoe Lyons ​ ​

Megan Mavin ​

Jordan Mossom ​

Alan McNeish ​

Cameron Paterson ​

Nathan Pullan ​

Shay Ralh ​

Harry Renton ​

Joe Saunders ​

Chloe Simpson ​

Kirsty Smedley ​

Thomas Vincent ​