Exhibition Visit: "Fresh-faced and Wild Eyed" (The Photographers' Gallery, London, 4 July 2015)

This exhibition, now in its 8^th year, presents the work of 25 recent graduates from photographic and visual arts courses across the UK, showcasing the best emerging artistic talent. The works were selected by a panel of judges. As such, it presents an overview of current practices and gives a boost to talented recent graduates at a critical time in their careers.

As a potential graduate from a visual arts course, the concepts and ideas behind emerging graduates’ work was of particular interest to me, as was the way in which these ideas had been exploited.

Looking round the exhibition, a few obvious themes emerged. Most of the works were (loosely) portrait based, with images of (male and female) naked bodies to the fore. Whilst the aesthetics and story lines behind the works were very varied, it seems that many students prefer to stick with the type of photography with which they are most familiar, namely taking photographs of themselves and others.

I was impressed with the globe-trotting capacities of the graduate photographers. Jonathon Simpson (“I am Fine”) spent time travelling between Bangladesh and Singapore delivering video messages of love and support between Bangladeshi workers in Singapore and their families, in order to investigate the exploitation of Singapore’s migrant workers. Betty Laura Zapata ("X-Ray, Inside Venezuelan Public Hospitals”) returned to her home country to work undercover to expose the appalling state of healthcare facilities in Venezuela. James Bell (“Beach Boys”) managed to wangle time in Barbados to portray members of the local community who are dependent on the tourist trade.

Intermingled with more hedonistic pursuits, one or two projects were of a distinctly personal nature. Sian Davey’s project, “Looking for Alice”, features her own young daughter, who was born with Down’s syndrome, and reflects on how Alice’s disability influences family relationships, whilst also examining prevailing attitudes in society towards “difference”. However, the work that had the greatest effect on me featured very little photography. Aida Silvestri’s work, “Even This Will Pass”, features a small number of portraits of Eritrean sitters, blurred to protect their identities, together with passages of text describing their dreadful and traumatic experiences on journeys to this country, as victims of human trafficking. At a time when many thousands of migrants are attempting to enter our country illegally, this project is a timely reminder of the other side of the story. We should also appreciate how lucky we are to live here, when we compare our lifestyles to those of others around the world. Silvestri was born in Eritrea. Her work reminds me that when a project revolves around a concept as powerful as this, photography becomes just a simple tool to assist the narrative.

Some of the projects were video-based. I was particularly impressed by the short film from Alexandra Vacaroiu’s project: “I Want to Remember Everyth”, in which she attempts to recreate memories that were never photographed. Her work concentrates on objects that trigger specific memories and its potential benefit for patients living with Alzheimer’s disease is explored. Here is a creative and imaginative project, with an aesthetically pleasing output and a worthy goal: what more could one ask for?

The creative energy and output of these graduates is to be admired. As expected, many of the works were of little interest to me in my perpetual search for ideas and inspiration. However, some of the works (in particular that by Aida Silvestri) were quite moving and demonstrate that sometimes the photographs themselves can play a relatively minor role as part of a bigger concept (a reminder of the work of Sophie Calle).

In looking to the future Sian Davey’s work reinforces my wish to develop a very personal photographic project relating to the relationship with my mother between 1995 (when my father died) and 2007, when my mother passed away.

The increasing use of video by the students encourages me to incorporate more video work into future projects, following its introductory use in my major project for this course.