About the Artists

Robyn Banning:
Photography is what gives me love for the world. Viewing the world through photography changes my whole perspective on life. Photography teaches me to appreciate the overlooked, the unseen and the everyday things. I can’t ever imagine not having photography in my life. It has become apart of me and I have become apart of it. I see the world through photography despite holding a camera or not, the world never escapes my eyes and imagination capturing the beauty of everyday and I cant and don’t want to escape it. 

Philip Duffy: 

Photography is a significantly different way of working to other forms of art. While painting, sculpture and so on capture scenes and objects as the artist imagines them to be, photography is, essentially, a reproduction of light.  This gives the imagery of photography a punch of realness that is rarely found in even the best paintings. This is not to say that photography is better, or even more truthful, than other arts – the camera is, after all, a selective tool that is as capable of manipulation as it is of truth. In fact, I would go so far as to call it the world’s most prolific, straight-faced, liar.  For this reason my images are not about pure documentary, as much as many may seem that way at first glance. My images are intended to examine the social, psychological, emotional, physical, and transcendental. Many of them are metaphorical interpretations of what is physically present  that are intended to record what I see as the deeper reality of a situation. For example, the pictures of Mousie, a furry whom I put into the position of an animal outsider looking in on humanity. These are real images of a guy who does indeed dress that way, however I have removed the headband on his wolf ears in order to blur reality and add a subtle hint that the truth of the images is a metaphorical and aspirational one.

Lorraine Easton:

There is a saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” well that simply is not true, at 45, this old dog has learned many new tricks.

Coming to the end of my second year of the foundation degree I am able to look back and reflect on my journey. There has been enthusiasm, frustration, challenging conversations, disappointment and excitement, but most of all there has been enjoyment. There is no doubt that, for me, there was a steep learning curve and at times it has felt insurmountable, however I would not change this experience for the world. When I began I was set on what my career path would be and was adamant what jobs I would/would not consider after I graduate. This course has opened my mind to the creative possibilities within photography, I became determined to test myself and challenge my idea of where my photography was headed.

To this end I have tried most genres of photography from weddings to documentary, from studio shoots to location driven projects and even film processing as well as salt printing, cyanotypes and photograms, looking for my passion.

All the knowledge gained and the interactions with individuals I have met along the way made me realise where my strengths lay. This final project is based on my love of landscapes and fashion photography, my struggles, strength and fragility is reflected in the images I have taken. Enjoy.

Niki Epps:
“A picture paints a thousand words.” Well, some do, and others just make you think, while others evoke a feeling in you. I like my pictures to be thought provoking with an element of ambiguity. I am as interested in the impact a picture can have on the individual as the picture making process itself. My work is very much about people and during the course, my projects have focused particularly on the multi-faceted nature of the personality, and the role images play in portraying this. Sometimes turning the camera on myself, I have had the opportunity to explore the cathartic nature of the photograph, and its ability to heal.

As well as capturing those special moments that might otherwise go unnoticed, I like to explore the images from my subconscious that ask to be noticed. 


Vicky Franks:

I enjoy wondering around charity and antique shops and find inspiration in the props I find in them. This is how my project started. While looking through a small collection of postcards and photographs I found a portrait of a woman dated “1930s”. There was no other information other than the words: “To Lewis, All my love Mary x” written on it. I had never met this woman and would never know anything more about her life other than this token to a love one.

A lot of my work is commercial based and I wanted to look at editorial fashion work. I created a story, completely fictional, around the characters of Mary and Lewis based in WW2, making my own story for her. This is what my images are based on. I enjoy exploring vintage fashion through commercial photography, using the environment and props to create images with elements from a by gone era. I admire the work of Tim Walker and Norman Parkinson as well as editorials published in magazines such as Vogue.
Studying Fda photography has enabled me to grow as a photographer both technically and creatively. I have developed a love of analog and darkroom processes and next year I intend to continue studying photography to achieve my degree and will explore both digital and analog imagery. 

Emily Rolfe:

While travelling in America two years ago, my interest in photography developed rapidly into a real passion for capturing both the ordinary and extraordinary. I became fascinated by the way that light can affect a scene, and how angle, proximity and depth of field can enhance an otherwise simple image. I believe that photography is one of the most important mediums of the modern era, able to capture all aspects of human and natural history, while simultaneously being a true art form presenting the photographer with numerous opportunities for expression.

The majority of my work centres around portraiture in various genres from fine art to documentary, I have a real passion for capturing people and the human condition in general. Many of the themes surrounding my work have been based around the labels and social constructions within society especially those defining differences between men and women. There has been a feminist theme throughout my work over the past two years which although sometimes subconscious to begin with has really informed my latest work. The images I am exhibiting explore the nude both male and female, and how we view them in terms of our unconscious conformity to social trends and beliefs, this I have both exacerbated and confronted with use of posing, lighting and props. I have really enjoyed creating this body of work and feel that this has been my strongest work to date.

Sarah Smeed:

My passion is fine art photography, which I have been studying for 5 years now. During my studies I have learnt how to us many different mediums of photography such as Digital, Black & White Film, Cyanotypes, Photograms and Salt Printing to convey my concepts.

What I love about photography is its ability to transmit a message to a much wider audience and through this educate people. I have all way aspired to achieve this with my own conceptual photography and my inspirations for my concepts often come from many different sources. Some of them can be things that affect me personally and others can be a more of national study, although all of them I feel very passionately about. Past units I have explored consisted of issues surrounding political control, the perfect body from a feminist’s point of view and a self emotional exploration after a bereavement of a family member.

Lately I have been exploring the idea of symbolism within nature and in particular the theories on what trees represent, such as religious places of worship, connectivity to the earth by being rooted, ideas on family connection and links to unearthly realms such as in the theories on The Tree Of Life.

My aims for next year are to go on and complete a top up degree in fine art, in order to gain my BA. In the future I wish to run my own photographic business and have my own gallery where I can sell all of my own photographic work.

Daniel Wanstall:

Photography was always a point of interest for me, it became more of a passion as I chose to study it as an A Level, continuing onto a National Diploma and now working towards a Foundation Degree in Photography. Through this I have gained the skills and techniques which I can use to enhance my work.

When I am feeling inspired and creative, photography is my way to communicate my thoughts. I look to photography to express myself and aim to produce more commercial work, sometimes looking to experiment with darkroom approaches.
My main interest is to make photographic work within the performing arts sector. I am looking to produce fresh and innovative work with a real sense of creativity. The work in this book is based around photographing dance in different environments, a combination of set images with live performance work. It is a development of a project (“Dance Portraits”) which I carried out towards the end of last year.
Post Foundation Degree I will be looking to gain employment within the photographic industry. I feel that obtaining hands on experience within a working environment will be more beneficial than furthering my education at this point.