England’s New Lenses: Shortlist

Prudence Bond, ‘We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children – Native American Proverb. These images are from my project entitled Finite. It looks at the human impact on the environment and the world we are creating. In response to the climate crisis I wanted to produce work that highlighted the impact of our 21st-century society. I visited Iceland to photograph the disappearing landscape and the glacier tongues of vatnajökull. Some of which will be completely gone in my lifetime. I wanted to document the beautiful and fragile glacier to keep a record of what once was, as well as show people the irreversible damage that is being done. Another impact to the earth is again our use of crude oil which takes its form as plastic. Polluting our oceans and suffocating marine life. I photographed plastic bags to create these deep-sea creatures to give a glimpse into the perhaps not so distant future where our pollution has now integrated into a living organism. I juxtaposed images of a world that is cracking and crumbling with a vision of what we are leaving for future generations.’

John Gurung, Untitled

Amanda Holdom, ‘Mom’s hands, Nan’s rings. Birmingham (2020) ‘

Emily Thornhill, ‘The purpose and use of the megalithic sites we see remains of today have always been a mystery to us and look like they always will. This series titled ‘Sacred Places’ celebrates the different interpretations for their creation that have evolved over time through folklore, allegory, myth and legend in an attempt to understand their presence within the landscape. This photo depicts Chûn Quoit near Sr. Just in Cornwall. Meaning ‘house on the downs’ in Cornish, it sits on picturesque moorland overlooking the sea. It is thought to have been used for tribal rituals and religious ceremonies, as from its position the setting midwinter sun is framed perfectly by a rocky hill on the horizon called Carn Kenidjack, who’s name means ‘hooting cairn’ and stems from the sound the wind makes when passing through it. A stone’s throw away are the ruins of Chûn Castle, which is said to have been home to the giant Old Denbras the Hurler. The story goes that he was killed in a wrestling match by a local man named Tom. From his victory, Tom inherited the castle, but only on the condition that he buries the giant at his favourite seat (the quoit) on the hill looking out to sea.’

Jennifer Forward-Hayter, ‘A young working-class girl in hunting uniform. Easily dismissed as a pursuit for the rich and out-of-touch, hunting in the countryside is for all. Many people take advantage of the hunt resources, networking opportunities, and community. Discounts are offered for allowing the hunt across your land, as well as invites to parties, meetings, get-togethers and dances. At a time where farmers have the highest rate of suicide, and with a net loss of rural teens choosing to leave the countryside, how is heritage being reworked in order to benefit and engage a wider range of residents?’

Clare Patrick, ‘My family does not have many heirlooms, however we do grapple with a legacy of secrets and generational histories that are passed down, often remaining unspoken and unnamed. This image, for me, represents a questioning of the heirlooms that my family holds, and those that have been discarded. The image is of a bunch of fresh flowers which were discarded in a graveyard I visited, and it speaks to ideas of loss, of rejection, and most crucially for me, it is filled with so many unanswerable questions. Flowers are nostalgic, symbolic and often a placeholder for remembrance and memorialisation. I enjoy the blurriness of the image, where the flowers are behind a layer of plastic that changes their colour and the petals become indistinct shapes that could be anything.’

Alisha Dar, ‘From my project ‘The women who came before me’ which explores the relationships I have held with the women in my family history. What is important about all of the women in my family is that either directly or indirectly, their words, actions and appearances have helped shape who I am. To illustrate this influence, I have archived and created mixed-media installations of family photos by pairing the images with fabrics (dupattas) hand-picked and worn by my mother.’

Daniel Harvey Gonzalez, ‘This is an image from Bellwether Town, a project I worked on about my hometown of Basildon in Essex and the kind of lifestyle my friends and I lived on the estate we grew up on. The work talks about stigma, identity, and its relationship with space and is very personal to me.’

Francesca Gnoato, Untitled

Joss Matthews, ‘This Photograph is from my series Ex Mare Dei Gratia which is Canvey Island’s Coat of Arms, meaning ‘From the Sea, by the Grace of God. Within this project, I look at the identity of Canvey through individuals within the community as well as the unique landscape it inhabits, influenced by tourism, industry and the surrounding sea wall which is a constant reminder of their vulnerability to tidal waters. This is Mike Towett. I met him outside his house which lies just behind the island’s sea wall. I told Mike about the project I was working on and he invited me in for a cup of tea which turned into lunch. I sat upstairs in his lounge overlooking the estuary and listened to Mike and his wife talk of their travels around the world and the stories behind their eclectic collection of art. Their house was truly a map of their life’s experiences. Mike is 79 years old and has always lived locally, the last 49 years being on the island itself. Mike worked as an oil spill consultant for refineries along the River Thames. Living at the mouth of the Thames with an overlooking view from his balcony, the river is still very much part of his life.’

Flynn McDonnell, ‘In tribute to my late grandmother, who passed away when I was very young, my image depicts her alongside myself, my brother (riding the donkey) and mother at Broadstairs. Having been abandoned by her father at the age of four, as an Irish immigrant she was sent to live in a Catholic convent in Southampton. Whilst there, like so many other children who were put under the care of the Catholic Church, she was both poorly treated and abused. This ultimately affected her for the rest of her life as she suffered from depression and anxiety. Having been a heavy smoker and drinker all her life, she died of a stroke in her early sixties’ when I was just three years old. This is only one of a handful of photos that we now have of us together. Drawing on ideas of memory and materiality, writer Gene McSweeney explores the idea of the film process being one that is closer to our lives than we think. He suggests how like skin, the chemicals in film age affecting the final image; photographs deteriorate and become damaged over time. Like the photograph itself, my grandmother’s life was one of struggle and hardship; yet despite this, there were still glimpses of happiness and love within it.’

Max Southern, ‘The image is part of an ongoing body of work exploring my Grandfathers relationship to his childhood home and the prospect of selling it after 70 years. In the image he is reading the post that has accumulated on the doorstep of the home after a period of it being empty. Most of the post is addressed to his late mother.’

John McMullan, ‘Taken in a suburban car boot sale early on a Sunday morning. There is something so vulnerable and intimate about seeing all of someone’s stuff. Becoming a witness to their obsessions, collections, achievements, archives. Personal objects are like emblems of a life, and they’re unceremoniously disclosed on a plastic table or white sheet. This image is taken from a longer series archiving car boot sales during 2020 in the wake of lockdown.’

Jake Carvin, ‘This my friend Miles, He broke his back in a motorcycle accident when he was 16, He has since re-learned to walk and got a new motorcycle. Then later this year we started to learn skateboarding together! This project was shot at an abandoned zoo that has been closed for some years now, This ‘zoo’ or rather Flamingo Park is located on the east side of the Isle of Wight and was a huge deal for tourists and locals. The park Hosted Penguins, Meerkats, alpacas and many more including obviously… Flamingos! We decided to have an adventure down memory lane and see if we could find any interesting objects to photograph/document. This is the resulting shoot! The location is a cleared out an old water bowl/tank (We think it housed Otters) it was covered in old brick, litter and wood. Once cleared we spent an hour or so skating, took some photos and then left.’

Bethany Hobbs, ‘This image comes from a larger body of work that explores my family’s Jewish heritage. The necklace in the photograph belonged to my Great Grandmother (Elly). On the chain, there are two pendants and one ring. The heart pendant is from her parent’s wedding. At the end of a Jewish wedding, it is tradition to break a glass or piece of china, to represent the fragility of life and the destruction of the temples. The china in the centre of the heart is from their breaking of the glass, on the return side has their wedding date and names. The circular pendant was a gift for her Bat Mitzvah, on the reverse it says “03.XII.1924 von Deinen Eltern” which translates to 03.XII.1924 from your elders/parents. This became the title of the work. The ring is from her second marriage (once she had arrived in the UK) to the ‘presumed’ father of my grandfather– another discovery which led to more questions! The choice to photograph the necklace on a hand mannequin comes from a story Elly told my grandmother about a close encounter she had with the Gestapo before she fled Vienna leaving her parents behind, never to see them again.’

Florence Morlye, ‘Auto-portrait took within the lockdown, in Burgundy France.’

Kate Schultze, ‘Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit happened and affected everyone’s life, even though it wasn’t always obvious.’

Miriam Levi, ‘Mixed media photogram photomontage from series “They had my body”. These collages, created by clipping magazine images, stolen “Degenerate Art” and screengrams. The last are photograms produced using screens as the main source of light. This technique of printing digital images through pressing photographic paper to the screen was the one behind the series “This is (Still) the Golden Age” by Matthew Gamber, who produced screengrams by pressing paper against the screen of an old TV using heat and light to produces abstract and foggy images. Following his approach, I created six collages to reflect on cultural norms of beauty and issues of feminine representation and censorship. Examples of screen-grams in the series of collages are both the frames made out of strips of Instagram feed and the black and white female subjects, which are taken from the subjects of paintings from the Freie Universat Berlin. The works of art selected were images of women painted by German Artists which were censored and stolen by Nazi for their being examples of so-called Degenerate Art. Those photograms were then combined with clippings from women magazines such as OK Magazine and censured Instagram posts. The collages are meant to be an observation on female representation in the course the history and a reference to Dada Artists like Hannah Höch. The collages are physically made in the back of colouring kids canvases, referring to the Dada concept of ready-made.’

Eli Johnathan, ‘This image are part of a wider project, entitled “Home”. In it, I explore what the concept of family, community, and indeed heritage means to those in the LGBTQ+ Community. I’ve grown up only seeing myself and my fellow LGBT siblings portrayed only in upsetting and pessimistic imagery; black and white scenes of young people crying at the mirror, or stories of tragedy and hardships in the media. Whilst this is certainly an aspect of our reality, I am frustrated that our community isn’t also shown for the vibrant, loving, accepting and supportive environment that it is. Many of us have found a real sense of family within this community, and prove that the idea of heritage and familial history isn’t only defined by our blood relations, but also those who share a bond that goes beyond genetics. In short, the mission of Home is not to make a statement about the tragedies of queer lives, present as they may be. Instead, it seeks to portray individuals grounded in their reality – that is to say, one of friendship, of solidarity, of community and of hope. Most importantly, I hope to celebrate this beautiful community’s family and heritage.’

Andreea Prisecaru, ‘The picture is taken at Auschwitz, it shows the untold story of what happened there. People were told that they will be taken to working camps, so naturally they packed household items. All the items in the picture belonged to people that realised they were told a lie. They had to throw away all the mugs and plates and whatever they brought, realising the items will not be needed.’

Amber Brown, ‘It must be somewhere here’ is a year-long survey of the Northern deep coal-mining landscape. As the granddaughter of two miners, it acts as both a geographical study and inquiry into ancestry. A departure to colour depicts former colliery sites which have been visually affected by the chemical aftermath of deep coal-mining. Unnaturally high levels of manganese in still-draining mine-water stains rocks orange, and the erosion of cliff formations reveals materials from a colliery landfill. I record various places of memorial and colliery remains. Through ‘slow’ large format photography, and the photopolymer gravure, I create works in which time cannot be specified, where the process is elongated as much as possible, commenting on manual labour, materiality and the ritual of returning home to walk in the empty industrial lands where man once laid his hand.’

Shlok Mehta, Untitled

Henri Compton, Silouhette of scooter trick

Maliya Farshori, Untitled

Rohan Delamere, ‘This is my sister, who when she was little used to say she was ‘half-Liverpool, half-India‘ about her heritage. Although we live in London, my Dad’s Liverpool heritage is important to us. We go back to visit my Nana and enjoy being by the water and looking at the sunset.’

Rhys Barnes, ‘Taken at the beach, I had a very low point of view on a sunny day. I really like how you have Eastbourne pier in the background!’

Kassia Chapman, ‘This image I took with my camera at home right before travelling to Rome in 2018. The cross is mine and the blurry picture baby me but the red Pompeii and underneath Naples postcard were my grandad’s that he got from travelling with the navy and gave to me because I have a real passion for history (particularly English and Italian). I loved Rome and the city was beautiful but I really hope to go to Pompeii and Florence as my next stops!’

James Dickinson, Untitled

Millie Rose White, ‘I have chosen the theme of ‘play’. This piece is based on our generation now, with their obsessive nature with technology and how sometimes they know more than the adults! I wanted to portray this theme through an outsider’s perspective, looking at a child being engrossed in the life of social media.’

Jasmine Dawes, ‘This photograph is inspired by my mum, she is a hairdresser and has a very bright personality, and I tried to show this in the photo.’

Megan, ‘I took this image during my documentary shoot of COVID 19 in the time of lockdown so that in time I can share my experience aided by the photos I took.’

Jaiming Kang, ‘This piece is titled “Hate is a Virus”. This piece is inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, and especially by the racism/xenophobia that East-Asian people received because of the virus. I wanted to showcase how hatred against any oppressed group, such as the LGBTQ+ community, the Black community, and the disabled community, is just like a virus. It’s dangerous, harmful and can even kill people. Hatred just like a virus it spreads easily within our society, and it is our job to stop spreading the virus and stop misinformation, such as stigmas. Being Asian is part of my identity and heritage, and so I wanted to show that each of these oppressed groups all has their own Untold Heritage and story to tell.’

Eve Webster, ‘We noticed these large black and white-tipped stumps at the lock gates in Sawley, they were around 40cm high and would make a comfortable seating stool. They looked like they had been there for a hundred years or more, and when I noticed them, I wondered what they were and what have they been used for. We decided to ask the Canal and River Trust volunteer lock keeper, he told us they were mooring pins for large working vessels that used to pass through with goods, heading for the Shardlow Basin. The marks we could see on them like chips were where the ropes had once been tied. The lock is 16ft wide, so it saw some pretty big boats 100 years ago, whereas today the leisure boats are a lot smaller, which is why these gigantic mooring pins are no longer used. I think these pins are part of our heritage untold, but part of their history has now been told to us and this is why I have decided to submit this as an entry. I chose this image because the stump sits in the background and this is how it lives, it’s part of the history of the lock, but I suspect many people pass by it every day and do not notice it’s existence or question why it is there.’

Daisy Evans, ‘I took this image during the Photoworks ‘play’ workshop, I was playing around with reflections when I took this of my Doctor Who funko pop. I think the reflection from the paperweight I used as a lens captures the atmosphere of Doctor Who which has been a significant part of my childhood and heritage.’

Agathe Danzin, ‘Before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, we would communicate through face-to-face interaction, expressions, learning, working e.t.c. There was also the use of social media, but not very often, for most people. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, we couldn’t communicate face-to-face as we were locked in, we couldn’t use expressions, as we were wearing masks, we couldn’t interact as we had to stay 2 meters away from each other. Social media and online meetings started taking up a bigger part of our lives. Yet, these relationships were not what they had been before. After the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, how will we communicate? Will masks stay forever? What about social distancing? We are unsure of the future, we are even confused about what has just happened. Has it even finished yet? How will our relationships resume with one another? How will they form and develop in this ever-changing and modernising world? Will we ever pause to look back at the past? Will we only ever think about developing, economically and technologically? What about those unplanned lunches with acquaintances met by chance or shared coffees with a homeless chap – will those things become history? I have put these ideas together in a simple but striking image.’