Situated in the heart of London’s East End arts community and opposite the world-renowned Whitechapel Gallery, the MA Photography course at Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design offers a rich and exciting environment within which to explore contemporary photographic arts practice. The course itself is practice based and attracts students from a wide variety of cultural and academic backgrounds with broad ranging levels of prior experience in the field of photography. This demographic leads to a rich mix of attitudes and opinions, stimulating debate within the cohort and contributing to the production of work that engages with a cross-section of issues within the discipline.
The current graduating students of 2011 are highly representative of this scope of engagement: Kasia Kosaka’s work explores the relationship between cultures through her own experience as a Polish woman married to a Japanese man. She utilises old family photographs and re-presents them as composites, challenging stereotypes and underscoring common experience, rather than difference. Santa Piterniece also uses old family photographs in making her work but she is exploring the psychological baggage that individuals carry with them, producing images that project significant elements of the past into the present. Andrew Kennedy also employs a highly personal approach in creating his work, making close, intimate photographs of his partner, which raise questions about the relationship between the subjective gaze and the public context within which the images are seen.
In contrast to this, Antonio Rizzello takes a more traditional documentary approach to his work, exploring the lives of the fishmongers at Billingsgate Market. Through frequent visits he has built up a relationship with those who work there and gained access to their lives and stories. Likewise, Michele Clement-Delbos has sought to make a document of contemporary life but this time in Golborne Rd London W10, a street of independent shops whose livelihoods have become uncertain due to political changes and market forces. Her work re-creates what the street “feels” like by making digital collages of the exterior and interior spaces. Ian Farrant is also engaged in documenting but in his case it is through making portraits and using text: As a disabled photographer, his series The Para-Olympians explores not only the heroic struggle it takes to become an Olympic athlete but also the compelling relationship between photographer and subject. Another of his current projects, Veterans, which depicts ex-soldiers from the Second World War and other more recent conflicts, together with stories supplied by the subjects, examines similar themes.
Maria Begasse also investigates the relationship between photographic image and text, but in her case responding to the poetry of Fernando Pessoa; she works in a personal, intuitive way, exploring the process of making work. Sophia Borges is similarly interested in the process of making art and through the use of various techniques she investigates the potential for the photographic expression of time beyond the decisive moment. Karin Manunapichu too looks at time and space using photographic series and time-lapse footage to explore the relationship between his birth culture and his temporarily adopted home in London. Amin Kojoori is also concerned with cultural representations but his work references traditional Persian Miniatures, highly complex paintings from Iran, which he responds to through contemporary story telling and the use of digital photographic techniques.
The wide variety of subject matter, concepts and techniques reflected in the work produced by the students, mirrors both the nature of the course and its location, whilst the clustering of interests reflects both the taught modules and research concerns within the department. Students have been in encouraged to make work that is of strong personal interest in a manner that suits their working practice and it is this that helps promote the fulfilment of their potential. Many would say that it is a difficult time to graduate when the economic climate is so uncertain but what is clear is that such a period calls for artists who can rise to the challenges with good ideas that are well executed and who can respond to the world with genuine interest, curiosity and above all with integrity. These graduates have such qualities and with dedication and commitment to their objectives I believe that an exciting and fulfilling future lies ahead of them.
Susan Andrews MA Photography Course Leader
The current graduating students of 2011 are highly representative of this scope of engagement: Kasia Kosaka’s work explores the relationship between cultures through her own experience as a Polish woman married to a Japanese man. She utilises old family photographs and re-presents them as composites, challenging stereotypes and underscoring common experience, rather than difference. Santa Piterniece also uses old family photographs in making her work but she is exploring the psychological baggage that individuals carry with them, producing images that project significant elements of the past into the present. Andrew Kennedy also employs a highly personal approach in creating his work, making close, intimate photographs of his partner, which raise questions about the relationship between the subjective gaze and the public context within which the images are seen.
In contrast to this, Antonio Rizzello takes a more traditional documentary approach to his work, exploring the lives of the fishmongers at Billingsgate Market. Through frequent visits he has built up a relationship with those who work there and gained access to their lives and stories. Likewise, Michele Clement-Delbos has sought to make a document of contemporary life but this time in Golborne Rd London W10, a street of independent shops whose livelihoods have become uncertain due to political changes and market forces. Her work re-creates what the street “feels” like by making digital collages of the exterior and interior spaces. Ian Farrant is also engaged in documenting but in his case it is through making portraits and using text: As a disabled photographer, his series The Para-Olympians explores not only the heroic struggle it takes to become an Olympic athlete but also the compelling relationship between photographer and subject. Another of his current projects, Veterans, which depicts ex-soldiers from the Second World War and other more recent conflicts, together with stories supplied by the subjects, examines similar themes.
Maria Begasse also investigates the relationship between photographic image and text, but in her case responding to the poetry of Fernando Pessoa; she works in a personal, intuitive way, exploring the process of making work. Sophia Borges is similarly interested in the process of making art and through the use of various techniques she investigates the potential for the photographic expression of time beyond the decisive moment. Karin Manunapichu too looks at time and space using photographic series and time-lapse footage to explore the relationship between his birth culture and his temporarily adopted home in London. Amin Kojoori is also concerned with cultural representations but his work references traditional Persian Miniatures, highly complex paintings from Iran, which he responds to through contemporary story telling and the use of digital photographic techniques.
The wide variety of subject matter, concepts and techniques reflected in the work produced by the students, mirrors both the nature of the course and its location, whilst the clustering of interests reflects both the taught modules and research concerns within the department. Students have been in encouraged to make work that is of strong personal interest in a manner that suits their working practice and it is this that helps promote the fulfilment of their potential. Many would say that it is a difficult time to graduate when the economic climate is so uncertain but what is clear is that such a period calls for artists who can rise to the challenges with good ideas that are well executed and who can respond to the world with genuine interest, curiosity and above all with integrity. These graduates have such qualities and with dedication and commitment to their objectives I believe that an exciting and fulfilling future lies ahead of them.
Susan Andrews MA Photography Course Leader
