Shilpa Grupta

Grupta traced individuals who changed their last names either to succeed, or to survive to create this exhibition. 

Photos from Altered Inheritances- 100 (Last Name) Stories:

I like the way that the images have been split in half and stuck back together again in a mix match way and how this represents how the names were shed and then split apart as they needed to change them.

For my own project I would like to take the style Gupta has used and split my images where possible because I think it adds another layer of story to the final product. I plan to look at my own identity and take pictures of objects from my childhood and use old photos to create a snapshot of my life.

Freya Dumasia

 I was born in Dubai, a country rich in religion that intrigued my interest in the Islamic culture. I am interested in using photography as a tool to reframe perspectives and emphasis the way in which a cultural image within society has been constructed through the media. I want to raise awareness within the viewer of the way newspaper coverage and online access to current events manipulates our views and opinions of Islamic culture. My photography aims to express the way the media distorts, blurs and shows a selected view, and to explore the way this process can result in the loss of individual identity.

-Freya Dumasia

Photos from Freya Dumasia’s A level Photography portfolio:

I like the style of Dumasia’s digital photos and would like to try and use it in my own work by perhaps layering a digital overlay over images or using a low shutter speed and taking blurry self portraits or object photos.

Umberto Verdoliva

Photos from What is a dream?:

Two real moments captured over time, merged to create something meaningful, balanced, and unique. Recreating a scene, an atmosphere, an ephemeral reality from something that existed in different times and places has been the leitmotif of my work.

-Umberto Verdoliva

I like the story in these images and how Verdoliva has used photomontage to blend two images together and create a narrative. I plan to mix my photos from the past (from my childhood) and present self portraits or pictures I take that relate to my identity.

Photos from Procida:

Why the island? Because it is the point where I isolate myself, where I am alone: it is a point that is separate from the rest of the world, not because it really is, but because in my state of mind I can separate myself from it.

-Giuseppe Ungaretti

I also like the way that Verdoliva has captured his life and made it personal to him as it is his surroundings. I would take photos inspired by these of places on the island which relate to me or perhaps get images from our family archives of where my parents are from and their hometowns because these are also my ‘homes’ and where the rest of my family lives.

Jocelyn Calac

Photos from Centrevilliens – Dontown citizens:

Last year was special for everyone, I focused on the citizens of my little town of Rodez in the south of France as we was living between the multiple levels of lockdown. I was participating for the Ricoh GR challenge with all the finalists of the Spi awards 2020 and I have to say that it was a special moment with a lot of luck and good energy. This kind of times when things happen with an idea in it, I feel I just have to capture them in the timing. I selected this ten photos because of the short period in witch I did them and it seems to me that they fit well with each others and making a good series of how I saw my city and the ones who was living it with me in this hard cover situation, maybe I needed to put more creativity into my work to balance. I only used the Ricoh GR3 for this series.

-Jocelyn Calac

If I was to focus on community I would take photos like these where Calac has caught people in the moment and they are living their own lives but part of the community where he lives.