Student awards
Photo|Frome is proud to launch our inaugural Student Awards, with prizes sponsored by MPB, the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video gear. The Student Awards welcomed projects of all genre and styles of photography, and any photographic processes, that reflect the 2023 theme, Decolonising Environments.
From the many entries received from across there country, 12 pre-degree and 22 degree students were shortlisted to go forward to the distinguished panel of judges (Michelle Sank, Pelumi Odubanjo, Arteh Odjidja and Ian Howorth) who then selected their finalists. Two winners and one highly commended student received vouchers from the Student Awards sponsor MPB to spend on used photography or videography equipment on MPB.COM.
There is a first prize of a £500 MPB voucher, a second prize of a £250 voucher, and a pre-degree winning student prize of a £250 voucher. Additionally, Photo|Frome CIC gave a £250 cash Frome Community Award. There are also 4 honourable mentions. These 8 winners will all be exhibited as part of MPB @ Rook Lane.
Thank you to everyone who entered this year, and congratulations to all awarded and shortlisted students below!
The winners, runner-up, and honourable mentions were announced on Saturday 24 June at Rook Lane Chapel.
Photographs are all exhibited in the Café until 12 July.
MPB @ Rook Lane Chapel | Bath Street, Frome, BA11 1DN
Saturday 24 June to Wednesday 12 July, 10:00–16:00. Daily | FREE
WINNERS & HONOURABLE MENTIONS
ARTIST STATEMENT
Amin Yousefi is a London-based artist with an MA in Documentary Photography from the University of Westminster. In his project ‘Eyes Dazzle as They Search for the Truth’, he investigates the Iranian revolution of 1978-1979 by capturing individuals who stood out from the masses and gazed into the camera’s lens. Yousefi questions the power dynamics between photographer and subject and reflects on the complex relationship between them. He uses a magnifying loupe as an allegory for extracting photographs of the revolution and connecting them with the present moment. The project showcases the reversal of the subject-object relationship as the people captured the image with their gaze, instead of the camera turning to the people. Yousefi’s work explores the desire for the immortality of the revolutionaries who wanted to be recorded in history by the camera. This project sheds light on the crucial moment in the Middle East’s history, and its impacts on the region.
ARTIST STATEMENT
”I Hope You Know How Wonderful You Are’ is a self-reflective narrative about my queer upbringing and various aspects of my life that have been impacted by it. It looks into themes of religion, love, loss, community and family all revolving around the life of a young LGBTQ+ individual, using written text to support and juxtapose the imagery. My queer upbringing revolves around my family and so my parents play an important role in the imagery, taken from negatives found in old family albums. Flowers and hands appear as motifs throughout this work to represent my family and the wider community around me. Each individual image has a story made known only to those it circulates. I am more than willing to share these stories with people should they be curious, they need only ask.’
Unplugged: A Photography Collection of Nature’s Disconnection
Bede’s Senior School
PRE-DEGREE WINNER
ARTIST STATEMENT
‘An environment which is most decolonising for me is the territory which has not yet been colonised by humankind: Nature. In this collection I wanted to explore and evoke the euphoric freedom that being surrounded by nature can give you. I am inspired by ‘friluftsliv’, the Norwegian expression coined by Ibsen to express the value of experiencing remote locations. It is as much about what could be there, as about what isn’t there, which is represented by the ant-like figures of humans whose tiny footprints impose across the dominant landscapes. My intention is for the images to be viewed as pairs each one a juxtaposition to the other, sometimes an obvious contrast and in others less so. But, posing the question. Decolonisation for me is freeing myself from the constraints of national and urban saturation and the binds of society to search out the freedom which comes from an unhindered natural environment.’
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Maddie Mann
Frome College
FROME COMMUNITY AWARD
ARTIST STATEMENT
‘In order to capture the idea of Decolonising Environments, I wanted to capture the natural versus the colonised. I wanted to explore hostile, gritty and machined environments and juxtapose them with some imagery of the natural. In some of my photos I tried to explore a more abstract route, taking my natural photographs of the Swiss mountains and layering them to create an abstract and confusing representation of a natural environments. This helps to represent the endless and gorgeous nature of the uncolonised environment. The colonised photos were more straightforward. They were simply gritty pictures of man-made junk and machinery. Taking and editing these photos with no distraction forces the viewer to ruminate on the destruction of these natural environments.’
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Zuben Mason
Frome College
HONOURABLE MENTION
Pre-degree students shortlist
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Arran Brough
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Ben Mottram
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Harry Davies
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Hollie Stedman
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Jeremy Button
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Luca Dimaria
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Maddie Creffield
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Nye Vowell
Frome College
DECOLONISING ENVIRONMENTS
Raya Somerville
Frome College
Degree students shortlist
We’re Ascending
Adam Wright
Leeds Arts University
