Alumni talk - Sports Photographer Danielle Machin

Fresh Ideas exhibition at Changing Spaces

Anglia Ruskin first year Photography BA (Hons) students will be hosting an exhibition Changing Spaces Gallery on Norfolk Street, Cambridge during the first week of February. Students will be showing work they have created during the first semester at uni which includes a combination of digital and analogue work. The exhibition will involve a selection of pieces from portraiture, landscape, abstract, street photography and much more.
 
Link to Facebook event page 

Kristina Babak

Emily Grey

Jo Randall

Alex O'Brien

Glen Adams

Teddy Alabaster

Vicky Quirke

Talia Grelewska

Jac Williams

Daniel Szalay

Melanie Bennett

Sophie Fitzwater

Matthew Huggard

Charlotte Fraigneau

Megan Lovell receives Honourable Mention at the UNICEF Photo of the Year Awards

Megan, a student on the BA (Hons) Photography course at Anglia Ruskin University, was the only British photographer to make the shortlist for the annual prize, which is organised by UNICEF Germany and GEO magazine.

The UNICEF Photo of the Year Awards recognise photos and photo series that depict the personality and living conditions of children worldwide in an outstanding manner.  The top prize was won by Georgi Licovski, a photographer with epa (European Pressphoto Agency), for his images of young refugees on the Greece-Macedonia border.

Megan, who is 20 and lives in Harlow, impressed the judges with a series of photos of her eight-year-old sister Sophie – photos she originally took for a module of her degree course.

She said: “The photos tell the story of my younger sister trying to make sense of an over-commercialised childhood.  Sophie is eight years old and wants to grow up quickly, but is not ready.  To receive such an honour within the UNICEF awards is incredible – I’m almost speechless.”

As well as being the only British photographer, Megan is also the youngest photographer to be honoured this year by UNICEF, who said: “Although she has not finished her training yet, she already is a photographer with a fine instinct and the talent to ‘read’ faces.”

Kerstin Hacker, Course Leader for Photography, said: “The photography department is proud that one of our students has been recognised in the UNICEF Photo of the Year award.

“Megan’s series is a very powerful reminder on the pressures children are under and how important stories can sometimes be found very close to home.  Her work manages to capture the difficult transition from child to adult and the commercial pressure that makes this journey perilous.

“Megan photographed the series as part of the Photographic Sequences module in her second year of study.  The module is helping our students to develop a narrative in a body of work.

“Being selected amongst seasoned photographers for an Honourable Mention in a global, professional photographic competition is an amazing achievement and a real testimony to the ambition and professionalism of our students.”

Second year Lighting Workshop with multiple off camera flash units in the Six Bells Pub

Last Tuesday our second year students went to the Six Bells pub... to learn about lighting a location shoot with multiple off camera flash units. Each of these images is lit with four flash units, reflectors, soft boxes and some natural light.

Alumni of the Month: Fashion Photographer Miri Zaruba

Miri Zaruba graduated in 2009 from the BA Photography and now works for clients including Vogue, Angel Magazine and Velvet magazine.

Miri says: "Eight years ago I had no idea I would become a professional photographer. Only what I had was a passion for photography. Today I am a freelance photographer shooting mainly fashion, events and actor headshots. I started shooting for clients in the second year at uni. Portfolio shoots and fashion shows were great testing ground. Today I still work with a lot of the people I started with years ago. A career of a photographer is not only about skills and contacts, but also about determination, reliability and personality. It is a never ending journey and progress."

Link to Miri's website

Maternity Ward - Romantic Narrative of Childbirth Challenged

Changing Spaces Gallery

9 Norfolk Street

Cambridge

CB1 2LD

Private View – 22. October 2015

5pm to 8pm

Exhibition from 19. October to 1. November 2015

11am to 5pm

Website: www.kerstinhacker.org

Link to series: http://www.kerstinhacker.org/CZmaternity

Kerstin Hacker photographed the series Maternity Ward in the Vinohradsky Hospital in Czech Republic and won the Emma/Agfa Prize for Female Photojournalists in Germany in 1993 with this series. The powerful and uncompromising images reveal a different and provocative view of childbirth.

Vinohradsky Hospital is a large teaching hospital in the centre of Prague and the maternity ward dealt with over thousand births a year. The series gives an insight into the busy department of the hospital and challenges the romantic narrative surrounding childbirth.

Kerstin Hacker studied at FAMU (University of Applied Arts in Prague) and is now Course Leader for the BA Photography and MA Photography at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.

The show is part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. This year's Festival of Ideas theme 'Power and Resistance' was an ideal time to show the work, as the work discusses existing power structures in a maternity ward and how women can feel disempowered during labour.

Changing Spaces is an artist-led project in Cambridge that negotiates the use of empty commercial property for use by artists for exhibition and development purposes.

MA Photography students exhibit during the MA Degree Show 2015