University News Last updated 13 July 2017
Students on our BA (Hons) Photography course are celebrating after an incredibly successful academic year, gaining high profile press coverage and a fantastic range of work placements.
Final year student Omar Khaleel has had a huge amount of success stemming from the Free Range event in London, where soon to be graduates showcase their work to their peers and industry professionals. His work, based around bi-culturalism, was highlighted by The Guardian’s culture section, by theculturetrip.com as well as amuse-i.d.vice.com
Omar has also been interviewed by the British Journal of Photography which is a huge achievement for a final year student about to embark on his career.
Final year Photography student John Syriana, who specialises in fashion photography had a fantastic response from Free Range, including being offered an assisting role in the fashion photography studios at Ted Baker.
John said:
"At the private view at Free Range, I came across two creative professionals that were questioning whether I hired someone to edit or retouch my photographs. Luckily, I was around to speak to them about my work, so I explained I do all my own editing. It turns out they were the Senior Retouchers at Ted Baker! We spoke for a while about the retouching etc. and some time later the Head Photographer at Ted Baker came over and introduced himself. His colleagues told him to come up and speak to me after our conversation and it was all a domino effect from there!"
We are also extremely proud of four of our final year Photography students, Siobhan Francis, Jess Lena, Klaudia Morgalla and Markel Knight, for being featured in the Creative Review, one of the leading art and design magazines in the UK, in their 'Gradwatch 2017' section.
We spoke to Markel about his recent exposure, work and advice to new students:
“My inspiration for the images I take comes from my interest in Dark Tourism and wanting to document locations before they’ve changed or replaced. I exhibited at Free Range in June, and it gave me the chance to get my business into the creative industry. This gave me the opportunity to have industry professionals give me feedback on my work. To anybody starting in September I’d say, come in with an open mind, and find your niche. I came to the University thinking I was a ‘fashion photographer’, and after experimenting and developing my work, I now classify myself as a documentary photographer.”
Klaudia told us about her own Free Range experience and her surprise at the attention her work has received since:
“Experiencing Free Range was an overwhelming time. It was a chance to make myself known to different brands and creatives. I think doing such an exhibition helped me see how important getting your name out there is and because of it, I am more aware of self-branding and how broad our industry actually is. Being featured in the Creative Review magazine was a total shock. I didn’t actually think my work could be selected, however I am very pleased and I advise anyone, not to doubt your own work. Getting your name out there in any possible way is important in this industry, so having my name in a known magazine will hopefully open more doors to me."
Find out more about BA (Hons) Photography and BA (Hons) Commercial Photography.