ARTSFEST Visual Effects, Photography and Design archive

Tobias Spyropoulos

From the “Mad Men” of the 1950’s to the present day, the aspirational and impossible themes of advertisements have resolutely had the beautiful, affluent, and iconoclastic at their fulcrum. "Upsold” aims to mobilise these binaries; that of beauty campaigns, social media and corporate mantras as seen in the US, which embody the capitalistic ideals of “winning”, juxtaposing them against the comparatively dull and mundane realities that comprise the lived experience. Between the chasm of the fictitious-cum-real world is where this project resides, aiming to poke fun at the distance between the two goal posts, whilst commenting on the more serious and harmful expectations that this type of propaganda provokes.

Katie Welshman

Katie Welshman, BA (Hons) Photography, presents a slideshow of her work.

Shanice Samra

My photographs are inspired by the story of "Heer and Ranjha", in particular its themes of immortal love, romance, tragedy and music. Drawing upon my Indian heritage, I included vibrant colours such as green, red, and bright yellow as well as Hindu and Sikh objects such as jaago (jug), pankha (fan) and mor pankh (peacock feathers) in my images. By focusing solely on Heer, I want to portray her as the dominant and central figure in this narrative of love and romance.

• For more information, please contact Shanice at shanicesamra4@gmail.com

Connie-Mae Jones

Katarzyna Miczek

The English landscape offers countless opportunities for inspiration to create images. In "Dendroid: Emotions in the Wild", I touched upon a minimal part of what nature has to offer us. These photographs of mighty old trees, taken in London's Richmond Park, are a demonstration of the human particle in wild nature, a reflection of humanity in a 'tree community'. This is a journey into the nature of man and an exploration of that nature in the solemnity and majesty of trees and the 'community' they create. I wanted to give people the opportunity to stop and enter the magical world of trees and find in them a reflection of themselves and their dark secrets and emotions.

Imaani Erdogan

‘We Are Enough’ explores the intersectional issues of being a Black Queer person within the Black community. The feeling of being rejected by your own people or the sense that you cannot relate to others in your community can be a hard pill to swallow; there are many Black Queer folks who unfortunately experience such negative emotions. I feel that there is a divide within the Black community between heterosexual and homosexual people. There’s often a struggle between different ideologies that can come from personal and religious beliefs and it can sometimes segregate the Black community. This series contains images of individuals from the queer community whom I have previously collaborated with. My goal is to create photographic portraits that capture joy and also empowerment of their queer identity.

Lidia Lopez

As a black person, we’ve been told that we are ugly, we are dangerous, and we could never be someone admirable. This project is not to show off to the rest of the world how beautiful and powerful we are. This is for us, the black community. This is a message to remember that we do not need to change the way we are or the way we look to feel more validated in society. “Eve and Adam” aims to spread a message: the importance of loving yourself, who you are and how you look, before trying to love someone else. I focused on the black community because I believe that we need a reminder about how beautiful we are. Our skin, our features, our hair and our culture. We are black and we should be proud.

Gabrielle Lana Newton

Priyanshu Singh Chouhan