FFOCWS

Ada Marino

Ada Marino is an Italian visual artist based in Wales. Her practice focuses above all on the recollection of past events, memories and traumas that re-emerge, passing by a deep canal of introspection, manifesting a cynical surrealism. Her works are represented under an individual combination of photography and installations.Often her disturbing imagery attempts to conceptualise the repulsion/attraction effect and tries to introduce the concept of revaluation of ugliness, almost contemplating it . She creates a variance with the ‘insubstantial’ aesthetic photography form subverting the common way to photograph, see and perceive things, celebrating the beauty in the truth and imperfections of life.

Alice Durham

Alice Durham is a documentary photographer from Hertfordshire. Durham’s work stems from her interest in psychology and anthropology, as she explores the
suffocation of emotions specifically looking at her experience with addiction and eating disorders. Her work explores how photography can help us make sense of ourselves and others, specifically as a form of therapy. She has an intuitive approach to image making, documenting chance encounters and more intimate moments from her life. Durham uses metaphors to portray inner conflicts and shared sensations of the world, with the aim of furthering understanding of the human condition.

Billy H. Osborn

Billy H. Osborn is a documentary photographer from Lincolnshire, England. By interweaving a variety of subject matter – including portraiture, landscapes and still lifes – Billy attempts to represent personal and communal notions of identity. The photographer’s practice is defined by an emotional, intuitive approach to making long-term projects within the British landscape.

Billy’s work is influenced by several mediums and genres: classic novels, music, films, American road photography and the British documentary tradition. In 2022, Billy graduated from the University of South Wales with a BA (Hons) in Documentary Photography.

Dione Jones

Dione Jones is a South Wales based mixed media artist who works predominantly with photography and self-portraiture. Jones’ work often explores the “self” frequently concerning themes of gender performance, identity, body and change through their own perspective and experience as a nonbinary, queer artist.

Ed Worthington

Ed Worthington has lived in and around Cardiff his entire life. He photographs in the medium of 120 and 35mm film as he believes one of the most important aspects of photography is to document a snapshot of our short time in this world and leave behind a tangible record for future generations to discover.

He finds influence in minimalism and the literary concept of Magical Realism where the fantastical and normal co-exist. His project “It’s Allright Around Here, Isn’t it?” is an attempt to combine these by capturing the landscape of a changing city while at the same time subscribing to the idea that below the surface, there is a beauty that can be found in banality.

Jack Winbow

Predominately photographing myself, I explore the strict boundaries the gender binary cements in both the zeitgeist and history. As a queer person who was assigned male at birth. Gender, expression and identity have always been considerable factors in my life. Using the format of self portrait, I communicate and establish my personal journey with gender and the emotions and moods the notion of binary creates. Highlighting my own personal struggle and on going quest to understand my own perceived gender, I aim to give insight into the ideology of a queer person.

Kerry Woolman

I am a fashion photographer who specialises in photographing editorials, sportswear and studio based work. As a recent graduate of BA (Hons) Photography at USW, I am excited to further discover, develop and share work based on my perception of the world and individuals.

Since discovering an ongoing curiosity about how individuals are affected by and interact with the world, I tend to experiment with emotionally driven, performative photography which brings fresh quirky imagery to the fashion industry. With a keen, creative eye for colour and detail, I fabricate imagery through a playful, contemporary view.

Laurentina Miksys

The portraits by photographer Laurentina Miksys have been described as opulent, timeless, and emotionally expressive. When they have a soul, images allow our sensitivity to engage with the subject and create empathy with what we see. She believes that this sense of contact changes our state of mind. As such, her photography explores various levels of reality: the reality of who or what is described by the image and the reality of experience and feeling - whether the subject’s, the viewers, or her own. This is what we bring to the image and, once transformed, take it away with us.

Laurie Broughton

Laurie Broughton is a Social Documentary photographer from London. He is a recent Graduate studying Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales.

Laurie's practice explores themes around subculture, social housing and the environment. Through research and exposure to his subjects, he aims to challenge himself to look underneath the surface of preconceived notions of identity and its cultural stereotypes, by immersing himself within the communities he photographs often over a prolonged period.

His work questions outdated views on communities to challenge societal norms in the form of immersive image-making.

Paris Tankard

Paris Tankard is a 21-year-old Black British, award winning artist from Dagenham, Essex. Their work often looks at the members of our society and seeks to uplift them, focusing on issues such as Race, Sexuality and Class. Paris’ work aims to create a dialogue and/or discourse for any person - regardless of their identity - who might engage with it. An equally important facet of their work is to document the events and formative moments of peoples lives, conceptualised within their most recent project: a documentation of the lives of queer people of colour.

Paris has exhibited their work most recent creative work in the Free Range Gallery in Shoreditch, London. The project received best in show at the AOP awards.

Paris is still pursuing their art in Cardiff.

Pinar Köksal

Pinar Koksal was born in Turkey in 1988. She is based in Cardiff, UK. She got her visual communication design degree from AHBV University, Faculty of Fine Arts. Her work is inspired by her inquiries on the functioning of the universe, the connection of humans with the universe, their position in the universe and life cycles based on endless repetition. Photography, which she uses as a material in her art production, sometimes appears before her as the most concrete example of personal memory and sometimes opens different doors for her with the random formations as a result of her experimental interventions on analogue films.

Her works are displayed in exhibitions ‘Young Fresh Different 11’, Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul (2022); ‘Nightswimming’, Evliyagil Museum, Ankara (2021); ‘Mamut Art Project’, Yapı Kredi Bomonti Ada, Istanbul (2020) and ‘Habitat’, Ka Atelier, Ankara (2019). She has an artist book titled ‘Pale Blue Dot’ which was produced collectively and exhibited at Mamut Art Project (2020). As a member of Faz Collective, Pinar Koksal was one of the curators of the photosets ‘Photozine #3’ and ‘Photozine #4’ which were produced in collaboration with Fail Books and Faz Collective in 2021. She also took part in ‘Photozine #4’ photoset with the ‘Return to the Womb’ series.

Ross Gardner

Ross Gardner is a photographer from the west coast of Scotland. Often taking inspiration from science fiction stereotypes and conspiracy theories Gardner questions how these relate to the world around him. Working with the photographic image, alongside archival and screen-based imagery, Gardner explores themes around technology, the future, and global
power dynamics. He seeks to explore and uncover subjects existing at the fringes of truth, often questioning the role the photograph has played within these subjects.