Guest Feature - Andreas Bleckmann

Having grown up in a sleepy suburb of Munster, Westphalia, I moved to New York and lived in a former dance hall in Harlem with a group of artists in the mid 80’s. I managed to scratch a living as a painter and decorator, but I always knew I needed to create imagery in some way. The pivotal moment was when I went to see the Garry Winogrand retrospective at the MOMA. I realized that the incredible and largely ignored people around me, could, in a small way, become visible and significant through photography. With my earnings I purchased my very first camera (Nikon FE2 with a 28mm lens) and started taking pictures. I am not a great verbal communicator and struggle with my hearing, but I soon found a natural fluency through my photography. During this period, I also assisted numerous established commercial photographers who taught me about lighting and the mechanics of my trade. After a few years of studio assisting, I felt I was ready to create my own portfolio, a simple collection of black and white studio portraits. I moved to East London in the 90’s, the then, epicentre for new emerging photographers. Soon after I was booked to shoot for The Face magazine and from there I had a long spell of editorial success shooting fashion and portraits, working with many international clients & leading magazines. 

In 2017 my partner and I bought an 1835 run down house in Hastings, East Sussex. Whilst renovating the building, which is ongoing, I always find a little time to take informal portraits of the people I see in my local area, many of whom I have got to know very well. Nothing is staged, I only shoot with natural light in square format which I find is the perfect proportion for me to show just enough environment.

Andreas Bleckmann is a German born photographer who spent his formative years on the streets of Manhattan with his 35mm camera. After working as a fashion photographer in London, he now lives by the sea in the fishing town of Hastings on the south coast of England. 

andreasbleckmann.com

Barry Falk - New Series

In August 2020, mid pandemic, I began the project Just Before The Heavens Opened researching and documenting the town of Talgarth, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, and the old psychiatric hospital, now in ruins. The Talgarth Mid Wales Hospital, originally named the Brecon and Ragnor Asylum (also known as the Mid Wales Lunatic Asylum) opened in 1903 and closed almost a century later. The town of Talgarth and the old asylum are inextricably linked; it is said that the town came into being because of the hospital: it was the sole employer of any size and many of the former work force still live in the town, their memories vivid, their tales long. Even the millennials hold the memory of their parents and grandparents having worked here.

The rapidity of decay and ruination now is alarming. The floors sag ominously and the roof is practically caved in, the roof tiles long since been plundered. This was once a luxurious Victorian sanatorium, with lush furnishings: chaise-longs and ornamental carpets in the day rooms, a luscious dining room come ballroom. It was a place of incarceration: many committed remained in the asylum until death. However, the hospital was well served: it had a vegetable garden and bakery, a theatre with projection room, the staff had a social club and played cricket. The original features have now been stripped out, eery clues left in the tattered curtains and the incongruous image of the Alps hung above what was the bar (perhaps alluding to Alpine spa treatment). It is now toxic, literally poisonous with asbestos but also toxic politically and perhaps malignant in memory. There are plans to develop the site, to turn it into a residential and commercial area, extending the size and population of the town.

I am interested in pursuing the ghosts of memory, my interest in the notoriety of memory as much as the facts; these ghosts best exist in the archival images of nurses and workers outside the hospital entrance and odd shots of odd folk. There is distrust built into the language. It was a hospital built for pauper lunatics, a concept as antiquated in understanding as the myriad slang terms that exist: round the bend, batty as a fruit cake, two bricks short of a load, bats in the belfry etc. This is a study of the memory of an asylum and its pervasive hold over the town of Talgarth. It is about memory & madness, truth and rumours, history and notoriety, superstitious thoughts & flights of fancy, lavish plans of incarceration and current state of ruination.'

Guest Feature - Ioanna Sakellaraki

The Interval of Unreason begins with an image found in my late father’s archive, remains of the tainted memory of an idyllic romance on the Greek island of Patmos, followed by my extended stay on the island, during the lockdown of 2020. It is there where I begin to unravel the secret stories of my father’s past as a sailor and adventurer of his time, while deconstructing the famous history of Patmos as the ‘’Island of the Apocalypse’’, the place from where infernal visions of mankind’s ultimate downfall sprang, inspiring Saint John, to write the Book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament.

In a vortex of clouds, shadows, starry skies and rushing wind, the island turns into a darkling site where the phantoms of imagination, personal loss and historic elegy occupy a transitional zone between the sublime, the cosmic and the solemn. It gradually becomes the roaming topography for composing a story ruled by desire, terror and imagination, turning the archival figures into the fugitive characters of a fictional tale, in the fascinating realm of time’s absence. In its own unique ways, the archive becomes a site that is historically and hermeneutically transformed; a place where amnesic memories are recorded. Borrowing symbols and interpretations of different timelines and histories, I respond to an eternally deferred disaster, as seen through its multiple temporalities and discrete personal and collective stories.

In the intersection of memory and oblivion, the work untangles the remaking that surviving loss entails, reminding us that history is not merely a matter of chronology but also a question of space and relationships. Between a moment of crisis and a temporal turn, the images articulate our obscure personal and cultural ends. This movement between an external world and an inner processing and interpretation of this world is the interval that brings the story together, like a collapsed memory of some partially erased knowledge.

Ioanna Sakellaraki is a Greek visual artist. Her work investigates the relationship between collective cultural memory and fiction. Drawing emphasis on the photographic object, process and encounter, she explores the boundaries of a primitive, yet futuristic vision of places and people. She was recently awarded a Doctoral Scholarship for undertaking her PhD in Art after graduating from an MA Photography from the Royal College of Art. She is the recipient of The Royal Photographic Society Bursary Award 2018 and was named Student Photographer of the Year by Sony World Photography Awards 2020. Her work has been exhibited internationally in art festivals and galleries across Europe, Morocco and Israel with a recent solo show at the European Month of Photography in Berlin. Her projects have been featured in magazines such as The New Yorker and journals including The Guardian and Deutsche Welle. Most recently, she was invited as a guest speaker in the Martin Parr Foundation and the London Institute of Photography.

ioannasakellaraki.com

Guest Feature - Molly-anne Webb

There was nowhere to go and we went there together is a collection of square format black and white images which aim to capture the simplicity of a specific area in morning light. These images range from small observations to a collection of natural elements in order to represent personal emotions, space and time. It examines how the idea of continued ritualistic exploration can be used to reveal hidden connotations of resistance to change; and my association with the idea of ‘home’ and its permanence. Throughout my lifetime, I have struggled a lot to find a place where I call 'home', as I have moved over 19 times in the last 21 years. 

Investigating one location, using the same (approximate) mile radius and timing ensures regularity to represent control, whilst working through a personal subject. I have used this space to represent myself and project my lack of permanence onto it through these conditions. The interpretation of my work will vary depending on how each individual reads it, emphasising the role of Poetic Documentary within my practice. I feel that there is an element of palpable melancholy within my work, created through a sense of aftermath and soundlessness.

Molly-anne specialises in new movements of documentary image making which portray poeticism and lyricism through photographic representations, combining the traditional documentary form and elements of symbolism and subjectivity. She aims to create a feeling or an emotional response with a loose narrative and no set direction, rather than true, straight, documentary style. Her practice is commonly built on explorative shooting of both familiar places, such as her home, and unfamiliar areas of interest. This has led to the description of her work as being Poetic Documentary. Molly-anne is currently a student in her final year at the University of Plymouth studying documentary photography.

molly.annephotography

Guest Feature - Mauro Cocilio

This is a selection of photographs documenting the homeless in London, which I started in 2018 and I returned to it in 2020 during lockdown. In central London, in almost total closure, I explored the streets to look at the situation of the homeless and how that had changed during the pandemic. While many people on the streets had been supported and housed in hotels, not everyone had this help, and some became homeless during this period having lost their job.

This documentation started with the desire to look at homelessness, understand the issue and try to connect with those affected by it. Why, in such a wealthy city like London, have so many people ended up on the streets without a home? People shared their stories with me, sometimes they chose not to talk about their personal experience but still agreed to have the meeting documented.

Born in Sardinia, photographer Mauro Cocilio studied photography at both the European Institute of Design in Rome and Westminster College in London. He has covered subjects as diverse as backstage fashion during London Fashion Week, the everyday experience of people from Eastern Europe and London, orthodox religious communities, underground clubs and the transgender scene. His work has been published in Dazed & Confused, The Independent Magazine, I-D, Modern Painters, Creative Review, The Wire, Fashion Now 2, Modern Menswear and online at SHOWstudio.

maurococilio

Guest Feature - Yassen Grigorov

"Exemplary Home" is a documentary work exploring the north-western part of rural Bulgaria. It aims to illustrate the effects of rapid urbanisation and progressive globalisation on the most vulnerable parts of Bulgarian society. It engages with the surreal air of the province and its people through the viewpoint of a Bulgarian expatriate, returning to a landscape leaden with childhood memories. This moment led to the discovery of an intersection of narratives, spanning the periods of The Bulgarian Renaissance, through the Soviet and now Post-Soviet era. The commentary feels particularly relevant in today’s time, with the tide on globalisation turning towards increased disunion.”

I left Bulgaria immediately after graduating high school to study photography in the UK. By that point in my life I had already grown distant and frustrated with the life and mentality in the Republic, so I fully embraced London. Through meeting and interacting with so many people from all over the world and progressively growing to recognise the value in their diversity and by extension, national, ethnic and social identity, I started questioning my own negative views of my home country. Exemplary Home was a return to the roots of my family, tracing them back to the birthplace of my grandparents, and trying to figure out and untangle this ball of complex narratives and socio-political issues that have been affecting Bulgaria since the collapse of the Union by going to the places that have been most severely affected by all the changes. At this current stage I feel like I’ve finally “forgiven” Bulgaria and resolved all that angst and frustration, and I’m excited to build onto this foundation and to embody this trailblazing mentality of how my generation can really build up a framework for cultural and artistic appreciation back home.

“Образцов Дом” (translated “Exemplary Home”) refers to the text found on enamelled signs, that were provided by the Communist party to homes which met certain living and tidiness standards under the regime. These signs are still commonly found, gracing the walls of most houses in the countryside and are one of the most recognisable and memorable symbols of the Party to this day.

Yassen Grigorov is a Bulgarian-born, London-based photographer. He moved to the UK to study at the University of Westminster in 2017, and graduated with a BA in Photography with First Class Honours in 2020. During that time he developed keen interests in a variety of subjects, ranging from fashion, architecture and design, to philosophy, artificial intelligence and sociology. 

ygreq.com

MAP6 Update

It’s been a trying twelve months, but now that we are easing out of lockdown the world feels fresh with new possibility. Undeniably it hasn’t been easy working collectively, but MAP6 have remained busy behind the scenes through having monthly online meetings, making new work and planning projects for the coming year.

© Richard Chivers, Brighton 2021

Firstly we are very excited to announce that we are working on a new book. As we approach out tenth year as a collective we thought the best way to celebrate this was with a new publication. We are currently in the final stages of shaping the book and hope to have pre-orders available soon.

MAP6 members have also been editing work through online meetings and feedback sessions. Coming from a culture of discussing prints intimately around a table, collaborating online has been a new way of working for us as a collective, and has proved to be a useful way of remaining productive. Putting this to the test, during the past few months we have been working on a project that has been a way of us playfully responding to our own personal experiences and being isolated from one another. A taster of this new work is featured on this update, but we will be sharing lots more images and information about the project soon.

© Mitch Karunaratne, London 2021

© Mitch Karunaratne, London 2021

© Aaron Yeandle, Guernsey 2021

Over the past couple of months we have also been planning our next collective venture for a new major project. We are really excited to work together again on location. For now we are keeping the project under wraps, but suffice to say it will be keeping us within our roots of making work about people and place, but with an interesting twist to help us to work collaboratively in a different way.

© Barry Falk, Eastbourne 2021

Currently we are also developing our online shop to incorporate print sales to help us fund the production of further work, so keep an eye on our website for updates if you are interested in purchasing limited edition prints. Furthermore we also have new member Aaron Yeandle on board, who has already proved to be an exciting new addition to the group and will be coming along on our next trip. Finally, we have also been organising an exciting line up of Instagram takeovers and website features from guest photographers, so be sure to keep an eye on our Instagram feed.

© Paul Walsh, Arundel 2021

Guest Feature - Oliver Tooke

In 2014 I was in a boat crossing the Tigris river from Syria into Iraq, when an American journalist remarked in awe of all the things the river can and had seen. It travels through Mosul (at the time, occupied by ISIS), and then Baghdad and Basra. Multiple cities, histories and civilisations, all laid out along the same thread. Gilgamesh, the ancient king of Mesopotamia, crossed waters by boat in search of eternal life. Unlike Gilgamesh, I wasn't too sure what I was doing there. I have memories of my childhood, being driven to school everyday and hearing the news on the radio of the Iraq war. Growing up with the war as a backdrop brought up difficult and confusing questions about the role of the UK in the world. Are we a force for good? Why are we really there? Was Iraq really a danger to us? Was it right?.

I like to tell myself that the river has a memory. The river watches over the on-going civilisations, seeing the signs, symbols and patterns of life fade away over time. Re-emerge many lifetimes later, though their former meanings may be forgotten. Like the erosion and break up of rocks into pebbles in the river bed, memories fade and collect. I returned many times to the river. My subjects an odd collection of events, non-events, scenes and subjects, found near or on the banks that this water has cut, in a place that had some strange abstract connect to my teenagehood.

This project, "Bildungsroman", is the first part in a series of three separate, but connected projects, set in the Arab world and Europe, titled "Arabia Opus 2014-2020". The projects follow the Tigris river through Iraq, explore the Syrian crisis, and then wander out into the Arabian landscape. Each project looks at different subjects and universal themes, and the overall series seems to be my response to issues with globalism, power, and impressions made upon me during my teenage years, particularly with the Iraq war and War On Terror."

Oliver Tooke is a British photographer based in Bristol. He is currently on his final year of the MA Photography course at the University of the West of England. During his studies he has been shooting and consolidating a series of projects that he has been working on for almost seven years. All of the projects are still a work in progress, but this year he is working towards a self published set of booklets of the work titled Arabia Opus 2014-2020.

olivertooke.co.uk

Guest Feature - Conor Graves

When the UK government enforced the third national lockdown I took it upon myself to explore and document my hometown of Chesterfield due to having time and freedom on my hands. Having grown up in Chesterfield the majority of my life, and recently moving back there in early 2020 after studying in Manchester, my perspective on the place had changed significantly; this providing me with a great appreciation of the town. 

I have been using my time to document the town, photographing the mundane and banal landscapes that I would have usually overlooked a few years ago. Due to the lockdown I have been able to photograph areas that would usually be full of life, however my images cause feelings of the opposite, creating a sense of eeriness and thoughts of where and what people are spending their time doing during the pandemic. I have also spent time exploring areas of the small historic market town, as well as visiting nostalgic places that have greatly influenced my life.

Conor Graves is a documentary photographer that has recently graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University. His practice is heavily based on the documentary aspect of life, and often focusses on the mundane and banal places which ordinarily go unnoticed. Being from a typical working class British background inspires him to work on projects that raise questions about the everyday British Landscape.

conorgraves.com

Guest Feature - Melanie Hüebner

The latest work by Melanie Hüebner looks at sacred spaces in Berlin where she is making pictures of different temples, churches and mosques and recording sound during ceremonies. The focus of the project is on the transcendental and multicultural face of Berlin‘s urban society and its religious beliefs. The project is a collaboration with the Berlin Forum of Religions, to visually and acoustically depict a variety of sacred interior spaces. Berlin‘s intention is to follow a religious-philosophical idea of tolerance which currently manifests itself in the coexistence of around 250 valued religious and ideological communities. In order to promote this and to provide an impetus for other urban societies, the project seeks to create an inner-city, as well as international dialogue, between cultural institutions and religious communities.

The photographs are produced from the central perspective of the interior spaces and use existing light sources. In doing so, the space is depicted in its natural state. People or groups do not appear in the images and sound recordings of prayers or chanting will accompany the photographs, to heighten the personal experience for the viewer.

Melanie Hüebner is a photographer based in Berlin. She originally studied at the Folkwang University of Arts around which time she worked intensively on analogue techniques within a black and white lab. In 2015 she completed her diploma at the Folkwanghochschule. She has worked on numerous projects that have been exhibited internationally, and her work The 12th house was seen at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Gera, at the Wiesbadener Fototage and Sommersethouse in London.

melaniehuebner.com

Guest Feature - Sapphire Stewart

During April last year I had to move out of my boyfriend’s house in Bristol and back to my family home in Farnham due to Covid-19. This caused me to examine the relationships I hold between my boyfriend and my family and explore the changes I went through as I had to switch from the role of lover to daughter. Upon reflection, this project was a means of self-exploration, realisation, and transformation.

During these unusual circumstances, the camera became a tool in which to distract, release, and understand. This body of work that I have created is much more than I can put into words. I believe a photograph can capture an essence that one cannot see with the naked eye. Something that would go unnoticed. Something timeless. Something the mind simply cannot understand.

Sapphire Stewart is a photographer based in the South East. Her key interests lie in the role of narrative, specialising in documentary, fine art, and portrait photography. Her recent projects have explored areas that are emotive and delved into self-exploration, seeking to examine and disrupt the conventional. Sapphire has a BA Hons in Photography from Bath Spa University.

sapphirewstewart.co.uk

Behind The Image - Chloe Lelliott

Chloe Lelliott shares the story behind her fleeting encounter in a London hotel foyer.

Describe the image.

A smart male figure is waiting in a foyer standing in front of curtains

Where was this photograph taken.

London Hotel Foyer - I can’t remember which as I photographed in so many...

Why was this photograph made?

The photograph was made as part of a series called Halcion Lounge which explored various hotel foyers. I was interested in transitory spaces and hotel foyers as they were a place where lots of people's lives would cross. I liked the snatched pieces of conversations and to imagine all these anonymous figures' stories, where they had been, why they were here.

What was happening outside of the frame.

The image was taken with a tripod and a Mamiya medium format camera. The Camera is quite ancient and makes lots of mechanical sounds, so it was not always easy to be incognito! I was photographing something else when the man came through the door, which I think led to a conference room. He seemed to be having a quick break and adjusted his tie, there was something really elegant about how he stood amidst the curtains. I only got two shots before he went back inside.

Tell us a key fact about this photograph.

It helped me to start to include more people within my work.

Why is this photograph important to you.

It’s probably my most exhibited image and has been successful in that way. It is a simple image but for me it has an elegant melancholy feeling to it, and for some reason I find it quite haunting, perhaps because I never got to see the man's face. There is a stillness and ambiguity that I enjoy and it gave me the confidence to use people more in my work. Halcion Lounge was the last series that I shot on my Mamiya, and this image is a reminder of that period using that camera.

Guest Feature - Andrea Pirisi

La Crocetta is the first workers district of Modena, an area consisting of many unused buildings. The presence of these industrial settlements was largely connected to the residential areas that housed workers. The abandonment of the production cycle has changed the face of the area and its relationship with the rest of the city. Today the old roads and the railway lines, which connected the area to the city, are left abandoned as nature slowly takes over. I feel that it’s important to preserve the historical memories of this place.

Born in Mantua, Italy in 1971, Andrea graduated with a degree in architecture before attending the Masters of Fotodesign, Form and Image-Formafoto at NABA in Milan. There he studied under the photographer Gabriele Basilico. His photography is an interpretation of architectural space where he explores the city with a technical camera, specifically a Silvestri Bicam III and a Hasselblad medium format camera with both a film and digital back.

www.andreapirisi.com

Guest Feature - Rhombie Sandoval

Heima, which means Home in Icelandic, is a collection of portraits and their corresponding stories created during my residency in Seydisfjordur, Iceland. Inspired by my interactions with the close knit community, with a population under 700, I began to discover home 4000 miles away from my own. 

Maggie is a poet and performance based artist. Her performances are layered with levels of complexity as she questions the variety of roles she plays in life.

Cordula lives in Demark while she fixes up her home in Seyðisfjörður. Her house is called Breidablik which has three meanings, my favorite being the light connecting the sky and earth. She works as a carpenter, building most of what she brings to Breidablik in Denmark before transporting it back on the ferry.

Elgur is an offspring from the only stallion her Father has bred. Elgur had been to three different trainers but none of them succeeded. Her Father decided to give it a try, riding him in deep snow so it was less likely he could run away. “He was very closed off and afraid, but curious, and therefore I connected with him. I remember feeling like a hero, 16 years old riding this crazy horse that everyone gave up on. Although he is blind, I still ride him, he's my round up' horse.” Their trust in one another allows Sunna to take Elgur anywhere. “I've fallen off him so many times, but he always stops and waits for me to get back on. He understands me, and I understand him so well. I can't really explain it better, it's just a feeling.”

Nick is a noise performer and is often paying attention to the details of objects that come across his field of vision. He frequently stopped by Heima on his bike to drop off or pick up supplies. We once went dumpster diving at the local market. He stood in the dumpster looking at whatever he found to see what sound it would produce.

When I met Dagrun she was in need of a friend. There is only one other student her age attending school with her. Among the other things bothering her, I imagine that alone could make you feel lonely. Dagrun’s name means secret of the day. I feel she trusts me to keep it that way.

Rhombie Sandoval is a photographer and storyteller from Southern California. Her entry into photography started after receiving a camera as a gift from the Make A Wish Foundation, a gesture arranged on her behalf due to being born with heart disease. With the camera, Sandoval realized she could navigate her shyness and connect with people using the camera as a tool to understand various vantage points, searching for and highlighting the common themes linked to one’s identity and location. Sandoval later studied Photography at Art Center College of Design. She is also the founder of Anywhere Blvd, a platform which features portrait photographers by promoting the narratives of their subjects.

www.rhombie.com

Guest Feature - Dimitris Rapakousis

Acharnon street is situated in the historic center of Athens. Unsurprisingly, it has been labeled a ‘ghetto’, a place without an entry or exit to be found on the fringes of a metropolis. Houses and apartments around Saint Panteleimon, the central church of the neighbourhood, are occupied by immigrants who have come here with the dream of a better life, bringing their families along when they can. These people form a new class of citizens, facing fierce prejudice not only from the authorities but also from a part of society. In fact, this is the area where the first pogroms were organized by the right-wing extremist groups of the country, including Chrysi Avgi.

The degradation of Acharnon Street began after the Olympic games of 2004, while today the limits of what is legal and what is not are not easily discerned. Acharnon Street has become a melting pot for brothels, institutes for drug rehabilitation, gambling houses, as well as people of all religions, ages and professions-Orthodox, Muslims, Hindus, money-lenders, old and young-try to openly co-exist. Acharnon Street narrates their stories, constantly raising an important and timely question that the Greek society needs to answer: is it ready to accept and integrate differences?

Dimitris Rapakousis was born in 1981 and lives in Athens. He graduated from the ‘Focus’ School of Art Photography, Video & New Technologies in 2010. He has been working as a freelance documentary photographer over the past 10 years, collaborating with international agencies like Associated Press (AP) or Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the Greek magazines Epsilon, Unfollow, Vice and Kathimerini (K-magazine). He is a contributing member of the Depression Era collective project, which was founded in 2011 and pictures post-crisis Greece.

rapakousisphotographer.com

Behind The Image - Aaron Yeandle

Aaron Yeandle describes his fortuitous encounter with a woman in a housing care complex in Guernsey, the Channel Islands.

Briefly describe the photograph    

Pam is central in the image, above and behind her there are three images. On the right is an embroidered young child. In the centre there is an image of a white angel, which is strangely coincidental because Pam always felt there was an angel behind her shoulder watching out for her. On the left there is a verse which says:

‘’They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint’’.

Where was this photograph made?

Les Blancs Bois Housing care complex, which is in Guernsey the Channel Islands.

Why was the photograph made?

This portrait of Pamela Margaret Bourgaize is from the Voice-Vouaie project. The project is a social and historical body of work which captures the last original native speakers of the Guernsey endangered language. The work is comprised off intimate portraits and images of their personal objects. The project was three years in the making and all of the portraits have been taken in people’s homes, showing their private environments.  

What was happening outside the frame?

We began by chatting over a cup of tea before I decided on the location where to take Pam’s portrait. After the portrait was taken Pam started to tell me about her life and her religion, and how in many ways it saved her through miracles. Pam’s life story was fascinating and at times sad and distressing but it made this portrait even more poignant. 

Tell us a key fact about this photograph.

Pam went to live in Canada in her 20’s and worked as a radiographer and a clinical instructor for eleven years. Then out of nowhere she became extremely ill, suffering from non-stop migraines and uncontrollable vomiting. Pam also started to suffer from amnesia at the same time. After a long period of trying to diagnose what was wrong with her the doctors discovered she was suffering from Spinal Tubercular Meningitis, which is exceptionally rare in the western hemisphere. During this period she had numerous brain operations and almost died on several occasions. Her life was never the same and even to this day Pam still suffers from major health issues. She explained to me, ‘‘The only way I kept going was through Jesus and his miracles and with the power of God. I felt like God and his Angels were over my shoulder watching and protecting me.’’

Why is this photograph important to you?

I took the portrait before she had explained her life and beliefs. The reason why this portrait stands out is because there are many fortuitous conjunctions happening behind the scenes. I could have placed Pam anywhere in the apartment, it was my choice to ask her to stand in that part of her flat with the angel. Furthermore, when I asked Pam for a personal object of hers to photograph, she brought her Bible which was the same colour as her dress that she had not worn for 40 years. When I placed the Bible on the carpet to be photographed I noticed that the carpet, Bible, the chair and Pam’s dress were all shades of the same colour. This is why I love photography, there are so many coincidences that can happen, with or without you knowing about it.

Guest Feature - Antonis Giakoumakis

Chania summers in Vafe, at the house of aunt Katina and uncle Sifakis. Every evening, returning home from the cafe, uncle Sifakis, with his strongly emphasised wrinkles at the corners of his eyes brought the trophy. A Turkish delight! "Come Antonios, eat, I won it in backgammon"! He always won at backgammon, taking home the trophy which was always a Turkish delight.

Cafes and patisseries are meeting places for a coffee, a dessert, a meze and a raki. Places to inform the community, reminisce about the past, exchange positions and views, hangout and read the newspaper. In Greece cafe tradition still remains alive and necessary and resisting the ‘social networks’ of modern times. The faint coffee coming out of the embers, the smell of roasted chestnuts on the stove. Wandering around the Greek countryside and Athens where I live, I photograph what has an authenticity, is unadulterated and retains the unique atmosphere of a previous era.

Antonis Giakoumakis was born in Chania, Crete but now lives in Chalandri, Attica. He has been photographing since 2012 and has since participated in numerous group exhibitions and competitions. He is also an active member of the photography group PHOTOPIA. With his photography he aims to create stories, but is also interested in creating an atmosphere which may urge the viewer to create their own narratives.

www.antonisgiakoumakis.com

Guest Feature - Sari Soininen

Transcendent Country of the Mind is a project exploring my encounters with and perceptions of alternative dimensions of reality. In my early twenties, I experimented with LSD regularly and excessively, and eventually experienced an extended psychotic episode, which had serious consequences on my own life, but also profoundly changed the way I perceive the world and reality itself. During this time, I abandoned all my worldly possessions; I confronted the demons of Hell and was shown the wonders of Heaven; I travelled through time and space; I peeked behind the curtain of this dimension and - even today, having fully recovered - my understanding of reality has changed forever. These photographs represent this perspective and offer others similar glimpses behind the curtain. 

This project is not strictly related to any specific physical space in the world - It is more an exploration to the mind's relationship to the world as an entity around us, which I think, is a very complex relationship, if we think about the mind-body problem for example. Also, referring to quantum mechanics, it seems that the way we see the world is fundamentally different to what the world actually is. So to me, the relationship between my mind and this physical space where I operate in, is a never-ending compelling mystery.

Sari Soininen (b.1991) is a Finnish photographer based in Bristol, United Kingdom. Sari holds BA from Lahti Institute of Design, carried out exchange studies in Edinburgh College of Art and is currently studying MA Photography at UWE, Bristol. Her colourful otherworldly photography draws from philosophical thoughts and personal mystical experiences. 

www.sarisoininen.com

Paul Walsh - New Series

Following old drove roads, along borders and pilgrimage routes, by rivers and past historic landmarks, National Trails help to trace the history of walking in the UK and pass through some of the most important and challenging landscapes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Over a period of three years I intend to walk ten long distance National Trails, in order to create a series about connecting with nature through walking.

Jonathan

“There is something about nature, in someways it’s the only real thing in the world. Walking connects me with nature and that sense of the real. When I set out on a walk I enjoy the challenge and get satisfaction from making it to the end, not many things in life give you the same satisfaction. When I walk my mind quietens and falls in time with the rhythm of my feet and I am completely absorbed. I like walking with my wife, we can walk all day without speaking and come home feeling like we have shared something meaningful”.

Samuel

“I went through a period of inactivity and started to go for walks to escape the house. I remember walking through the woods and realising how much clearer I could think. I began to realise the mental health benefits of walking and its now become fundamental to my happiness. I try to avoid driving as I feel that in some ways cars contribute to people’s unhappiness. Their presence has completely changed the landscape, promotes isolation and has contributed to the destruction of community. If you walk you keep fit and it gives you the opportunity to interact with people.”

Rebeca

“Walking is such an existential activity that makes me feel alive in the world away from my desk and computer. It feels purposeful, like I am going somewhere. If I am anxious or have something on my mind then I can go walking, think it through and feel like I am leaving it behind. I know that between when I start walking and when I finish some kind of change will have taken place within me, which is always reassuring.”

The series Without Trails we are Lost began from a necessity to spend some time walking to gain some personal perspective. The more I walked the more I reflected on escapism through nature and I began making photographs in an attempt to connect with my surroundings. I started the project on local day walks, but I became more ambitious with distances and began to walk long distance trails with my tent. Walking with a tent allows me to walk at my own pace, knowing that I can stop longer in an area if I feel there is potential to make photographs. I am also less dependent on a car and can undertake longer distances allowing me to immerse myself further in the walk. As part of the project I am also interested in finding out why others walk and have been making portraits of people, ranging from weekend ramblers to those that have a professional relationship with walking. The featured photographs were made during my first walk along the North Downs Way, a 132 mile trail from Farnham, located to the southwest of London, to Dover on the southeast coast.

Guest Feature - Benjamin Hay

The Isle of Sheppey sits off the North Kent Coast, connected to the mainland by a single dual carriageway. Like many traditional seaside destinations the introduction of cheap European flights has had a dramatic effect on the once popular holiday destination, with Sheppey now having one of the highest poverty levels in the United Kingdom.

The island itself suffers from drastic coastal erosion, particularly on the North coast with up to 1.2 metres lost in landslides and cliff falls every year. The government has deemed any intervention to be both too costly and not in the public interest, much to the dismay of residence who’s properties have either already either been lost to the sea or sit precariously close to the cliff edge and are projected to be lost in the near future. 

Benjamin Hay is a Kent based photographer and lens based practitioner who’s work primarily examines the relationship between people, place and the built environment. 

benjaminhay.co.uk