THE fate of opera heroines and the English landscape are among the topics focussed on by photographers at a new exhibition.
After three years developing their skills, more than 40 photography students at Solent University have displayed their work at their final year degree show.
The exhibition, entitled Beauty Right There, features photography and video screenings.
Course leader, Mandy Lee Jandrell, says: “Each project has been developed with care, originality and refined to a highly professional standard, with experimentation taking place and new ways of working developed.”
Student Emma Savage, 21, created Tormenti Amor. The Italian title translates as ‘torments of love’ and Emma’s handmade book pictures five female characters from different operas. the Queen of the Night (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), Madame Butterfly (Puccini), Alcina (Handel), Turandot (Puccini) and Rusalka (Dvorjak).
They all have one thing in common – they all come to a tragic and untimely end.
Emma says: “I wanted to capture this vulnerability and beauty by theatrically styling my models and constructing my own sets by hand. Each heroine is portrayed in a studio setting with themes including fashion, fantasy and the facade.”
Jemma Grace with her work
Inspired by her opera-singer mother, Emma, from Cornwall, recalls: “I always remember this photo taken during her biggest performance in 1980s London, which shows her wearing an ornately decorated, twinkling black velvet gown and fearsome yet beautiful crown of silver spires atop her head. I wanted to introduce people to opera and the fantasy that comes with it.”
Student Tom Parker, 21, from Billericayis UK winner of the Sony World Photo Organisation ‘student focus’ award, focused on the extraction of natural resources on the Dorset coast.
He says: “I set out to uncover areas that the public don’t usually see and confront the issue of sustainable quarrying. I like to pose questions in the viewers’ minds, usually I get asked ‘Where is this? It can’t be England’ and that is what inspires me, to create images that confront the viewers, making them question what it is they’re looking at and its wider implications.”
One of Tom Parker's landscapes
Ella Stanley, 21, from Ashford in Kent, moved away from traditional photography. Influenced by painters and the Cubist and Suprematists movements, her final project, Dynamic Inversions, explores geometry using camera-less photography.
She explains: “I used plastic gels in the dark room and projected them onto photographic paper. I chose to print the images 18x18 inch with no border and then painted MDF white and mounted the prints on them.
“I always had a desire to attend university but making the decision to move away from home was a hard decision but one that with hindsight, I am delighted I made. The three years at Solent have been the best of my life and the course has helped widen my knowledge and develop my skills within the arts.”
The exhibition is on until August 21 at Solent’s Showcase Gallery, Sir James Matthews building Above Bar, Southampton, SO14 7NN. The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 11am to 6pm, and Saturday, 11am to 5pm. Admission is free.
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