“The Nine” take Vijay Patel gallery by storm

By Ollie Heppenstall

A photography exhibition of work by final year media students yesterday(MON MAY13) was a huge success.

Titled “The Nine” and curated by Professor Lala Meredith-Vula, it featured work inspired by mental health struggles, black identity, femininity and fashion.

The students – Becca Feast, Yara Mahran, Ashleigh Lowe, Nicky Prempeh, Marvellous Igbokwe, Suzannah Gabriel, Suleiman Ismaila and Gladys Rwabuhemba – were given the brief of body and space to create their collections.

Gladys said: “Photography has always been a way to express myself ever since I was young. I was interested in drama and photography followed, it’s a really great way to tell a story.

“My collection was titled “for the love of being black” and was inspired by issues I face as a young black woman – I’m originally from Uganda but travelled heavily. The main issues that went into my work come from accepting myself in the middle of Eurocentric beauty being much more prominent.”

She added: “I’m really interested in body photography, and the work of Edward Weston – being able to show vulnerability and being proud of it is something that I wanted to explore.

“The process of selecting what I wanted to display and actually taking the photos was about two months long, I used my coursemates as models – initially they weren’t very comfortable with it, but eventually they became more confident.

“It’s something I definitely see as a career going forward.”

Professor Meredith-Vula said: “I think these students are a really exciting and energetic bunch, and there’s some really strong and interesting work that’s well worth promoting.

“I really enjoy doing these pop-up exhibitions, I’ve done a lot of them throughout my career and I’ve always got a lot out of being able to give my students some exposure.”

She added: “The last one I did was in February, but my favourite was part of the Balkan Girl Power project, which was a project launched in five Balkan countries to better develop a vision of Balkan society where women have a greater role.

“I got into photography through university; having studied fine art I started incorporating photography to enhance my paintings – but I found that the photographs were strong enough on their own. It was something of a happy accident.”

Fashion designer Pam Dasanjh-Coningsby said: “I came tonight because I’m looking for photographers as part of my fashion business, I’m in need of someone who can offer a fresh perspective.

“I love how much variation is in the work on display, there’s so much that’s strong and it’s all so unique.”

She continued: “I love photography, it’s so important to what I do and I love being able to give graduates the chance to take what they’ve learnt and use it to think outside the box, and create something fresh and exciting.”