Exhibition catalogue

A collaborative book project showcasing exhibition work of the 2008 MA Photography students at Brighton University. Images by Betty Borthwick, Sally Bream, Louise Fago-Ruskin, Peter Gates, Vanessa Jones, Susie Petrou and Tess Zahn. Betty Borthwick's close-up photographs of garden plants uses layers of lighting, mixed with background blackout material and surface textures to create a sense of the uncanny. Sally Bream English Landscape: The Sublime and Beautiful examines sites in the South Downs in which sites exude mystery that is dependent on lighting and the structural shape of places. Louise Fago-Ruskin's portraits of The Catchers explore emotional intensity within male and female personas, often restricted by objects that seem to suffocate or silence their subjects. Peter Gates natural environments show his interest in linear structures. The tangle of trees and branches reveal the powerful relationship between chaos and order. Vanessa Jones two photographic projects Too Old for This and Aboriori perform scenarios that reveal the vulnerability of human existence. Susie Petrou's delicately coloured photographs Studies of Home point to the family portrait as a source of memory and marking time. Tess Zahn's work, Maintaining Memories consists of videos and photographs of shrines dedicated to the dead who perished on the roads of Greece. The landscape photographs remind us of the close proximity of beauty to this tragedy.