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15 emerging photographers, a seven-day course, and only two days to shoot
I’ve seen talent before but this was a discovery. Before you scroll through the rest of this article I want you to ingrain it in your mind that these young photographers had only three days out of a seven-day course to conceptualise, produce, shoot and edit the incredible photos you’re about to see. For such a short, yet intense course, participants described their experience as both liberating and affirming.
Photo-Fantastic gave photographers the opportunity to experience different methods of image-making including digital, analogue film, iPhone 13 Pro supported by Apple – and editing software. They also worked with a team of predominantly Black creatives, including makeup artists, stylists, hair stylists, lighting technicians, and models.
After visiting the exhibition launch and meeting the tutors, producers, and young people behind this program I was in complete awe. Left completely speechless by the incredibly high conceptual and visual quality of the works, I knew immediately that I wanted the GUAP audience to see their work. So, without further due, please meet the photo-fantastic cohort of September 2022.
Alexandra (Lexi) Beattie-Thompson
Having been interested in filmography since they were 15, Lexi Beattie-Thompson made the step into photography just a year ago. ‘I like to create things that look dreamy and uncanny, and I love to share what’s going on in my imagination with friends.’ Beattie-Thompson has adopted a dreamy, inquisitive approach to their work that is influenced by film, animation, video games, and the ocean.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
Inspirations come from my hobbies, where gaming and films allow me to indulge in escapism. I appreciate fantasy and dreams and how it influences people and myself. Being described as having a “hyperactive” mind ever since I was a child I have seen it as a good thing, with inspiration from British film, local music. surrealist art, manga, and anime.
What are your goals for the future?
My plans will never be set in stone, but I’ve learned that I have more to offer than I realise. My main goal is not to let failures get me down or stifle my creativity as it’s an important thing a lot of us have. I want to be surrounded by things I enjoy and work in an environment with people who support things like art, hobbies, music, and production. I want to feel enriched.
I’m a 23-year-old photographer from Southeast London. I got into photography when I was young after seeing all the pictures my grandmother took of my family growing up. I was grateful to have that to look back on previous generations so I like to capture the world and people around me as a means of documenting the present day for my children to look back on.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influences are Malick Sidibé, Hassan Hassaj, and Vivianne Sasen. Sidibé’s style of portraiture has had a big influence on me. I’ve recently been very into the work of Toby D and Nico Froehlich. The way Froehlich captures street photography and especially light is incredible.
What are your goals for the future?
My future goals are to work as a photographer professionally and have my work exhibited and to travel to other countries and capture new places and people. I also want to publish zines and photo books.
Based in South London, Kadi Diallo mainly focuses her lens on capturing the energy and essence of people and places. She started by taking photos of her friends in everyday scenarios before moving to her chosen format, 35mm where she focused more on portraiture and street photography. She is heavily inspired by the expressive works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and cites James Barnor, Aide Muluneh, Mous Lambarat, Prince Gyashi, and Campbell Addy as big influences on her photography style.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
I’m mainly influenced by the unique styles of my favourite artists, so from my all-time favourite, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s expressive paintings, to Ndidi Emefiele’s strange but wonderful figurative works. I’m hugely inspired by Ghanaian photographer, James Barnor as someone who did it all and across genres, but also the contemporary works of Aida Muluneh and Mous Lamrabat’s fine art and fashion photography. Visually impactful and important films like Moonlight, as well as books, fashion, and people’s actual lived experiences, are important points of inspiration for me, as they’re most powerful.
What are your goals for the future?
My goal in the short term is to keep shooting and experimenting, possibly incorporating a little more digital photography for studio-style shoots. Through this experience, I’ve realised how much I enjoy producing shoots for topics and causes I’m passionate about. I want to be able to take on projects from the very beginning conceptualisation and mood-boarding stages, to the shoot itself using a range of cameras, formats, and editing processes to carve out a unique style for myself. And have fun on the way 🙂
I’m a South London-based photographer specialising in portraits, fashion, and beauty photography. I am also in my final year of university studying Politics and International Relations. My work is inspired by the world and people around me in particular Black women. Through my work, I attempt to empower those that step in front of my lens.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
I’m influenced by modern Black photographers who produce striking imagery images such as Ally Green, Tyler Mitchell, and Thandiwe Muriu. I’m inspired by the Black Woman Photographers organisation and its founder Polly Irungu. They work to empower Black women photographers through funding, workshops, and providing resources creating a safe space where Black women photographers are able to thrive creatively.
What are your goals for the future?
My goal for the future is to work on documentary-style projects and highlight the stories of disenfranchised voices. My goal is to become a photojournalist and documentary photographer giving a voice to the underrepresented in society.
Jannell Adufo is a young British-Ghanaian artist from South East London who specialises in photography. Her love for photography has roots in portraiture and styling. With a background appreciation for fashion photography, her perspective draws on the ability to capture detail and connect with people. Jannell aims to snap the energy of her subject within the frame and represent them as they choose to be – leading to images that have been described as intimate and personal. She hopes to transcend the time shared with a subject, which adds an odd sense of familiarity. She often includes “hidden easter eggs” placed by personal lived experiences and cultural background, which give insight into how her creative mind makes photographic connections while allowing a viewer to create or not create their own account.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influence for photography is William Eggleston. I’m also inspired by Campbell Addy and Adrienne Raquel particularly Raquel’s vibrancy and both artists have a distinct visual style that I admire.
What are your goals for the future?
My goal is to shoot the cover for i-D Magazine. How I shoot editorial feels so in line with their style, so that would be a dream come true for 18-year-old me. Another goal of mine is to break generational hurdles through my work and existence and ultimately in later life have a creative studio of my own that houses partnerships with schools – that’s as much as I’m going to say!
Aicha Thomas is a freelance film photographer, based in London. She strives to increase the representation of Black people through her art, as well as by producing and capturing thought-provoking images. Aicha likes to capture her subjects in an honest, authentic way, whilst making them comfortable in front of her lens.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
A key influence and inspiration for my work is the black experience and shedding light on blackness in my work. I think it’s incredibly important to portray black subjects in art and fashion, especially since it is something I rarely saw enough of in the media, growing up in modern society.
What are your goals for the future?
I would like to be seen as an artist rather than simply a photographer because I see my craft as more than taking photos for clients. I would like to carry on creating personal projects, as well as representing black subjects and people in ways we can all appreciate. I would also love to capture the black experience and the black community in more countries rather than only the UK.
Born in Paris, and now based in Kennington, South London, I first started taking pictures on a friend’s digital camera aged 17. I was inspired to take up photography by Paris fashion week, and the inspiration photography trend on the social media site Tumblr. Now 25, my timeless approach is influenced by the work of fellow photographers James Barnor, Chi Modu and Joshua Woods.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
I got influenced by the work of two iconic photographers Chi Modu and James Barnor. One of my biggest inspirations to this day is my big brother Darryl Daley who is a multi-disciplinary artist (Photographer, Filmmaker, Graphic Designer, and more…). Fashion plays a huge role in the way I perceive my art and how I want to communicate it.
What are your goals for the future?
My future goal is to do my own solo exhibition in Paris and London.
A visual artist looking to fuse the old and new and explore the depths of things we’re familiar with.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influences and inspirations tend to come from my own experiences of life from my background, how I’ve grown up to what I’m being exposed to on a regular basis as well as other photographers like Paula Abu, Ewen Spencer, Josef Adamu, and Campbell Addy.
What are your goals for the future?
My main future goal would be to build a creative agency in Angola as that’s where my parents are from and there’s much done there for creatives to flourish.
My name is Shea-Anne Shaw. Working in creative industries has enabled me to be proactive and work collaboratively with other people with a range of skill sets. Helping me to explore my options creatively and openly while working in different creative fields.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
I would say that my photography focuses on people and nature as my influence and wanting to make a connection through my work. I do like the themes of surrealism. I do look at various works of contemporary photographers that have based their work on surrealism, people, and nature which has sparked some inspiration but I don’t think they influenced my approach in the way I do my photography.
What are your goals for the future?
In the future, I would like to be able to continue working in the media/creative industries. The skills I’ve gained are transferable and have given me the freedom to join similar creative fields in the future.
David Odusanya (commonly known as David Sanya) is an artist born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, who later migrated to the UK in 2016. He is known for his simplistic photographs, frequently referencing influences from old romantic paintings and Nigerian colonial history.
Through the mixed medium of painting and photography, David aims to contradict the migrant image in the media, both at home and in the diaspora.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My work draws inspiration from the true migrant story; sometimes maybe a personalised one or a generalised issue within the media.
I am a passionate and extroverted Dutch Angolan Londoner, who is passionate about storytelling in different perspectives across race, class, and ableism specifically telling the narrative of neurodivergent people like myself, through Creative communication and design. I love to explore new mediums so that the streets can be conveyed so everyone to understand and relate.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influence in inspiration is usually personal experiences which make me question why things work in the way they do which gives me the desire to explore and share it with other people through different mediums. As well as strange and colorful objects.
What are your goals for the future?
To push through, to be and dare take space, to dare exit.
Elizabeth is a Nigerian – British multidisciplinary artist from Manchester but now based in London who was inspired to take up photography in part by her maternal grandmother who was a photographer in Nigeria, and also by a want to preserve memories.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influences and inspirations are photographers like Fani- Kayode, Zhong Lin, but I also take inspiration from artists such as Wangechi Mutu, Mayowa Lawal, and Favour Jonathan.
What are your goals for the future?
My goals for the future… Honestly, I’m too Nigerian to lay it all out but I’ve just started working in the industry so I’m excited to see where that leads but really I’m really just excited to explore my style and work on some personal projects
Olanma (Grace) Etigwe-Uwa
I’m a professional cinematographer and photographer, I’m based in London, England. I’m currently in film school In Ealing and I graduate in 2022. I have a passion for Arts which entails, telling different stories about my heritage through the lens of my camera. I’m talented I didn’t learn any of my skills, I was born with them. I’m a comedian On the side I derive joy in putting beautiful smiles on people’s faces. I love infusing my poetry into my photography and cinematography. I have written scripts and synopsis from old poetry that I have written in times past. I love creating art and I’m open to learning new ways to improve my craft.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influences are quite a few, I am influenced by my filmmaking side which subtly inspires the creative aspect of my photography especially when I am taking a lot of street photography the composition of the photos and the color grading are the component that reflects my filmmaking side. I am so inspired by a couple of photography especially back home in Nigeria photographers like BIG H, BEDGE photos, and the renowned TY BELLO.
What are your goals for the future?
My goals for the future comprise both my short and long-term goals. My two main goals are, firstly to build a community of photographers that have a club where photographers from different parts of the city come and learn from each other and network building long-term connections. The club would be hosted every single Saturday for a year and other photographers would take turns in running the club and it would be structured like a booth camp. Secondly, I would love to work for CNN as a camera operator this has been my dream job ever since I started my photography journey. One day I hope my dreams and aspirations for the future come to actualization.
Ivory is a London-based photographer and filmmaker, whose work focuses on exploring human relationships with culture, music, and landscapes. In her practice, Ivory aspires to capture who people really are and to translate a natural and re-imagined depiction of each subject. She has a real want to learn more about the human experience and the moments that inform who we are and who we will be. The want to be able to present those findings through art is what inspires her to create.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influences are films, art, and photography, although I can be inspired by a lot of different things. I’m really drawn to evocative storytelling and always have such admiration for pieces of work that really speak to me, in whatever form that may come in. I particularly admire James Barnor, Tyler Mitchell, Campbell Addy, Joshua Woods, Zanele Muholi, Paula Rego, Tim Walker, Samuel Fosso, A24
What are your goals for the future?
I want to be as authentic as possible and to create work that feels organic and true to myself and my voice. I’m hoping I can stay true to this and not cave to the pressures of changing myself or my work to fit the mold. I want to give myself time to develop and grow positively as an artist.
Isaac Mensah
Raised in Luton and now based in Tottenham, Isaac Mensah was inspired to take up photography through desire to capture people. ‘As people, we all have different stories to tell and I wanted to document the honest and real side of those stories.’ Among the many artists who have influenced his honest, personal approach to taking pictures are Gavin Watson, Ryan McGinley, Alasdair McLellan, Gunner Stahl, and Tyler Mitchell.
What are your key influences and inspirations?
My key influences for the photography I do is Ryan McGinley, Gavin Watson, Gunner Stahl and Olivia Rose because of the method that they adopt when it comes to the photograph they take. I feel like it has influenced my practice in terms of working with people in the industry because sometimes you disagree with people so one thing, I learned was how to compromise but not give up your artistic vision for the sake of fulfilling a brief.
What are your goals for the future?
My goal for the future is to photograph the reality that I see and allow other people to see what I see.
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