2023 Photo London x Hahnemühle Student Award shortlist announced
We’re delighted to reveal the shortlist for the 2023 Photo London x Hahnemühle Student Award.
Congratulations to Victoria Maidstone (The University of the West of England, UWE Bristol). Her series The Source, is a journey following the ever-changing flow of water, from the source of the River Severn down through to the Hafren Forest. It is a visual representation of water’s intrinsic presence within our lives and our surroundings, and all that lies in between.
@vickymaidstone
victoriamaidstone.com
Collapsed Tree (From The Source) 2022 © Victoria Maidstone
Meander (From The Source) 2022 © Victoria Maidstone
Meander (From The Source) 2022 © Victoria Maidstone
Well done to Lakruwan Rajapaksha (London Metropolitan University), who was shortlisted for Blue-tailed Bee-eater’s Dreams. In this evocative series, Lakruwan strives to recollect their childhood memories and feelings of Sri Lanka after moving to the UK in 2007. ‘In this contemplative silence and solitude, gazing out at the quintessential English countryside, I’m frequently transported or actively seek to evoke memories of my vanishing Sri Lanka. For me, the photographs become dream paintings, simultaneously real and imagined. Although it can be a bitter-sweet process, it calms me down for a moment.’
@lakruwanrajapaksha
Untitled, Blue-tailed Bee-eater’s Dreams © Rajapaksha Lakruwan
Untitled, Blue-tailed Bee-eater’s Dreams © Rajapaksha Lakruwan
Alan Bell (Glasgow School of Art), was shortlisted for his black & white series No Parking, which aims to understand how road signs affect our behaviour. Speaking about the series, Bell says: ‘Questioning who puts the signs up, both private and public, and their aims. Do they want to control space or to have some form of control in their lives, or are they there to make us behave in a certain way and conform to a particular way of being? I feel that the answers to these questions tell us a lot about the society we live in and who we are as both individuals and as a whole.’
@semioticlife
H.M Brand Hardware Supplies, No Parking, © Alan Bell
Scotstoun Private Car Park, No Parking, © Alan Bell
ABS Entrance, No Parking, © Alan Bell
Another talented photographer to make the shortlist is Fion Hung-Ching Yan (London College of Communication) for her series The Skeletons in the Closet. Exploring self-identity by challenging Chinese familial traditions, Yan focuses on her grandparents’ death in 2016. ‘This event has triggered a sense of questioning about my role and gender in family relations.’
hungchingyan.com
Costumes and Pranks To Amuse His Parents, The Skeletons in the Closet © Fion Hung-Ching Yan
Attracting Mosquitoes To Drink His Blood, The Skeletons in the Closet © Fion Hung-Ching Yan
Stealing Oranges To Take Home For His Mother, The Skeletons in the Closet © Fion Hung-Ching Yan
And finally, congratulations to Cieran Jay Forster (London College of Communication) who was shortlisted for the series Bird. Poetic and enigmatic, Forster’s images do not conform to convention. Both real and imaginative while permeating a haunted beauty, the scenes we see in Forster’s work break away from the illustrative and distill scenes to their core.
@cieranjayphoto
Bird © Cieran Jay Forster
Fatoumata © Cieran Jay Forster
Fatoumata © Cieran Jay Forster
Chosen from the nominees’ list of 43 photographers, which was revealed earlier this year, the five shortlisted students are now in the running to be revealed as the overall winner at a special awards ceremony at Photo London on Saturday 13 May, more details on the Photo London x Hahnemühle Award at the Fair can be found here.
The winner will receive a residency including time at the Hahnemühle mill in Germany and oversee the production of a new body of photographic work using Hahnemühle’s internationally respected Digital FineArt papers.