I submitted three photographs from a series I have been working on since summer 2019 to an open submission for ‘QUEER IDENTITY’. This exhibition was organised by Robyn Dewhurst (Level 6 Photography, Leader of LAU LGBT+ Society). Unfortunatley I missed out on putting up the exhibtion and opening night due to clashes with my trip to Budapest. But I worked with Robyn and the union put up my work for me, which I am very very grateful for.
Through this exhibiton I have gotten positive feedback from a couple of people, and connected with other queer artists through social media. Although, from seeing my work printed and hung, I felt it was very minimal, which works for on screen but I learnt that when physically exhibited I needed to add more photographs from the series to make it more substandtial and display it on bigger scale prints. If exhbited again I would include more photographs and present it differently to communicate more of a clear narrative, as it reflects a documentation of a journey of recovery from top surgery of a transgender man.
It was amazing that the public got to see my work in such a central place as Leeds Corn Exchange, and that I was able to discover other amazing artists from the university that I otherwise may have not met. I particulary find the students that use photography in their pracitce very inspiring such as Robyn Dewhurst, Jodie Cutting, Jack Cunningham and Eleanor Chandler.
I was so pleased to see my work mentioned in the exhibition review on the Baby Step Magazine website! I’m glad they liked my photographs and that they understood my intentions with linking the images using natural textures (the grass).
I agree with their one criticism of the exhibition being lack of written detail paired with the works. Although it was available in the leaflets, they ran out quickly. I think it would have been beneficial for the text to be paired clearly with each piece for the benefit of people new to analysing art pieces and people uneducated about the queer subject matter of each piece.
oliverclarkephotoppp1 