\n\t\t\t\tFriday 5th June 2026 was the private view and launch of the exhibition so I was heading over to Wolves to see the work of the people I’d been working with for the last two years. They have been putting in an insane amount of work to get the photographs hung up on a wall on the seventh floor of the George Wallis building. Well some of them had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon the 6pm speech getting underway and then closing, everyone disappeared into the lifts and stairwells to go and investigate the work of their family members, class mates, friends, ex students and all manner of other relationships. I headed straight up to the top floor and entered the Greenhouse to see the photography exhibits produced by some of the friends I’ve made over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the work was breathtaking, some was good solid photography and a couple of them left me feeling a little disappointed. I won’t go into the details on who left me feeling negative but suffice to say there were some students who had worked their arses off to get a solid body of work ready and on the wall whilst others had muddled through with little visible effort and motivation and in a couple of cases some lack of competence in how to use a camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My favourite work of the night is from Sophie who has made some photos of nighttime in the city or towns and the colours and lighting are superb. They remind me of Liam Wong’s work in TO:KY:00 and After Dark, as well as a cyber punk aesthetic that I really do enjoy staring into. The colours coming off the canvases was extraordinary and were all on Titanium Lustre paper making sure that the light practically popped out of the frame. The angles and abstract nature of some of Sophie’s work was right in my wheelhouse and over the last two years, it’s been a pleasure to watch her confidence grow and self belief increase. Many students began the course not wanting to partake in group presentations and over the last few years many of them have come out of their shells. Sophie is one such person and the work on display shows this confidence too. It also reminds me of the work of Rut Blees Luxemberg whose work Matt Finn introduced me to in the first year of my degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSophie Fisher’s Work, Escaping Reality<\/em>, 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThere were some awards hosted at one point by Euripides, the course leader. The award for Multistory Excellence in Photography award to Eliza for her work, Naturals<\/em>, which knitted perfectly together and had been good enough with the conversations across the different prints that it needed to be left alone and stop being changed. It was perfect. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAn award from Blast Creative Network for Excellence in Fine Art Photography went to Courtney for her work Egocentric<\/em>, which features 8 prints all black background with unusual objects in a still life format. A piece of coal in one, a gas mask tube in another and a piece of rubber, a Tyre Marble, in another. It was an intriguing set of photos and her show at Centrala last year saw her gain many plaudits for her Cheese Cob <\/em>image and the sale of many prints too. Well deserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tCourtney receiving her award from Euripides.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nLily won the award for Kodak Excellence in Analogue Photography for their collection It’s a Small World,<\/em> in which they had been out and photographed places that were known but under appreciated. The dedication in the their use of the darkroom was matched only by Joel who spent a good deal of time in there too. The images have come out nicely and provide a slice of daily life in the Black Country. With photos of an engineering workshop and the detritus outside to a simple fence and gate, it’s quiet and unassuming, not shouting across the room, unlike Lily. Out of all the people on the course that I’ve worked alongside, Lily is the person who has grown the greatest amount, in confidence and maturity and I consider it a pleasure to have seen the transformation so far, I look forward to seeing more of their work on the walls of exhibitions in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tLily receiving the Kodak award from Euripides.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe last award was for Meg, who won a clock which had the numbers replaced with f stops. This award is given for the person who has spent the most time in the studio, basement, classroom etc and is acknowledgment of the effort put in by a student to complete the course and studies, whilst also supporting other members of the course.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tMeg receiving the Time & Dedication award from Euripides.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThere was also a presentation for Gavin, my tutor this year, who is leaving to pursue opportunities outside of the University and has a business called The Glaze Rooms in Birmingham. He has been very supportive over the last five years I’ve spent on the course and it will be a shame to not have him aroudn for my final year next year, but I wish him well.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tA bye bye to Gavin who is leaving in September.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe gallery underneath shows the rest of the photos that I made on the evening, with some showing the photographer and their work, others just the work and some of the fine art works too by a couple of students whose work I particularly enjoyed. I haven’t been around the rest of the show yet so it was a quick runaround. The captions make blur the bottom of the image but if you click on the picture you’ll see a larger version. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSchool Of Art In The Trees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tBeginning of Presentations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe visitors and artists.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tCourtney’s work, Egocentric<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tNikki and her work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tCallum and Artomotive<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tEvie and her work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tShellie and her works.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tBrian and works.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tAngus (Long Hin Cheung) and The Role Of Architecture In Daily Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tJo and Can I Ask?<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tClare and her urbex inspired work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tClare and her urbex inspired work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tClare and her urbex inspired work in cyanotype<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tDani with her work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSophie and Escaping Reality<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tGemma and Condition<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tLily and It’s a small world.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tJoel’s Aesthetics Of Decay<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe Newly Grade II Listed Concrete Structure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWalking around the rest of the photography works was enlightening. Some of the work I had never seen before, not even in the group reviews we’ve had over the last academic reviews. There were some nice pieces of work and some others that I’d seen early on in the process but never appeared to have been expanded upon or any amount of significant extra work gone into with them. I feel disappointed for a couple of people who I know can do much more but for some reason never felt confident enough to stretch and go the extra mile. It would have been a much greater experience for them if they had pushed the boundaries a bit. Some of it is down to anxiety, I understand that, but there is also a certain amount of can’t-be-arsed that has led to one or two students not being able to provide the best of their abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fine Art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n After I had walked through the both rooms of photography exhibits I had a quick run around som eof the Fine Art on the same floor and the first I came across was Marie’s work which featured photographs made with a camera obscura, and there was a room with a projector showing the live feed from the camera obscura mounted on the university building looking out over the city skyline. The work is amazing and one that reminds me of why I started getting into photography seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tMarie Craig’s Camera Obscura works.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAs I continued through the other half of the seventh floor I also came across the work of El Gray and there were a series of interesting portraits on the wall which caught my eye but when I walked past I came across a huge version that was really interesting, still showing the grid underlying the method of production. It also featured a wonderful pair of plexiglass spectacles. This really struck me as an inspiring piece of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWork by El Gray<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nReflections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The work to tidy up the greenhouse\/seventh floor was well done. The floors freshly coated in the grey and the walls nicely refreshed with white. The images in the photography exhibition were well appointed too, not that I know anything about curation of exhibitions but it was all set up and pleasing to the eye. My favourite work by Sophie was very neatly curated onto the one wall whilst others were seemingly oddly spaced. One course mate was disappointed that they couldn’t exhibit other work that they had planned to show. For some reason or another it had been decided that it din’t work or fit the scheme, obviously the leaders on the course know best and would have made the decision for the right reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prints were nicely done, and some of them were challenging, Clare’s large urbex inspired work was printed on paper fixed to the wall and I know the join between a couple of sheets of paper is required, it was visible, even though it didn’t detract from the work. Callum’s effort to print on to automotive vinyl and stretch onto car parts was difficult but I think that if he’d stuck with the bonnet and the the car boot as well as the window, then the impact would have been greater. His photos of details on cars are wonderful and I think it somehow distracted me from the images by squeezing them onto a small fusebox or a light cluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the whole it is an incredible display of creativity and dedication that I am pleased to see and also to count some of the artists as friends. I will miss this cohort when I move onto my final year in September 2026 with the current students just completing level 5. I am sure though that there will be some great photographers in the group even though I’ve been warned a couple of times that they may not be as dedicated as this year’s graduating students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ll be gutted not to go to the graduation too, but this happens at the end of July when I am in the US for a three week road trip across the states from West to East coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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My coursemates who are completing their full time undergraduate degree in Fine Art Photography at…<\/p>\n
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