David Webb

This body of work explores the idea of personal space (the English have a greater need for this than people from other nations). The use of a camera has enabled me to cross this threshold into a more intimate engagement with the sitters. Dependant on the proximity of the part of the head being focused on, the identity of the sitter is more or less apparent and the images can become abstract and ethereal.

 
Jason Shippey

'The current global recession and the impact on large businesses is detailed in the media everyday. However, a large proportion of the British workforce are in fact self employed, a status that I aspire to myself. This series of portraits highlights the silent victims of the recession, the self employed.

The skill in photography is having the vision of how you want a photograph to finish. When I compose an image in my mind, I see the final image.

However, for this project the final images are not the only story. By displaying the pre-edited it offers an insight into a photographer’s vision, the small details that transform an image from OK to interesting. 
 
Come with me as I highlight, improve and manipulate images to achieve my vision.'


 
 
Gordon Jackson

"The images are located in the tradition of self-portraiture and my aim is to explore aspects of the human condition alongside recognising my emotional journey in recovery from addiction. To some degree this body of work deals with raw emotions, which are difficult to verbalise.

From the age of 12 I began to self-medicate and continued to do this for 20 years. Gradually I became more dependent on changing my mood and blocking out my emotions with excessive amounts of alcohol and drugs, until my life became so unbearable that I had reached the jumping off point, I decided to quit!

Nearly four years on my life is unrecognisable from what it was. Yet, I still feel uncomfortable with myself, frustrated with the confusion of my newly regained emotions and frightened of discovering and accepting who I really am."
 


 
Louise Astbury has been documenting life in the form of a reflective diary.
"This project is about my life at present and my feelings about coming from a frequently turbulent
relationship; my frustrations, thoughts, soul searching and the reality of being thrust into single parenthood.
With continuing troubles, there is the need, I have realised, for setting boundaries for the care of my own sense of ‘self’ and for that of my girls, to keep hold of and gain back the ‘truth’ and ultimately, keep our family’s life moving in a positive direction."