Llandrillo FdA Photography Show 2024

Each year, Oriel Colwyn takes the opportunity to support and showcase the final show group exhibitions from students completing Llandrillo College’s FdA and BA(Hons) Photography courses.

In February we introduce you to the work of the 2nd year FdA students:

Their show evidences the various genres of photography that exists within the group, as well as identifying the importance of working together to coordinate a meaningful photographic exhibition.

Opening 6.30pm – Friday 02nd February – ALL WELCOME – Free

The show then runs until 2nd March

Featuring:

• Annabella Crisan

“My name is Annabella Crisan and I have lived in North Wales since 2018. I moved here with my husband and two children from Romania where I had worked as a professional administrator on European Union capital funding projects. The Romanian political system and economy became increasingly unstable which ultimately led to job threats, so as a family, we took the huge decision to move to the UK. Having settled in Colwyn Bay, which I love, I decided to begin a new life and to follow a dream of mine which is photography. I signed up for FdA Photography at Coleg Llandrillo 18 months ago and have not looked back since. My passion in photography is travel, but my real ambition is to work as a professional commercial photographer.

My current project and what you see on the walls here is part of my architectural work which I would like to develop into a specialism. Architectural photography is a very precise discipline and has evolved from the conventions of architectural drawing and draughtsmanship. In high end work, special technical cameras are used to adjust perspective so that vertical lines of the building are recorded without convergence. lighting is also critical and so planning the shoot to make sure that the key facade is illuminated is part of the preparation. I am working digitally with 35mm SLR with wide angle lenses that make it possible to adhere to the conventions.”

• Georgiana Bruma

“I was born in Iasi, Romania in 1988. Nicolae Ceausescu was holding onto power, and it was one year before the fall of communism that followed the Soviet restructuring program known as Perestroika. I don’t remember any of it, but my life has been totally coloured by those events. You could say I was lucky, but if you listened to many of the older generation who lived under Soviet rule in a ‘communist society’, then you might say I was unlucky.

My work focuses on a village not far from Iasi where my husband’s family are from. When we go back there, I realise more and more how distinct it is and how important it is to me. When I lived in Romania, it was all I knew, and so everything was familiar and taken for granted. Now, I see it differently. All the nuances of national and cultural identity are present in all things that surround me. The vernacular buildings of areas that speak of a way of life. The wooden glazed day rooms with French doors and lace curtains that circulate the breeze on hot summer days. The garden gates were left open for passers by on a summer’s evening – an invitation to stop and chat, to catch up on local news and share concerns on welfare and village life.”

• Kay Chester

“I was born in Plymouth, Devon and In 1982 I moved to Nijmegen and lived there for 18 years. My children and grandchildren are Dutch-born and speak English with a pronounced Dutch accent. Like many women, photography began in this domestic context when I started photographing my children, family and friends as a record of life’s social journey. I loved looking for the moment, the expression or the gesture that would frame the event. I realised that I had a passion for photography and upon returning to the UK, I committed to enrol at college for a Foundation Degree in Photography,

When I started this course, I explored traditional avenues that I thought belonged to the world of professional photography. Living in North Wales and surrounded by wonderful countryside, it was an obvious starting point to venture out into the landscape. I have always been an avid walker and using the camera to explore the hills and woodlands was and is, an absolute joy, but the idea of myself as an intrepid explorer of the wilderness is far removed from the person I am.  It was some time before I got to street photography and I had not imagined how much I would enjoy it.

I am aware that photographing people in public spaces without their agreement raises moral and ethical concerns. However, we have a responsibility to document our world and argue for the liberty of the state to apply to its people.  Imagine a world where we were constantly being observed, but we were denied the privilege of observing ourselves.”

• Kerri Cooper

“I have been photographing a house that was abandoned many years ago following the passing of the elderly couple whose home it once was. Everything was left just as it was, and because of its location, it has remained largely undisturbed for many years. The story of their lives is still contained in the fabric of the interior, a story unresolved, fixed in  liminality, slowly decaying as the building deteriorates and the weather finds its way in. As a mirror to this peculiarity, I have also been photographing the interior of a former care-home, that somehow seems to have shared a similar fate, although the demise was a result of fire rather than the end of a life. The building was initially boarded up and put up for sale, but years passed and the building eventually deteriorated to the point of abandon.The contents offers a peculiar mix of personal belongings and bric-a-brac institutional furniture, mixed in with broken care industry apparatus.”

• Laura Broughton

“My name is Laura Broughton, I am 34 years young. I currently live in Mochdre, but I grew up living in Old Colwyn so I know and love this area very well. I live with my four children, Leo, Ruby, Marnie and Phoebe. I am a care assistant in a residential nursing home and I am also a full time student, studying photography.

Throughout my adult life I have suffered with depression.

Often people have asked me why I’m depressed, or why I can’t just be happy? and the honest answer to that is, I don’t know. People have said “you look ok” and I guess I do but it is something people hide very well.

It’s incredibly hard to put into words how it feels to have depression. It took me a long time to even think that depression could be the subject of my work, but the more I thought about it, the more I could see myself as a complex individual that manages to contradict the generalities that people associate with depression. I am not a hopeless person, even though I feel it at times, In fact, I would say that I am a driven person and that I work incredibly hard to be a good parent and to keep everything together, but all of that seems to be outside of my personality when I find the time to be with myself. There seems to be a disconnect between the person I am to others, and the person I am to myself.

My photography and filmmaking is an expression of these feelings and is the beginning of an investigation into the subject of depression, in both creative and psychological terms. The subject is vast and so context is often the key to understanding the personal nuances of particular forms of depression. I hope to be able to continue my studies to achieve BA(Hons) Photography next year, and to develop my work through further research and practice.”