Michelle Sank was born in South Africa and settled in the UK in 1987. She grew up during Apartheid and is the daughter of Latvian immigrants. She cites this background as informing her interest in sub-cultures and the exploration of contemporary social issues and challenges. Her crafted portraits meld place and person creating sociological, visual and psychological landscapes and narratives.
Her photographs have been exhibited and published extensively in the UK, Europe, Australia and Mexico, South Africa and the U.S.A. Her imagery is held in the permanent collections of Allan Servais, Brussels, Open Eye Gallery Archive, Liverpool, Societe Jersiaise and Guernsey Museum, Channel Islands, Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, RAMM, Exeter and The Museum of Youth Culture, UK.
She has won numerous prestigious awards, including:
The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, British Journal of Photography, and more recently, the Portraiture Category in the The Sony World Photography Awards 2024.
She has 5 Published Books to date, her latest work about the Burnthouse Lane Community in Exeter having just this month been published by Dewi Lewis.
Zenande, Sinawe, Zinathi, and Buhle (winning image in the Sony World Photo Award for Portraiture 2024) ©Michelle Sank
Maurice from My.Self ©Michelle Sank
TALK PHOTO is a fortnightly evening social event in Oriel Colwyn’s gallery space, where invited speakers are here IN PERSON to share presentations and insights about their work or projects, with a friendly intimate audience.
Talks start at 7pm (doors open 6.30pm) with tickets issued on a first come, first served basis.
If you are in a position to contribute towards the talks then please choose a donation option – this will directly help Oriel Colwyn and the continuation of these events going forward.
If you would prefer not to donate, please choose the FREE Ticket option.
Due to space limitations, we will be capping the audience to 30 people and are happy to offer a FREE option to remove any financial barriers to attend.