Exhibiting Photographers: 

Kamil Abdulgadir, Sophie Ackroyd, Melanie Ashbrook-Jones, Mehrdad Atash Barghi, Petya Avramova, Jinyu Cao, Francesca Casini, Maurizio Coppola, Alex Csikos, Jacob Eardley, Bruno Ferrer Cortez, Amber Firsher, Andrea Irmeni, Katarzyna Kurczewska, Sisira Kumara Maddumage, Jabrahn Max-Grant, Agnes Mercade Plasencia, Jessica Mitchell, Gracie-May Newell, Lavinia Pascariu, Genny Sian, Dillon Sullivan, Katarzyna Witkowska, Lavinia Zoica 

Welcome to Degree Show 2024, BA Photography at London Metropolitan University.

Our BA Photography has been awarded the AOP (The Association of Photographers), Course of the Year title in 2022 and 2023. Th quality and courage of the works in Degree Show 2024 and the investment the graduating students have demonstrated in the making of it, makes us feel worthy of this wonderful accolade.  We are full of anticipation for what they will achieve next.  

Our alumni go on to forge their own paths of success, with photographic and art awards, exhibiting, freelancing, curating, teaching, working with communities, charities, in fashion, music, commercial sectors, continuing their academic journeys, publishing, travelling the world, offering specialised photographic services in fields across the cultural, political, industry, medical and scientific sectors.  We follow their journeys and proudly applaud them. 

A Degree Show is always a powerful threshold moment, where the graduating students get a chance to show to themselves, and to us all the resolution of years work, simultaneously marking the end of one chapter and asserting who they are as artists and photographers at the brink of a new one. 

This year, these twenty-five international photographers are presenting projects that reflect on themes of youth, masculinity, friendship, community, heritage, migration, disability, female subjectivity, family, memory, dementia, absence, mother-daughter bonds, grief, daughter – father bonds, relationship with landscape and nature, history of photography, cyber-punk and urban alienation, mental health, girlhood, LGBTQ+ communities, cultural diversity, corruption and social deception. 

The works in the Degree Show are manifestations of their personal projects and their choices in photographic approaches, which they worked on for the whole final year of their BA Photography degree, sometimes drawing on work developed over longer periods of time and coming to fruition here.  They showcase a full range of photographic approaches, from traditional analogue darkroom printing techniques, alternative processes, to digital processes, incorporating photography, moving image, sound, installations, publications.  The works’ development is supported and framed by lectures, visiting lectures by external speakers, photographic masterclasses, seminars, crits, field visits, and time given to their independent practice in our studios, darkrooms and workshops that aim to support, probe, question, nurture and push the work, as the photographers bring together concepts with materials, photographic approaches, techniques, and professional production values into resolving their projects into the Degree Show outputs: the exhibition works and publications you can see here.  

Year Three Photography teaching team of Lecturers, Associate Lecturers, Technicians, and Master Class Teachers: James Cant (Course Leader), Mina Boromand, Zelda Cheatle, Ania Dabrowska, Heather McDonough, Sebastian Edge, David George, Naomi Groves, Yiannis Katsaris, Samantha Johnston, Ian Mclaren, Domenico Mollica, Lisa Rigolli

Every year, the University awards the following prizes:

Prize For Best in Research

Prize for Best in Project Resolution

Prize for Best in Professional Practice

Announced on the day of the Private View, 18th June. 

We are proud to announce a launch of a new award, BA PHOTOGRAPHY GRADUATE PUBLICATION PRIZE, judged by invited industry experts.  The award is an acknowledgment on our part of the importance of photo books and artist books in our field, the dedication, talent and skills required on photographers’ part to resolve their projects into a publication format, design and book making skills, and a command of production methods.

BA PHOTOGRAPHY GRADUATE PUBLICATION PRIZE 2024 JUDGES PANEL: 

Tiffany Jones is an editor, designer, educator, and founder of Overlapse – a London-based photobook imprint started in 2015. With over 30 years in arts publishing and photojournalism, she collaborates with photographers on unique books addressing social, cultural, and environmental issues that highlight universal themes connected to human experience. Tiffany is a visiting Lecturer at London College of Communication @overlapse

Jen Reeves is a Librarian at the National Art Library (V&A Museum) and since 2016 has been developing the library’s contemporary photobook collection.  Jen also oversees the historic Royal Photographic Society library collection, now held at the V&A.  Contributions to publications include The Photobook Review (2019) and The RPS journal (2021).  @vamuseum

Hannah Watson, Director of Trolley Books and TJ Boulting Gallery.  Trolley publishes award-winning titles in photography and contemporary art. As well as working with renowned artists and photographers Trolley has championed the work of many emerging artists often publishing their first book.  TJ Boulting supports and represents emerging and mid-career contemporary artists. Hannah is also chair of The Photographers’ Gallery Associate Patrons, board member for the Artists’ Collecting Society. @trolleybooks @tjboulting.

The Winner - Bruno Ferrer Cortez
The Runner Up - Sophie Ackroyd
Highly Commended - Lavinia Pascariu

We are so grateful for the Judges support of this Prize, by offering their time, expertise and insight at looking at all the artist books, photo books and zines produced by our graduates this year, feedback and advice to all shortlisted publications and for awarding the top three with the titles.