About Me
I'm Fashion Photographer graduating from the University of Brighton
Welcome to my portfolio. All the images you see have been created during my final year at the University of Brighton whilst studying BA (Hons) Fashion Communication with Business Studies. COVID-19 has plunged the world into immeasurable loss & lockdowns have been a time for reflection; reflection on my own loss was the starting point for my project.
The first 12 images in my portfolio are from my two final fashion modules; the research module & my final major project. Whilst most of these images aren't fashion based, they reflect on my conceptual thinking & personal experiences of grief. The final 8 images in my portfolio are fashion based images in collaboration with Brighton BA (Hons) Fashion Design student Ciara Knight. We collaborated to create a series of images based around her graduate collection titled 'Cabinet of Curiosity'. All my photographic work is created using a medium format film camera.
INSPIRATION
'To Mum' - a reflection, response & story about loosing my mother & the grief that's followed.
My Final Major Project titled 'To Mum' is about my experience of grief and loss. Drawing upon reflections, emotions and complex feelings and thoughts towards loosing my mother aged 12, I've created a body of introspective work that aims to tackle the questions and emotional turmoil I have faced around my loss through a photographic means. I created a digital online archive as part of my final major project which I invite you to access through the following link - www.tomum.myportfolio.com
My research started around photographing objects, specifically ones that used to belong to my mother such as her scarf. I then tackled the concept of 'capturing the human spirit' through photography which lead me to creating cyanotypes from these outcomes, yet applying them to the idea of family photographs as physical objects. My final outcomes are a shadow box documenting these responses & objects. While my digital archive does this, it is a more personal & reflective space dedicated to my mother.
MY WORK
PORTFOLIOS
'Capturing the spirit' - a self portrait
'Capturing the Spirit' - a self portrait
'Capturing the spirit' - a self portrait
'Photographs as objects' - cyanotypes & grief
'Photographs as objects' - cyanotypes & grief
'Grief and the self' - my mother's objects
'Grief and the self' - my mother's objects
'The shroud' - based on the eponymous folklore
'The shroud' - based on the eponymous folklore
'Mum's scarf' - a form of visual autoethnography
One of my two final outcomes
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
'Cabinet of curiosity' - photography by me
DETAIL
To Mum... Love From Max
Throughout this project & the past 10 years since losing my mother, I have been plagued with the question of ‘why’ but as I reflect on my experience of loss & the work that has arisen from it, I think ‘why not me’?. 4 years ago at the start of my degree, if you had asked me if I would be at a place where I could make work about my grief I would’ve laughed at you, but now I laugh with you, for I am finally happy. This project hasn’t just been a means to an end of a degree but it’s been the beginning of finally accepting what has happened to me & helping me do so. It has made me realise that through my own work I can help others through their own experience of grief & loss. It has made me realise that beyond university I have goals & more importantly a purpose & a direction of where I wish to take my life. It’s been a real blessing to be able to share such a deeply personal & emotional part of me. I just wish my mother was here to see it.
There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief - Aeschylus
Graduate Fashion Week in partnership with:
