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The 10 best graduate photographers

The ne wMagnum and Photo London Graduate Award provides support for the next generation of photographers

Ten recently graduated photographers have won the inaugural Graduate Photographers Award 2015 in association with Magnum Photos and Photo London. The winners have won mentoring from a Magnum photographer, a portfolio review event with the nomination panel and a slideshow of their work on Friday 22 May 2015, 6.30 – 7.30pm at Photo London. Sophie Green 'Bangers & Smash' Sophie Green: "By chance I stumbled across a Banger and Stock car racing meet at Wimbledon Stadium last summer and became immersed in this world of fascinating contradictions. What came across strongly was the sense of camaraderie mixed with a fierce competitive spirit. Despite being a multitude of warring tribes competing for pride and honor, they make up one big, supportive community, sharing the joy that a combination of speed, danger and destruction brings to both competitors and spectators.” Picture: SOPHIE GREEN Credit: SOPHIE GREEN
Kate Nolan ‘Neither’ 'Neither' explores the dreams and fears of young women in Kaliningrad, an isolated region of Russia on the Baltic Sea. Kate Nolan: ‘With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kaliningrad was severed from 'Big Russia' by Lithuania and Belarus, leaving it in the fragile position of being both an exclave of Russia and an enclave of Europe. It is this geographic isolation of being neither a part of Europe nor connected to its motherland that gives this area its uniqueness. This fragility was countered by the strong, independent women that guided me through through their land. Caught between their strong Russian roots and the new Europe, they search out their place between these two worlds." Picture: KATE NOLAN Credit: KATE NOLAN
Milo Newman ‘Geese' These photographs of pink-footed geese were made over the past few winters on the coast in Norfolk, when the birds migrated from the Arctic. Each day the geese take off from communal roosting sites on the low-lying marshes or mudflats and fly inland to feed in the fields. At dawn this process happens in small family groups, but at dusk, when they return, the groups join to form vast skeins of thousands of birds stretching outwards, sometimes for miles. Milo Newman: "As they fly overhead in the twilight, the shape of the skeins is barely perceptible; you see not the individual birds, but the flowing shape as something slightly darker against the sky. In order to make the pictures the film is pushed by three or four stops, bringing back a form that it would not otherwise be possible to either see. The pictures were made by sound, listening for the geese flying, the cries in the darkness, the sound of wings overhead." Picture: MILO NEWMAN Credit: MILO NEWMAN
Robin Lambert ‘Fugue State’ Robin Lambert: "‘Fugue State’ is an investigation into the ambiguity of the photograph, the tension between perceived reality and a reality the camera creates. The images offer a fleeting narrative, liberated from its original context, through the interweaving of contrapuntal repeating themes. The result represents a way of seeing: not what the world looks like but what the world looks like photographed.” Picture: ROBIN LAMBERT Credit: ROBIN LAMBERT
Jack Carvosso ‘Sorry I Was Miles Away’ Jack Carvosso: “I aim to provoke notions concerning the photograph’s authenticity, our perception of time, and what we desire to be considered truth. Has the log miraculously positioned itself between two large trees? Have the rock’s prehistoric forms of sculpture ever changed? These are a few questions that arise." Picture: JACK CARVOSSO Credit: JACK CARVOSSO
Miriam Stanke ‘And the Mountain said to Munzur: You, River of my Tears’ ‘You, River of my Tears’ is a series of photographs taken in Dersim, a remote, mountainous area of Eastern Anatolia with the Munzur river and valley at its heart. Dersim is the historical heartland of the Kurdish Alevis or Kızılbaş, a heterodox religious group that has been oppressed and attacked over the past centuries and is still fighting for its heritage. Miriam Stanke: “The project captures glimpses of a society in which cultural and religious history reveals itself not only in special prayers, rites, or structures of society, but also in clear political actions for autonomy and equality.” Picture: MIRIAM STANKE Credit: MIRIAM STANKE
Sebastian Bruno - Duelos y Quebrantos (Grief and Sorrow) This project follows the steps of Don Quixote in Castilla La Mancha. The route is 2500km long, and covers the five provinces of the region - Albacete, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Guadalajara and Toledo. Castilla La Mancha is the central region of Spain. With eighty percent of its surface flat, the soil is dry and most of its inhabitants are elderly, and so the area has stagnated. It is culturally determined by the persistency of values and traditions that transcend the passage of time. Sebastian Bruno: “In order to create a parallel with the society described by Cervantes in his novel and the contemporary one, I position myself as Don Quixote. The result is this interpretation of an often misunderstood and ignored land." Picture: SEBASTIAN BRUNO Credit: SEBASTIAN BRUNO
Henna Mattila ‘Silence’ Henna Mattila’s photographs explore the relationship between memory, landscape and personal nostalgia. She combines analogue techniques of photomontage with digital printing processes to create fragmented landscapes inspired by sporadic visits to her home in Finland. Henna Mattila: “The artworks combine landscape and nature photography, exploring the nostalgic experience of returning to landscapes of significant personal attachment. The places in the pictures represent melancholy and the feeling of being estranged, and the idea of transience and homelessness when living abroad.” Picture: HENNA MATTILA Credit: HENNA MATTILA
Harry Mitchell ‘Small Mercies’ The ‘Small Mercies’ series was taken in the run up to the UK General Election. Its subjects range from local Party offices and their members as candidates began their campaigns, to crushed flowers after a demonstration in Parliament Square, and a day centre for asylum seekers threatened with closure following spending cuts. Harry Mitchell: “By photographing local politicians and activists I was able to gain a measure of intimacy and freedom that wouldn’t have been possible by chasing the mainstream press events.” Picture: HARRY MITCHELL Credit: HARRY MITCHELL
Sunil Shah 'Uganda Stories' "'Uganda Stories' is both a journey to recollect the past and an experiment in appropriating photographs and objects to reassemble history in the search for alternative narratives. "In 1972 the Ugandan military dictator, Idi Amin expelled 80,000 Asians from the country. I was three years old when my family was forced to leave their lives and possessions behind and move to the UK. Researching my family's origins included analysis of photographs, objects and interview transcripts based on separate dialogues with my father, Ramnik Shah, and two of his brothers: Pran and Mukund. What emerged and can be seen in this selection, part of a larger, fragmented, photo-text sequence, are visual metaphors reflecting these testimonies alongside family possessions. These have been re-purposed to act as repositories of memories and symbols of loss and absence." Photo London continues until 24th May 2015 at Somerset House, London Picture: SUNIL SHAH Credit: SUNIL SHAH