Tag: Cinzia D'Ambrosi

Covid-19 & Beyond

Exhibition

Photojournalism Hub presents ‘COVID-19 and Beyond’, a landmark photography exhibition exploring the lasting legacy of the pandemic.

DATES: 12–15 March 2026
The Lodge Gallery and the Meeting Room
Sands End Arts & Community Centre
London SW

OPENING NIGHT: 12 March, 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
FREE ENTRY, RSVP

Photojournalism Hub is delighted to present COVID-19 & Beyond, a powerful photography exhibition that reflects on one of the most pivotal moments in recent history and the profound, lasting consequences that continue to shape our world today. Emerging from an international Open Call launched by the Photojournalism Hub’s director Cinzia D’Ambrosi, during the height of the COVID–19 pandemic, this exhibition marks the first time this body of work is brought together in a public, physical space. It is both a long-awaited and necessary moment.
COVID–19 & Beyond brings together a compelling body of work by photographers who documented lived realities and bore witness to how the pandemic did not affect everyone equally, but instead exposed and intensified existing injustices and structural inequalities locally in London and globally.
COVID–19 marked a shared global crisis, however, its impact was deeply unequal. Marginalised communities faced disproportionate risks, losses, and restrictions, whilst long standing issues around housing, immigration, race, women’s rights, access to healthcare, mental health, and freedom of expression were further entrenched. For many, the repercussions are still felt today physically, emotionally, economically, and politically.
Through photography, personal testimonies and reflections, COVID–19 & Beyond amplifies voices that were too often excluded from dominant pandemic narratives. The exhibition not only looks back at an extraordinary and traumatic period, but also asks urgent questions about the present and the future: Where are we now? What has changed? What has been normalised? And where are we heading?

“The pandemic acted as a catalyst accelerating social change, widening inequality, and reshaping our relationship with power, rights, and accountability,” says Director and Curator Cinzia D’Ambrosi. “In many ways, it forced humanity to confront its own fragility, marking a moment when collective survival, dignity, and justice were fundamentally challenged. Yet many questions remain unanswered. The struggle did not end when lockdowns were lifted.”

COVID-19 & Beyond is more than an exhibition. Curated by Cinzia D’Ambrosi in collaboration with Ella Khalek, the exhibition combines visual responses from community workshops and a research-led online journal to foster deeper understanding, collective reflection, and long-term impact. The exhibition also strongly demonstrates the Photojournalism Hub’s ongoing work in using documentary photography as a means to sustain dialogue, research, and creative engagement around social injustice and inequality.

Exhibiting photographers: Aidan Brooks, Angela Christofilou, Barbara Traver, Chiara Fabbro, Cinzia D’Ambrosi, David Gilbert Wright, Erhan Us, Erica Dezonne, Flaviana Frascogna, Gemma Mancinelli, Joanna Olivia Fountain, Kasangati Godelive, Krzysztof Maniocha, Mattea McKinnon, Nic Madge, Omur Ozkoyuncu, Rueda Photos (Daiana Valencia and Celeste Alonso), Ruth Toda-Nation, Sabrina Merolla, Sebastian Ambrossio, Thabo Jaiyesimi, Valeria Luongo.

Curators
Curator: Cinzia D’Ambrosi
Curatorial Assistant: Ella Khalek

Press Contact
Cinzia D’Ambrosi Director, Photojournalism Hub
Email: cinzia@photojournalismhub.org
Website: www.photojournalismhub.org
Instagram: @photojournalism_hub

Our Supporters
This exhibition was made possible through the generous contributions of our crowdfunding community and the support of:

Hammersmith & Fulham Council
Sands End Arts & Community Centre
Studio Twenty7

Notes to Editors

About the Photojournalism Hub The Photojournalism Hub is a west London-based Community Interest Company (CIC) dedicated to using documentary photography as a tool for social change. By providing training, research, and a platform for sharing independent, courageous and powerful photojournalism and documentary photography, the Hub advocates for human rights and social justice.

About the Curator Cinzia D’Ambrosi is a multi award-winning documentary photographer and the founder of the Photojournalism Hub. Her work focuses on state violence, migration, and structural inequality. She has been widely published and exhibited internationally, focusing on photography’s power to drive social change.

High-Resolution Images A selection of high-resolution images from the exhibition is available for media use upon request. To request images or an interview with the curator or featured photographers, please contact cinzia@photojournalismhub.org.

IN FOCUS: A photography evening with Citlali Fabian and Jai Toor

IN FOCUS

To book a place: HERE

IN FOCUS is an event series by the Photojournalism Hub in collaboration with Riverside Studios that presents committed, independent contemporary documentary photography. This edition brings together two visual storytellers whose practices engage deeply with questions of identity, migration, memory, and place. Through distinct yet complementary approaches, Citlali Fabián and Jai Toor use photography to navigate personal and collective histories, examining how images can hold lived experience, cultural inheritance, and emotional truth. Their work moves between documentation and imagination, reflecting on displacement, diaspora, and the meaning of home across generations and geographies.

Citlali Fabian A Yalalteca (indigenous from Mexico) visual storyteller. She uses photography to explore ways of addressing identity and its connections with territory, migration, and community bonds.
Fabián is a  2024 BERTHA FOUNDATION Grantee,  2021 Photography and Social Justice Magnum fellow, a National Geographic Society explorer, with the project “I’m from Yalalag, a photo essay to explore the development of our Zapotec identity.” In 2021, she was awarded by the Art Council of England with a Develop Creative Practice Grant. In 2023 World Press Photo Contest Regional Jury. A 2020 Visura mentee. She was also named one of the Discoveries of the Meeting Place of FotoFest 2018 Biennale.
Her work has been shown in solo and collective exhibitions in Mexico, USA, Spain, and Argentina. Her work has been covered at The New York Times. And also has been appeared in different media like The LA Times, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Remezcla, Revista Cuartoscuro, and IM Magazine among others. Her Mestiza series was selected as one of the New York Times Lens blog’s “13 Stories That Captured Photography in 2018” and as part of “10 Years of Photography, and Lens”.
She is also a member of Women Photograph and Indigenous Photograph collectives. Her work is part of the INBA/Toledo Collection, the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Chicago, and the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.  

Jai Toor (b. 1998) is a British-Indian photographer and artist based in the UK. His practice explores the interplay of diaspora and fantasy within the fabric of everyday surroundings. Working across documentary, fashion, and
music, Toor employs a multifaceted approach that integrates research, analogue processes, text, and archival photographs to construct layered visual narratives. Jai Toor’s practice centres around long-form photographic projects that often begin close to home — both literally and emotionally, before expanding outward. As someone who has lived across India and the UK, in many different homes, I’ve never felt a singular sense of place. This transient experience of “home” underpins much of my work, where themes of diaspora, migration, family, loss, and identity recur. He is particularly drawn to overlooked stories, fragments of personal or collective memory that might otherwise go undocumented. Photography, for me, is a way of capturing both presence and absence; a medium that can preserve histories, confront traumas, and evoke longing. He works across documentary, fashion, and music, but his approach remains consistent: research-led and open to intuition.
His projects often begin with reading, writing, and conversations, forming a kind of text-based map that guides me visually. I draw from national archives, interviews, and everyday encounters, weaving together photographs, text, and found materials. He uses analogue and digital photography interchangeably, but shooting on film allows him to slow down and connect more intentionally with the people and places he documents. He sees his work as semi-fictional, a space where documentation, re-imagination, and emotional truth coexist. He leans into ambiguity, allowing the viewer to enter the work without a fixed outcome, but with enough guidance to feel immersed. Collaboration is essential to this process: He often enters personal or communal spaces where trust, exchange, and shared authorship become part of the narrative. Ultimately, he is interested in how photography can hold contradictions, between fact and feeling, history and fantasy, familiarity and displacement, and in how storytelling can honour both the known and the unknowable.

IN FOCUS is presented by the Photojournalism Hub in collaboration with  Riverside Studios, bringing to the public compelling and thought-provoking contemporary documentary photography and photojournalism.

INTERVIEW: Cinzia D’Ambrosi of the Photojournalism Hub

Press, Blog

New exhibition set to explore the hidden inequalities exposed by the Covid pandemic. You can help make it happen!

The borough’s local Photojournalism Hub is inviting you to support its new exhibition and workshops, entitled: Covid-19 and Beyond. It is due to open in Fulham once the hub has raised enough funding – details below on how you can support.

The new exhibition and workshop series aims to give a voice to those most affected by Covid, said Cinzia D’Ambrosi, the hub’s founder and a multi-award-winning photojournalist.

Raised in Italy, Cinzia has dedicated her career to using photography for social change. Her work has earned international recognition, including the Spiga d’Argento from FIDAPA (Italy), awarded for promoting peace through photojournalism and documentary photography.

The hub is one of many community-led groups that receive financial support from Hammersmith & Fulham Council as part of our commitment to building a stronger, safer and kinder borough.

Inequalities

“The pandemic exposed deep inequalities that many people still live with every day,” said Cinzia. “Through this exhibition, we want to give those affected a platform – and start a conversation that leads to real change.”

It features striking images and personal testimonies gathered during the pandemic, shining a light on issues such as housing, race, immigration status, women’s rights and mental health.
It also hopes to address the deepened and long-standing divides, widening inequalities, and the curbing of freedoms such as freedom of speech that have arisen from the pandemic.
The free community workshops will invite residents to share their own stories, said Cinzia, while schools will take part in guided tours. Meanwhile, panel discussions will bring together experts and local voices to keep the conversation alive.
She said: “This project is about helping people in ways that count. And empowering under-represented voices in our communities and encouraging a shared understanding. By creating a platform for dialogue, we hope to strengthen community ties and inspire change.”

Founder of Photojournalism Hub, Cinzia D’Ambrosi

Founder of Photojournalism Hub, Cinzia D’Ambrosi

Impact

The Photojournalism Hub has a proven track record of telling powerful stories in H&F. It’s done this through two free documentary photography courses for residents. These were initially funded by the NHS and delivered in partnership with H&F Council which saw more than 60 young people learn photography, how to build portfolios, and publish their work in print and online.
Some of these young people have gone on to study photography at university, while others have secured paid roles, including photographing major events like The Great Exhibition Road Festival.
Cinzia says the hub empowers people to tell their own stories: “Through workshops, mentoring, and our community photography magazines, we give space to local voices. It’s about democratic storytelling – where residents shape the narrative.”
Beyond its local work, the Photojournalism Hub also collaborates globally, sharing powerful stories through events like the In Focus series at Riverside Studios.
She added that the hub also acts as historical archive, with many photographs and testimonies submitted during the pandemic – forming a unique record of lived experience.
“Above all, I want the Hub to be a space where stories take shape and inspire positive action. Photojournalism can build real bridges between communities, perspectives, and lived experiences,” says Cinzia. “It gives people the tools to document real stories, challenge mainstream narratives, and spark meaningful dialogue.”

Students taking their photography course

Students taking their photography course

The journey begins with selecting the final photographs and stories from an open call.
This campaign is part of H&F Council’s wider support for community-led projects that make our borough a better place for everyone. Please support the campaign on Spacehive.
Support ‘Covid-19 and beyond’


Article published by Hammersmith and Fulham Council on the 10 October 2025
https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/news/2025/10/interview-cinzia-dambrosi-photojournalism-hub

IN FOCUS: Memory, Migration and Conflict with Marcin Kornacki and Wei Jian Chan

IN FOCUS


To Book a place: HERE


This edition of IN FOCUS brings together two photographers whose practices, while distinct in subject and style, both explore how history, memory, and identity shape lived experience. Marcin Kornacki’s long-term documentary projects in Haiti and Bolivia investigate the legacies of political violence and the endurance of communities in unstable landscapes. In contrast, Wei Jian Chan’s Journey to the West reflects on the personal journey of migration, using the formal language of street photography to evoke dislocation and belonging. Together, their presentations offer powerful insights into working independently in challenging environments, and into photography’s ability to bridge the political and the personal.

Marcin Kornacki is a London-based documentary photographer and UAL Photojournalism and Documentary Photography MA graduate whose work explores memory, landscape, and the marks of collective history. His practice draws stories to the surface through close attention to place and the unpredictability of encounter. His current projects focus on sites where political violence and colonial legacies remain alive in land and memory.
His ongoing work in Haiti documents its capital Port-au-Prince as it descended into gang control, tracing the layered aftermath of revolution, foreign intervention, and daily survival, documenting both the gangs terrorising the city as well as the people enduring the conflict.
In Bolivia, he photographs the mining communities around La Paz, focusing on Milluni, site of a government-led miners’ massacre in 1965, examining how resistance and political narratives endure and develop across generations.  Grounded in sustained fieldwork and research, Martin’s photography connects personal testimony with broader historical forces. His images invite reflection on how memory is shaped, how trauma is carried, and how communities protect identity in the face of erasure.
His talk aims to focus on the practical aspects of working independently with little training and no official support in conflict zones and politically unstable regions, reflecting in particular on the mistakes he has made, and the lessons he has learnt during his most recent work in Haiti and Bolivia. 

Wei Jian Chan (b.1991) is a Singaporean-born photographer based in London, whose work seeks to find beauty in the chaos of modern life.  Wei Jian first picked up a camera at the age of 14 while growing up in Singapore. Over the years, as he moved to Oxford to attend university and to London for work, the camera has been his constant companion. In his time behind the camera, photography has grown from a pastime into a source of inspiration and a passport to new experiences.  Working primarily in black-and-white, Wei Jian utilises both traditional wet darkroom processes and modern digital techniques in his work. His work frequently incorporates elements of geometry, architecture, and motion.
Wei Jian’s photography has been exhibited in various locations in the UK and Europe, and has been acquired to form part of the permanent collection of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Art. His work has also been featured by numerous outlets, including The Guardian, Deutsche Welle and National Geographic.
Wei Jian will be showcasing images from his debut photobook ‘Journey to the West’, published by Setanta Books. This book features his black and white street photography, and seeks to evoke the sense of dislocation and uncertainty that Wei Jian experienced in the early years of moving from Singapore to the UK, during which he set about to integrate into a foreign culture and find his place in the world. The title ‘Journey to the West’ comes from a Ming dynasty Chinese myth about the journey of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang who travelled to the ‘Western Regions’ to obtain Buddhist sacred texts (sutras). 

The event IN FOCUS is presented by the Photojournalism Hub in collaboration with  Riverside Studios, bringing to the public compelling and thought-provoking contemporary documentary photography and photojournalism.

Masoud Amin Naji: Children of Iran

Uncategorized

Documentary photos & text by Masoud Amin Naji
copyright Masoud Amin Naji, 2025

We are delighted to present Masoud Amin Naji as our featured photographer. His work documents the plight of street children in Iran, who are forced into labour due to economic hardship. Through his lens, Masoud offers a rare and powerful glimpse into a reality that is often hidden from view, as access to such stories from Iran remains extremely difficult.

“This is the Middle East. It consists of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. The people here are kind and knowledgeable, but for various reasons such as tribal wars, poor economy, cultural and religious differences, they are forced to either abandon their children or use them for a living. They force children who are deprived of education, love, happiness, fun and play to do hard and tiring work. Even if they do not want to work, they are forced to work and, without wanting to, they lose a good life full of happiness, health and respect.

Maybe they can be helped to return to the normal cycle of life. There is no doubt that they are brilliant talents.
You may have heard these sentences in newspaper headlines or in films such as Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Bicicletta), but here with these documentary photos we want to talk about children whose entire childhood or perhaps their entire life is spent longing for a normal life.


After all, for what crime and mistake should the entire life and happiness of a child be ruined, this is the Middle East and such things happens a lot, let’s be together for once and work for women and children so that they can have a normal life” – Masoud Amin Naji

Photos: Masoud Amin Naji

Masoud Amin Naji
Instagram: masoudnaji682

IN FOCUS: From London Streets to War Zones, Two Photographers, One Shared Humanity

IN FOCUS

1 September 2025, 7:25 pm
Riverside Studios
101 Queen Caroline Street
London W6 9BN

TO BOOK A PLACE: HERE

Ellie Ramsden and Vudi Xhymshiti bring powerful, contrasting perspectives to our next IN FOCUS of 1st September event, revealing stories of identity, resilience, and courage from British subcultures to the frontlines of global conflict.

Ellie Ramsden is a London-based photographic artist whose practice centres on portrait and documentary photography, informed by a deep interest in human behaviour, interaction, and communication. Working primarily with analogue film, she adopts a slower, more considered approach that allows for intimacy and reflection in her work.
Her practice often incorporates elements of co-creation, aiming to foster dialogue, challenge stereotypes, and present alternative perspectives through authentic, collaborative storytelling. Ellie’s personal projects focus on British subcultures and communities, exploring themes such as youth culture, gender equality, collective identity, and resistance to mainstream narratives.
Balancing self-initiated projects with commissioned work, Ellie’s photography has been exhibited internationally and widely featured in the press. Her work is held in the permanent archive of the Museum of Youth Culture.

Vudi Xhymshiti is an investigative journalist, war reporter, and foreign editor based in London, renowned for his fearless reporting on armed conflicts, political corruption, and global power struggles. With a career spanning over 18 years, he has covered some of the world’s most volatile regions, from the Arab Spring and Syria’s civil war to Russian aggression in Ukraine, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, and ongoing tensions in the Balkans.
As the founder and editor-in-chief of The Gunpowder Chronicles – www.thegpc.uk, Xhymshiti delivers in-depth investigative journalism exposing corruption, disinformation warfare, and geopolitical manoeuvring that threaten democracy and human rights. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, TIME, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and La Repubblica, among others.
Vudi’s work seeks to document the human condition in the face of war, occupation, and political oppression, with a focus on the resilience, dignity, and courage of ordinary people living through extraordinary circumstances.
In Ukraine, Vudi has been recording the stories of those who have survived the brutality of the Russian invasion, capturing their lived experiences in the aftermath of atrocities and amidst ongoing destruction. His photographs aim not only to bear witness to suffering but to highlight perseverance, the fight for identity, and the everyday struggles for survival in the shadow of geopolitical violence.

IN FOCUS is presented by the Photojournalism Hub in collaboration of Riverside Studios, bringing to the public compelling and thought-provoking contemporary documentary photography and photojournalism.

Bruno Saguer: Oxidorphines

Photo Stories, Featured photographers

We are delighted to present Bruno Saguer as our featured photographer this month. His photographic stories shed light on some of the most harrowing labour conditions, conveyed with a poetic vision and powerful sensitivity that both compel and move us deeply.

This work is neither a protest nor a technical chronicle, but an aesthetic immersion into the decaying beauty of corrosion, into the imprint that time and human toil leave on every stranded hull. Photography as an addiction to decomposition, to the texture of the ephemeral.


From its nest, the seagull takes off over the sea. From the shipyard, the vessel sets sail. Everything tastes of salt. The salt of life, the salt of death.

To launch, to hoist, to depart, to sail, to weather the storm, to board, to dock…
A ship always carries the emotional weight of a journey toward the horizon, rocked by waves.
Whether carrying people, treasure, or trade, every ship bears the significance of its voyage.
Iodine drifts in the air, sea spray weaves into tangled hair flowing in the wind. A maritime symphony whispers all around.
But many ships don’t reach a dignified end. After 20 or 30 years riding the waves, they’re cast aside, pushed to die like abandoned animals, left to scavengers.

Bound for slaughter.

Some places in the world have become their graveyards. And the locals—made their executioners.
But this isn’t Père Lachaise in Paris. No Balzac, Camus, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, or Jim Morrison lie here. Instead, ships bear flags of convenience—fiscal loopholes, legal evasions, flags with no country.

There is no grey bin for maritime waste.
No final place where all things belong.
They simply end. Nowhere.

Eid Mubarak. August 2012. Chittagong, Bangladesh.

A northern “still life” made of open-air scrap. These shores should be erased from nautical charts, kept beyond the reach of any compass or bearing.

The poetry of the sea ends here. The carnage begins.
No blood is spilled—only oil, diesel, and thick, contaminating fluids.

Dignity slips through the scuppers.
Humiliation pools in the bilges at the end of this tragic journey.

Paints, heavy metals, asbestos—
A corrosive cocktail you won’t find on a Mediterranean cruise.
There will be no dinner at the captain’s table tonight.

No necks are cut, but every part of the ship is dismantled—hull to deck, cabins to engine room, even the prized bridge, where only hours before the horizon was scanned from a privileged perch.

The swords and guillotines of old revolutions are now acetylene torches and cutting saws.

A metallic roar.
No siren songs here—just horns of iron pain.

Tons of steel are fed into the maw of shredders.
As far as the eye can see, rusted carcasses marooned at low tide.
No longer sand, but rare metals of another periodic table.
Human termites gnaw at metal, wood, plastic, rope.

Dusk falls on the “unshipyard” of cruise liners, cargo ships, and freighters.
Floodlights flicker on.
Stripped of rest, the pillaging continues—plates, bolts, no loose ends.
In three to six months, the vessel is no more.

A ship scrapped in three or four months in Bangladesh nets a million dollars in return—on a five-million-dollar investment.

And yet, this apocalyptic landscape seduces.
It releases photographic endorphins.
The eye, the camera’s viewfinder—both tint crimson under a leaden sky.

Steel skeletons run aground in rhythm with the tides.
Swarms rush port and starboard, scrambling for the best loot—not astrolabes or sextants, but lifeboats, portholes, wires, propellers, spark plugs, pistons, lamps, sensors, sonar, radar, GPS.
All of it cloaked in raw rust.

Rust merchants. Steel auctions.
Everything is for sale. Even souls.
Recycling without activism—just a euphemism.
Melted down, but not damned.

Some pieces will sail again—aboard new vessels, or hanging in chic homes and restaurants.
Better that than being left to rot on a deserted beach after a failed escape from a cyclone.

Such is the cycle of the sea.
Knots and nautical miles become cubic meters of waste and steel.

Personal stories cling to these corroded remains.
Like that of Hossain Khatun. A Bengali man, generations deep, rooted in toxic mud.
His descendants likely will be too.
There’s no way out, unless you swim—to nowhere.

His nephew Kamal, 14, walks him to the shoreline each day as the fishermen return.
If the tide’s low, they can get closer.
Hossain is 64 and blind. Kamal guides his arm so he can stretch his hand toward the fishermen and beg.

Kamal has spent nearly all his life working in the yards.
The toxicity took his vision.
Hossain is on the same path—unless he’s hurt first (they use the blind to crawl into dangerous crevices of the ships), or unless he tries to swim away…

To earn a plate of rice or dhal, they cut through plates of steel.
They travel from Panchariya to Faujdarhat—almost 20 km of sandy graveyard.
No insurance. No safety gear.

Roughly 200,000 souls live trapped like fish in a stagnant pond.
Over 80 yards compete for the dying.

But the rust—captivates.

Nearly one in five of the world’s aging ships end up here.

Many NGOs have reported the working and environmental conditions.

That ship lamp from the Singaporean vessel “Green Earth” will look lovely somewhere.
It’s docked in port now, set to sail for Malaysia tomorrow.
But it’ll be back.
I won’t.

How strange that so much decay can be so visually fascinating.
Corrosion addiction could be the title of this landscape.

Thankfully, my memories are rusting.
Only images remain.
Another contradiction.

Anchored in rust, one becomes a witness to one of the most extreme forms of circular economy—a cycle both toxic and hauntingly poetic.

Bruno Saguer

“The greatest photos are those no camera can capture, yet only a photographer can see. My quest is never to miss one again.”

Born in Barcelona in 1972, half French and half Spanish, my earliest memories of photography are rooted in the dim red glow of my father’s darkroom at home. A passionate Nikon enthusiast, he introduced me to the magic of framing life in black and white. Though he passed away when I was 18, his legacy deeply shaped how I perceive the world through a lens.
My journey as an amateur photographer truly began with my Nikon D700 and a humble Tamron 17-50 lens, ignited by a simple desire to feed my curiosity. My first solo photo trip was to India, a welcoming place where capturing slices of everyday life and close portraits came naturally.
Inspired by a mesmerizing documentary about the shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh, I organized a photographic expedition with friends, driven not by activism but by a fascination with the stark beauty of rusted giants awaiting dismantlement. From bustling Dhaka to the surreal graveyard of ships extending for kilometres, the contrast between human vitality and industrial decay was captivating. Beyond the dismantling itself, it was the vibrant recycling economy—shops filled with salvaged lamps and life jackets—that left a lasting impression. One such lamp now hangs in my home, a constant reminder to seek out the next photographic journey.
Balancing the roles of father and founder of an advertising and branding agency, my greatest challenge remains finding time to pursue these personal photographic projects, each an exploration waiting patiently for its moment. My job has also exposed me to brilliant work, and both creativity and art direction continually spark my curiosity. Among the photographers I admire most right now is Edward Burtynsky. Of course, I follow many others, specially Martin Parr, and depending on the mood—documentary, street, colour, black & white, or portrait—but I find Edward’s perspective uniquely compelling. Website | Instagram | Email

Photos and Words ©Bruno Saguer

Marcia Michael: The Family Album

Photo Stories, Featured photographers

Marcia Michael: The Family Album
Sat 15 March – Sun 1 June | First Floor Gallery | Tue – Sun, 11am – 5pm | Fr

Experience a powerful reimagining of The Family Album, exploring the beauty and depth of family connections across time while celebrating the body as a site of history and memory.
This first major solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Marcia Michael is a ‘massive love letter’ to family and celebrates the sense of belonging and joy found through family connections.
The Family Album is a deeply personal exploration of kinship that pieces together a rich family history through contemporary photography, sculptures, ceramics, and print design. The works of the British artist of African and Caribbean descent centre around three interconnected series: The Study of Kin, The Family Album, and The Object of my Gaze.
These moving collections, archived as a revolutionary act of remembrance, display Michael’s ongoing journey to reconnect with and preserve memory, love and identity.
Michael’s intimate portraits of herself and close family members -particularly her mother – explore how the human body can serve as both a physical and emotional vessel for recorded histories. These works echo resilience across generations and highlight the uplifting power of family bonds. For The Family Album, MAC commissioned new pieces from Michael, including a unique necklace featuring miniature bronze sculptures representing the bodies of mother and daughter.
Through her diverse artworks Michael aims to foster a sense of familiarity and belonging that are centred within the home. This showcase invites the visitor to reconsider the traditional interpretation of
a family album and encourages them to (re)connect with their own family histories from a new perspective.
Marcia Michael, the artist of The Family Album, said:

“The Family Album ultimately defines my unconditional love for my family past, present and future. It creates and holds space where images and artefacts lie in wait to be seen touched and remembered. It is always imagination that keeps the past alive! As time passes it becomes important that there is a place where one can access and retrieve the whispers of this past. As well as relocate their visual, tangible and auditory memories into the voices of new kin as they take over.”

©Marcia Michael, Portrait of Mother and Daughter (2009). Photograph: Black and White Silver Gelatin Print.
©Marcia Michael, Portrait of the Photographer (2009). Photograph: Black and White Silver Gelatin Print.
©Marcia Michael, Studio Portrait of Young Girl (2009). Photograph: Black and White Silver Gelatin Print.

About the artist, Marcia Michael
Marcia Michael (b. 1973, London, UK) is an award-winning British multidisciplinary artist of Caribbean and African heritage who challenges the representation of the Black subject within the family album by reconstructing her own family archive. With great sensitivity toward her sitters and environments, her work encompasses captivating matrilineal photography, self-portraiture, moving images, sculptures, poetry, sound pieces, and drawings, using both traditional and non-traditional media. Through photography as both a mode of documentation and conversation, Michael renews and reimagines a transdisciplinary tradition of storytelling, seamlessly connecting past, present, and future. Her work guides the viewer on a journey through temporal dimensions, weaving together Black feminism, intergenerational visuality, African diasporic traditions, and the representation of the Black mothering body. Michael’s practice reimagines and restructures history through the
empowered, political, and self-loving Black body. She studied photography at the University of Derby (1996) and earned an MA in
Photography with distinction from the London College of Communication (2009). In 2024, she was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of the Arts London. Her body of work has been shown internationally. The Object of My Gaze, exhibited at Autograph ABP, London (2018), and Tate Britain (2022), builds on her earlier series The Study of Kin and The Family Album (2009). For more information, please visit: marciamicheal.co.uk.

Photo title: ©Marcia Michael, Portrait of Father and Daughter (2009). Photograph: Black and White Silver Gelatin Print.

Where Memory Meets Curatorship: Photojournalism Hub x Dominique Nok

Interview with Dominique Nok, 1873 Studios
By Cinzia D’Ambrosi, documentary photographer and founder/director of the Photojournalism Hub.

What initially drew you to Marcia Michael’s work, and what made you decide to present this exhibition?
Around four years ago, I heard Marcia speak at a photography symposium in London. She showed images while reciting one of her poems and playing a sound piece of her mum laughing. Her intimate, unfiltered, and pure body of work—and the way she described her relationship with her late, beloved mother—touched me. After the event, I went up to her and we spoke briefly. From that moment, I knew I needed to learn more about Marcia and her work—and that the world around me should too. So, when the opportunity came at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC)—a place where I knew people who look like Marcia, our family members, and myself are warmly welcomed—I did not hesitate to put her forward. Knowing that Birmingham is home to many people from Africa and of African descent, I knew her work would speak to them, and that it would acknowledge what and who needs to be acknowledged.

What does this exhibition reveal about the ways diasporic communities preserve memory and identity across generations?
The answer to this question could easily become a whole essay—there is so much to say about preserving memory and diasporic identity across generations. I am, therefore, going to try to give an answer in the best possible way. We know that people from the African diaspora take pride in things like food, dress, music, and our ability to withstand hardship. These elements have hugely contributed to our identity and are ingrained in our memory. Amongst ourselves, we celebrate this—think of birthday parties at a family member’s house, and weddings. What we are often less aware of are the many stories we carry within us and unconsciously pass on to others. This is something Marcia spoke about again and again—and something she tenderly and beautifully portrays through her work. “The body is more than just a host; it carries countless stories.” Yes, Marcia presents several ways to preserve memory through archives, and photography by documenting her close family members, showing their facial features, their hair, and body parts like fingernails and feet. But it goes so much further and so much deeper. Identity is found in connection and here, she gently and cleverly shifts the narrative—from being othered to belonging, from hatred to love.

“The body is more than just a host; it carries countless stories.”

With a frightening and atrocious past—one that we, as people from the African diaspora, are still unpacking and healing from—there is still so much more to uncover. I am talking about a beautiful history that was concealed, forbidden to speak about or act upon, and has not been accessible through disclosed records of the past. In this exhibition, Marcia offers another way to enter this hidden family history: by engaging with stories that have been shared with her, using different mediums to tell those stories, and allowing her imagination to reveal and communicate what known and written history alone cannot. These found truths can hereafter develop into connection with the people around us, those who came before us and create pathways to develop an identity of belonging for future generations.

Can you share a bit about the curatorial process, were there particular challenges or breakthroughs in how to present such personal, intimate work in a public space?
Marcia’s practice is deeply layered. Nothing about it is linear—everything can be viewed from multiple angles. Each piece she creates is made with the utmost care and carries profound meaning. Capturing the essence of what she was trying to communicate was, I believe, my biggest challenge. It took time to truly grasp the depth of her work, but once I did, I was able to present it in a way that a wider audience could connect with and understand. While safeguarding personal elements and allowing Marcia to express what she felt comfortable to share, I sought to preserve the intimacy and care she has within her practice. Producing an experience for visitors—one that would allow them to encounter Marcia’s work in an impactful way, resonating with their own family histories was my focus. Because of the strong bond that runs through the lineage of Marcia’s mother, I wanted to create a kind of womb—an inner space. A space that feels homely and holds stories. A space that is accessible, where people can walk through—into other dimensions of the work—connecting the three bodies of work: The Family Album, The Object of My Gaze, and The Study of Kin. When I presented my vision, MAC’s Artistic Director and CEO, Deborah Kermode, said, “Dominique, we’ve never done something like this—but it’s not impossible you know.” Her trust meant the world to me. MAC has been phenomenal in facilitating this exhibition—they truly are an amazing arts institution. The structure of the inner space and the layout I envisioned on paper took far more effort to bring to life. At times the fantastic technicians at MAC were pushed to their limits—but they did it!

What legacy do you hope The Family Album leaves for audiences and future artists alike?
I hope that visitors will be touched in a way that, through art and creativity, they begin to uncover what is hidden within them. Whether by observing and allowing the work to spark emotion—something they can then explore further—or by beginning their own journey of discovery through their own creativity. That could be through photography, poetry, dance, collage, or anything really, that helps them to (re)connect with what lies inside and open a dialogue with themselves and/or their loved ones.

To future artists, I want to say: do not limit yourself. You are not a one-trick pony. You can explore multiple mediums, also at the same time, you can wear multiple hats. You hold the power to shift narratives—and to change the world around us!
As Marcia would say: “Let’s just play!”
You never know what beauty might come from it—unless you try.

About the curator, Dominique Nok
Dominique Nok (b. 1977, Paramaribo, Suriname) is a Black female portrait photographer and curator, born in Paramaribo, Suriname, raised in Amsterdam, and based in London. She has over 20 years’ experience as a commercial photographer
and holds a bachelor’s degree in (Photo) Journalism and a master’s in curating. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, BBC Midlands, ITV.com, and The Voice of Holland, with exhibitions at Midland Art Centre, Harris Museum, and FUJIFILM House of Photography. Dominique’s curatorial career began with the We Are Here exhibition for UKBFTOG (UK Black Female Photographers). Since then, she has created platforms for predominantly female (and female-identifying) artists, collaborating with individuals and collectives such as Maryam Wahid, Sharon Walters, and the Mixed Rage
Collective. Dominique is passionate about advancing equal representation for artists from the African diaspora and those of Global Majority heritage. For more information, please visit: 1873studios.com.

Install shot of Archival Wallpaper (2025), constructed from the work Alpha and Omega (2024). Courtesy Marcia Michael and Midlands Arts Centre (2025). ©Tegen Kimbley. 

Notes to Editors:
Rosi Byard‑Jones​​​​ (She/Her)
Media & PR OfficerMidlands Arts Centre
Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, B12 9QH
Rosi.Byard-Jones@macbirmingham.co.ukmacbirmingham.co.uk


About Midlands Arts Centre (MAC)
For over 60 years, Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) has connected people with creativity. MAC is a contemporary arts centre and independent charity, with the mission to make art an important part of people’s lives. Set in the magnificent surroundings of Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham, MAC is the number one visited free attraction in the West Midlands. At the heart of MAC is a focus on sustainability, accessibility, and inclusion. MAC works extensively to support international and local artists, and develop programmes for and with our local community. MAC is a registered charity supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery through the Postcode Culture Trust and Arts Council England.

Midlands Arts Centre (MAC)
Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, B12 9QH
Registered charity no. 528979

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Photojournalism Hub x Riverside Studios 25th September

IN FOCUS
25th September 2024, 7 pm

Riverside Studios
101 Queen Caroline Street
London W6 9BN
To join: HERE

We are thrilled to introduce award-winning photographers Anselm Ebulue and Mark Chapman at the In Focus event on the 25th of September. Both photographers bring a unique perspective to the photographic medium, transitioning from deeply personal, introspective, visceral stories on loss and mourning to powerful, straightforward documentary photography.

Anselm Ebulue is a documentary photographer based in London. He was a winner in the 2018 and 2020 Portrait of Britain award and was awarded a scholarship for the LCC x Magnum Documentary Photography Short Course. He has recently graduated from the MA Photojournalism and Documentary course at UAL. His work has been published in a variety of publications and clients include The Guardian and Observer, The Modern House, Time Out Magazine and Red Bull.

Anselm will be presenting ‘Whims of the Rye’ which is an ongoing documentary series exploring Ebulue’s personal relationship with Peckham, in south east London. Ebulue’s approach is visceral, making pictures of mundane spaces that resonate with his emotive reactions where memory and change intersect. The work expresses a sense of loss, mourning the transformation of an area in a state of rapid flux that is most clearly evidenced by its gentrification. 
Ebulue is particularly interested in the relationship Black communities have with Peckham and through documentation, hopes to highlight the significance of the area to the Black diaspora. Whims of the Rye serves as both a celebration and preservation of the Black communities who have called Peckham home for many decades.

Mark Chapman is an award-winning photographer and film-maker based in Gateshead, North East England and London. His moving-image work has been screened internationally across narrative, documentary and experimental contexts.
Chapman’s debut photobook ‘God’s Promises Mean Everything’ explores isolation and displacement via a long-term study of a hostel resident from Teesside. The book was published by internationally renowned Dewi Lewis Publishing and launched during Photo London at Somerset House in May 2024.
Mark will be speaking about ‘God’s Promises Mean Everything’, an immersive long-term character portrait that extends over seven years, but limits its perspective to a single room. Haunted by the spectre of the family he lost, Derek, a hostel resident from Teesside lives without the social safety nets many of us take for granted. Mark was given unique access to document Derek’s life over several years and the project seeks to elevate a working class story that would otherwise go unacknowledged.
The images are an inseparable mix of the self-aware and spontaneous, candid and constructed. Seeking to explore the boundaries between filmmaking and photography practice, I want to tell urgent contemporary stories that are also rigorous aesthetic constructions. However, my aim is not straightforward realism, but rather to transform. My work moves between naturalism and expressiveness, altering the shape of the real world into something disturbing and mysterious.
This is now the third project in which Derek has appeared (across film and photography): his unifying presence creates a constellation of individual projects across disciplines that have now become an open-ended archive of experience. The Dewi Lewis Publishing website: https://www.dewilewis.com/products/gods-promises-mean-everything