Photojournalism Hub x Riverside Studios 24th February
24th February 2025, 7 pm
Riverside Studios
101 Queen Caroline Street
London W6 9BN
To join: HERE
IN FOCUS brings together two remarkable photographers whose works centre on the themes of community and diaspora, exploring identity, memory, and the cultural landscapes that shape collective experiences.
Myah Asha Jeffers is a Barbadian-British writer, director, photographer and dramaturg. As the previous Literary Associate at the Royal Court Theatre, she was responsible for shaping the works of new and established playwrights.
Myah’s photographic work has won the Portrait of Britain Prize twice and The Photography Foundation Social Documentary Award. She is the 2024 recipient of the renowned Joan Wakelin Bursary (Royal Photographic Society & The Guardian).
Her photographs have been featured in publications such as Vogue, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine, ELLE and The Independent amongst others. She has also worked in collaboration with the likes of Tate, Somerset House, ICA, South London Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery. Myah’s debut short film Bathsheba world premiered at Inside Out (TIFF) and has screened at festivals including New York Shorts, Leeds FF, Norwich FF and Atlanta’s Out on Film, garnering nominations at multiple festivals for Best British Film and Best Director.
Myah’s practice
I am a photographer, writer and director, particularly interested in witnessing and documenting the nuances of daily life within diasporic communities. My practice is conceptually focused on ‘Black Interiority’, where I closely examine themes such as class, cultural identity, queerness, grief, gesture, and truth. Working solely with small & medium format analogue cameras and darkroom-based hand printing processes, the work is particularly concerned with the intersection of “naturalism” and “myth”, through illuminating the magic of rituals, quiet, and connection. With a focus on the (in)tangibility and truth of grief / its relationship with what I call “living abstraction” – where Black folk sculpt or construct versions of themselves as a tool for survival; I aim to make work that lends itself to abstraction through the experimentation with form, monotone, texture, and structure.
Exclusion Zone.
I’ll be presenting a first preview of my most recent project, Exclusion Zone supported by the Joan Wakelin Bursary and the Visual Studies Workshop Artist Residency. In 1995, a series of seismic Volcanic eruptions rendered two thirds of the island of Montserrat uninhabitable, catalysing a mass exodus. With now only 20% of the island deemed habitable and a current population of just over 4000 people – Montserrat is one of the least populus countries in the world. It also happens to be one of the few remaining British colonies. The uninhabitable 80% of the island is known as the “Exclusion Zone” – a site of buried infrastructure, homes and memories. It is both a graveyard for relics of the past.
This photo series explores the legacy of the natural disaster 30 years on; through the lens of both elders who are nostalgic of what the island was and young people who only know the island for what it is today.
Paulina Korobkiewicz (b. 1993, Suwałki, Poland) is a London-based photographer and visual artist. Her work explores themes of cultural identity, memory, and the transformation of social spaces. Her projects focus on the visual and cultural landscape of her hometown and region as well as that of her current residence in the UK, documenting everyday scenes and environments with a sense of nostalgia and socio-political commentary, drawing from her own experience of migration. Her practice involves community-based research, conducting workshops, and mentoring. In addition to developing long-form personal projects, Paulina continues to undertake commissions and residencies.
She has participated in several group and solo exhibitions internationally. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications, such as Hapax Magazine, Kajet Journal, Contemporary Lynx, Photomonitor, the BJP, and Creative Review. Paulina is a winner of the Camberwell Book Prize, has been shortlisted and nominated for awards including BarTur Photobook Award, Magnum Graduate Photographers Award and Prix Pictet.
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