9th – 30th Oct | Mon – Fri | 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM
Exhibition Launch 17th Oct. 6.00 PM
Birmingham City University
The Parkside Building, B4 7BD

This curated group exhibition of student and alumni from the BA Photography and the Birmingham School of Art programmes at Birmingham City University.

Exhibiting Artists:

Gugan Gill is a novice gardener. Her work tends to the practice of daily life, seeking out the stories, rituals and forms of wisdom rooted in the everyday. With particular focus on the practice of gardening, growing, and cultivating community; a sense of domestic feminism is sown throughout her work. This often manifests as film work, bookmaking and most recently weaving. Inspired by Luce Giard’s reflections on embodied knowledge and Ursula K. Le Guin’s consideration for the life story, Gugan considers how quiet, habitual acts carry memory, resistance and belonging. Here we can begin to understand ways we shape and are shaped by the world around.
www.gugangill.co.uk

Joshua Reilly is a documentary and landscape photographer based in Birmingham. He creates self-initiated projects that focuses on people, places, and the relationships and connections between the two. Reilly uses photography to explore stories and to connect with the world around him. He primarily draws inspiration from his own lived experiences, and his own interests, he is currently entering his third year of a BA in Photography at Birmingham City University.
www.instagram.com/joshreillyphoto/

Kirstie Eykyn is a landscape documentary photographer based in the midlands; within her work she explores the climate crisis and our impact on the environment. Kirstie aims to produce work which has the smallest impact on the environment through use of sustainable and environmentally friendly production methods. Producing work with both digital and black and white film at 35mm and 120mm allows her to experiment with a range of sustainable production methods, developing film with specialist plant and spice-based formulas and producing cyanotype prints. She produces plant-based toners allowing her to turn cyanotypes from blue into a wide range of other colours and producing work that is almost 100% sustainable.
www.instagram.com/2003_kleykyn_photo_designs/

Paul Penciu creates worlds where beauty and vulnerability stand unguarded. His work blurs the line between flesh and metaphor, using the body as both subject and canvas. Wrapped in fabric, light, or surreal symbols, each image becomes a confession — sometimes tender, sometimes defiant, always honest. Working alone behind and in front of the lens, Paul builds visual narratives that draw from memory, queerness, and the raw tension between fragility and power. His portraits are not just photographs, but echoes of moments when the self feels most exposed, yet most alive. In every frame, there’s a quiet invitation: to look closer, and perhaps, to see yourself.
www.instagram.com/paul_penciu/?hl=en

Ryley Morton’s work aims to explore untold stories and empower underrepresented communities. He seeks to understand the lives of those he captures in order to portray them as truthfully as possible. He endeavours to spark discourse with his work by shining light on topics that often aren’t addressed or are regarded as taboo. His practice is as much about personal growth as it is about storytelling. He uses photography as a tool to explore the world and expand and challenge his own beliefs and understanding of society unfolding around him. Ryley was selected for the Portrait of Britain award in 2023. His work has been published in the British Journal of Photography, Amateur Photographer and Huck Magazine.
www.ryleymorton.com

Sophia Murray is an artist based in Bristol, she uses various mediums to express her interest in activism, including film, painting and screen print. Sophia’s practice engages with topics such as terrorism and resistance, predominantly using archival photographs and footage to show how information can be manipulated.  
www.instagram.com/sophiamurray_/?hl=en-gb

The exhibition coincides with The State of Photography Symposium – a national event that occurs every two years. It invites acclaimed and outstanding photographers and guests to discuss what our world looks like, the rethinking that photography poses and the themes we consider during this unsettling time.