Art Nottingham XV kicking off degree show season May 23, 2011 The 15th annual ‘XV Photography Festival’ promises a unique exhibit of the city’s many talented and varied photographers

Opening a soon to be nationwide scattering of degree shows, focus your gaze on Nottingham Trent as it unveils a Pandora’s box of 89 hidden treasures, laying bare the varied cultural essence that Nottingham possesses.

A word can tell a thousand pictures as Saira Macleod’s simply beautiful images demonstrate. Macleod’s documentary photographs focus on the word “caste”. Her titled ‘Segregation and Survival’ documents the story of historical discrimination within India, brought to Britain and captured in her delicately sad images of those still seized by these traditions.

In stark contrast to Indian traditions finds Penny Fillingham’s portraiture, shot in Sherwood Forest displaying a starkly British country-life of fleeces, shotguns and the essential pair of wellies.

More woodland landscapes feature in Emily Child’s haunting images, intending to invoke a therapeutic effect on its viewer. Her photography seems able of creating a eerie sense of human presence through its fuzzy exposures despite all human absence within its frame.

Fashion photography of Diana Tulkina creates a new Nottingham Nordic. Tulkina seems to focus on androgyny; her androgynous models pose in androgynous natural spaces covered in androgynous woolly jumpers allowing for interpretation and debate for its visual visitors.
With 89 photographers to choose from, there’s a ton of provocative creativity and diversity expected at this exhibition, which might turn somewhat overwhelming…

Taking place in 15 locations from today – 3rd June 2011.

For locations and more information click here

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Isla Badenoch.