Jill Todd Photographic Award 2018

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The 2018 instalment sees the largest numbers of entries in its short History. This year, the winners are Alishia Farnan, Jill Quigley and Helen Jones. The exhibition extends to include commended awardees Joseph Glover, Amy D’agorne, Christina Webber,  Simona Ciocarlan, Rachel McDermott and Sarah Michelle Riisager. 

Jill Quigley’s series ‘Impractical Techniques’, arises from a curiosity about the lack of physical gestures in creative photographic work and uses the application of paint in a basic way to experiment with the creative and practical use of the same gestures and techniques. Alishia Farnan’s work ‘Social State’ deals with post-industrial town planning looking at some of the social spaces where people who were heavily involved in industry spend their free time. In a more intimate series, Helen Jones presents a photographic exploration of the inevitable and universal experience of inhabiting an unwell body. ‘The Still’, focuses on Jones’ friend Siobhan who is a writer and has been living with cancer for 5 years, and explores the waiting and the helplessness that accompanies a terminal illness.

Joseph Glover’s ‘Lost Things Deep In Lightless Hell’ is a photographic exploration into the essence of ‘nothingness’ in self, drawing on existential philosophical ideas from Sartre, Camus, and De Beauvoir. Amy D'Agorne presents ‘For Love Of the Land’, a series of images that explores the relationship between the people of Aotearoa, New Zealand and their land, within the context of environmental challenges, whilst Simona Ciocarlan’s ‘They danced in a different way’ offers an examination of memory, nostalgia and cultural projections, providing insights into the lives of people that continue to practice ancestral rituals and wear traditional attire in Europe. Christina Webber’s ‘Digital Noise’ questions the effects of perpetual connectivity and notification culture and looks at the way portable smart devices have transformed our way of interacting with the world. Rachel McDermott’s playful 'Esoteric Beauty' is a series of collages that tells a surreal story and celebrate the peculiar and audacious, and Sarah Michelle Riisager’s ‘Girl’ is a very personal photographic portrait of her upbringing and youth as a professional artistic roller-skater in her hometown Frederikssund, Denmark; a tale of sadness, failure and longing for more.