Photography and Portraiture Exhibitions: Exploring Identity and Place in Cornwall

Work by students from Falmouth University’s School of Communication and Institute of Photography is currently on show in the exhibition space next to the Compass Desk at Penryn Campus Library. The display takes viewers on a unique A–Z journey through 26 Cornish places and their richly resonant names, in poetry and photography. The exhibition seeks to unlock the secrets of language, history, and the legend of some of Cornwall’s place names. To do so, the national writers’ association invited 26 writers to visit 26 places around Cornwall, some well-known, some well off the beaten track. Photographers then took the writers’ words with them to explore these places and inspire their own work, and the result is a multi-faceted celebration of Cornwall and its richly storied culture.

Creative Collaborations and Artistic Methodologies

Each writer has created a ‘sestude’ – a poem of exactly 62 words – in response to their place, and these are being shown alongside the photographers’ work at Penryn Campus Library. The accompanying book includes poems, photography and longer explorations of the places and their names, with an introduction by Cornish language expert Kensa Broadhurst looking at how historical and linguistic change has shaped the names of Cornwall’s villages and towns. In another significant project, Creative Connections Cornwall connects young people from Cornwall with the award-winning artist, Joy Gregory, to explore the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. Together with portraits by Joy Gregory of people she has met in Cornwall, the students have made new photographs of people significant to them.

Joy Gregory’s practice is concerned with social and political issues with particular reference to history and cultural differences in contemporary society. As a photographer, she makes full use of the media from video, digital and analogue photography to Victorian print processes and has a strong interest in portraiture, archives, and representation. The students’ final selection of portraits includes painters, writers, potters, actors, politicians, athletes, musicians and more, and forms the starting point for the exhibition, showing at The Exchange this summer. Sitters include Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Helen Glover, Gluck, Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton, D.H. Lawrence, Daphne du Maurier, and Harold Wilson.

Debi Cornwall: Model Citizens and Political Analysis

Debi Cornwall, winner of the Prix Elysée 2023, one of the most prestigious photography prizes in the world, presents Model Citizens. In this series, which is still in progress, she explores how staging, performance and role-playing feed into the idea of citizenship in our Western societies. The photographic medium becomes here a tool for political analysis. Over the past ten years, Debi Cornwall has explored the narratives that have shaped the image of America. Her striking, formally composed color documentary photographs encourage us to reflect on the staging and normalization of state power. “My project, Model Citizens, examines the staging of reality and the performance of citizenship in the United States, a militarized country whose citizens cannot agree on what is true,” the artist notes.

Celebrating Young Artists at The Box

Portraits by more than 160 talented young artists are now on display at The Box following a competition earlier in the year which encouraged as many young people from Devon and Cornwall as possible to take part. Young people from across the region were encouraged to submit portraits based on the theme of ‘under-representation’ – works that showed those who may not traditionally have been featured or seen on the walls of a museum or gallery. The winners of this competition include:

• Primary Category: 10-year-old Beatrix ‘Bee’ Bondarescu with her painting Mama.
• Secondary Category: 17-year-old Amira Busaka with her photographic portrait titled The Future.
• 18-25 Years Category: 25-year-old Claire-louise Pitman with a self-portrait titled coronal incision.

Their winning portraits can be seen, alongside the additional 160 entries the competition received, in one of The Box’s first floor galleries throughout the summer. The display runs until the end of Sunday 29 September. Visitors can also see extra insights from Bee, Amira and Claire-louise in the display, including Bee’s palette, brushes and sketchbook, Amira’s test shots and some of Claire-louise’s prints.