Graduate spotlight feature- Anna Sturgeon
In honour of supporting those who have recently graduated from a photographic course during such turbulent times, we have chosen to run a graduate spotlight feature to reveal some of the incredible work that we have seen through degree shows and social media exposure.
It has been both heart-warming and inspiring to see the tireless efforts of so many students to persevere with their creative practice, which truly shows the supportive network that both the photographic and wider artistic community have formed over the last year to elevate each other’s creativity and exposure. We at The South West Collective are honoured to be immersed amongst this, which leads to our third graduate feature, Anna Sturgeon of The University of Falmouth.
Anna Sturgeon is a Fine Art Photographer who graduated from her BA in Photography from Falmouth University in 2021 and is now based in Bristol. Taking influence from philosophical schools of thought, her works are conceptually driven and are often concerned with the questioning of ‘the real’, both the photographic medium and the world itself in Postmodern society. Her juxtaposing of images and continual editing and rearranging of works plays upon the presumed veracity of the photographic and visualises the transient nature of experience.
Anna’s project, ‘Something Where There Should Be Nothing: Nothing Where There Should Be Something’ is described by her as a multifaceted body of work that examines the gaps and mysteries within personal and collective histories through forging a narrative between past and present. Familial archives, decontextualised symbols and the contemporary image combine to create a space with no set time or place.
‘Objects that once belonged to distant relatives sit alongside images of my surroundings and my family members to form part of a personal search for meaning and investigate the eerie nature of the unknown. In this sense, the work never gives a complete representation of reality, nor an act of disclosure and so creates a transient and fragmentary environment that presents us with what Julia Kristeva has called the ‘true real’. A real that uses the ruptures in the very fabric of experience itself to leave our subconscious pondering the most fundamental metaphysical questions to do with existence and nonexistence: why is there nothing here when there should be something?’
‘Something Where There Should Be Nothing: Nothing Where There Should Be Something’ is, at its core, an exploration. I don’t intend for it to be finished, nor for it to convey one set ‘thing’. Rather, I see it as the start of a larger book (a chapter 1 if you will) that investigates the notion of eeriness and displays the human experience as one that is enmeshed in mythic structures.’
Sturgeon’s work is truly one to be watched. With the images providing us with a thought-provoking analysis of what it means to question the existence of ourselves amongst others- and what we collect along the way. There is a subtle beauty to the imagery, which, contrary to some other traditional forms of documentary photography where subjects are confronted in a perhaps beautified way, Anna looks towards a simple capturing of the project elements to frame them in a way that portrays them as labelled subjects, pointing out the factors that makeup both her history and her current reality.
The images themselves are bold and striking. Anna’s use of saturation and colour allows for the feelings of wild exploration and speculation to be born through the project as prominent emotions; as we know she states that the work never gives a complete representation of reality, nor an act of disclosure and so creates a transient and fragmentary environment that presents us with what Julia Kristeva has called the ‘true real’. This space for reflection that is created is what I think is the fundamental layer for ‘Something Where There Should Be Nothing: Nothing Where There Should Be Something’ which allows us to bridge the relationship with the hidden and mysterious self.
We are always fearful of the unknown. Not knowing what will arrive in the future is something that is written about in books and toyed within movies, is this the strategy we take to comfort ourselves when we have no answers to our doubt? Sturgeon’s narrative examines the gaps and mysteries within the personal and collective histories, bridging the floating space between past and present.
You can find Anna’s work at https://www.anna-sturgeon.com or on Instagram at @anna__sturgeon
Article by Molly-Anne Webb: https://www.mollyannephotography.co.uk
Check our our Film Camera Store: https://www.f16camerastore.co.uk