Asylum Seekers & Refugees

A Research project about Asylum seekers and Refugees

This is one of the recent research projects about the asylum seekers and refugees to explore and demonstrate the impact of immigration rules on these people's life.

Mrs D.R stated that she waited for so long to join her family, due to immigration decision. A long time of waiting caused family issues and emotional damage as well as other difficulties. She suggests that the late pregnancy in older age is one of the issues that many families in the same situation might have.

Mr M.F is an asylum seekers who is waiting over 13 years for home office decision. There is no work permission for the people in this stage. The benefit he is receiving includes 35 pounds voucher to provide his weekly food and a room in a shared house with 4 other people and not being able to travel, '' the town turned to a prison'' he said.

Mr M.R who is a refugee, joined his family after 7 years of waiting. He is suffering depression.

He stated that life as a refugee is hard. He added that his youngest child can not remember him and it will take a very long time and effort to build the relationship with his kids as they are looking at him as an stranger.

"Will I get the second chance to be looked as a father again''? He asked.

Hyde park in Leeds is one of the places that I visited as I was looking to interview refugees. The place hosts different nationalities of people who gather together to share information and issues they are facing with one another. This allows them to meet and speak with others from their own country and ethnic background as well as giving them the chance to make new friends. Majority of the people are from eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. Loneliness is one the issues that many of these people are suffering from. I picked couple of pictures out of the whole project to demonstrate my work.

Final Exhibition

The exhibition took place in Yorkshire house on Thursday 16th of May. I produce 10 images of children with their favourite toys. I also asked parents to talk about them and describe their kids in five words. This was quite challenging project to do. The work is inspired by James Molison's project in the name of where children sleep. After exhibition we went to the place to talk about our work and to get the feedback from my group mates and tutors, Jon and Matt.

These are the images that I produced for final exhibition.

Behind the Scene

Photographing children can sometimes be a challenging task, since children typically do not like posing for the camera especially when they are too busy doing something they like.Powerful child portraits are much different than "look at the camera and smile" pictures. A true portrait will reflect a child's personality, energy and uniqueness.

I met Asma and her family trough a friend. Then I went to visit the family and finally managed to take picture of her and her favourite toy. After shots she started to write her letter.

How did the journey start

The first step was to explain the project to the families. Those families who agreed their kids pictures to be taken, gave me their addresses and phone number. Some people changed their mind later on and some others never responded.

I tried to photograph at least 20 children but only managed to photograph 11 kids.

When I entered to Lily's room as an stranger, the first thing I needed to do was to make her feel comfortable. so, I suggested: can we clean your room together? she agreed and we started. She told me stories about her school, teacher and classmates. I had to be quick at the same time to make sure she is enjoying the whole process rather than getting bored. I described stories about my childhood too and she wanted to hear more. Finally when I finished shooting, she wasn't look happy and asked to me if I can stay any longer. I promised to visit her whenever I get a chance.

The First Experience of photographing Birthday party

Violet turned to 4 on the 30th of March 2019. Her mother asked me to photograph her Birthday party. I took my camera and a flash gun with a tripod . I mounted 24-105 canon lens on my camera and took a 50mm lens as well in case of not being able to use speed light and for close up pictures. The place was quite small with Violet's friends who were running around that was nearly impossible to get them to sit together. The most of the pictures I have taken are close ups. I tried to focus on her face. I managed to take some good pictures in term of lighting and sharpness. I wasn't thinking about aesthetic production but the reality of a child's personality. This might not be a suitable photography style especially while you shooting a birthday party because people expecting to record their good time and they want to look happy in the pictures. The pictures I took aren't great but what I experienced about my work in such parties was great, knowing that capturing parties and weddings is not what I want to do as a photographer!

Mothers & Daughters

Mothers and daughters is an unfinished project that I started for the style and substance assignment and I couldn't complete it due to some difficulties. The target was to take picture of ten families. later on, when I started the other project (all about children), I had a second chance to continue the project. The project is based on the families who are living in Leeds.

Getting Started

Before starting The project of All About Children, Jon recommended this book. I bought the book on eBay. The writer shares his experiences and skills and lighting solutions in terms of creating grate images. After study the book, I started with better understanding of mastering light while using speed light. It actually made me to think about the direction of light. This allowed me to avoid harsh light and shades that resulted better lighting in the pictures I took. Now, before I start using flash light, I would take a few minute to think about what I exactly want and how to create it.

Studio Experiments

Three Point Lighting

on 28 of February, I booked studio to take picture of my son and his friend. My son was about to release his first music album and needed picture for the album cover. One of my group mate, Sam, was also taking picture as a second photographer. We set three point lighting. As the name would suggest, is a way of lighting that the light comes from three different directions. During the work, I realised it is important to take 3 things into consideration: the position of the light, the distance and intensity that controls how the light falls on the subject, where the shadows fall and how hard or soft those shadows may be.

Exhibition

Yorkshire house Photography and Art exhibition. 17/01/19

I started my project, followed by the previous projects, Style & Substance and Ever Fallen in Love. For the two projects I photographed streets in Leeds to capture night light as well as creating a small collection of bridges in Leeds. Based on the two projects, I decided to find pictures of old Leeds and recreate it. The FMP project is aiming to compare and contrast the old town via modernisation. The idea for the two recent projects was to explore urban landscapes inspired by Eugene Atget's work, the French photographer, who documented all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disapperation to modernisation. Based on the artists idea, I decided to photograph bridges in Leeds for one of the previous projects. For the next project I captured Leeds street scenes at night time.

For the FMP project, I continued with the same theme as urban landscapes. To take a look into the past and see how much Leeds has changed over the years. Therefore based on my previous work and my personal interest about history I started the project.

Final Production

Staffroom Exhibition

The exhibition took place in Albion Street in Leeds from the 4th to 25th of October 2018.

The art works includes the creative works of university centre and Leeds city college teaching members that is painting, video production, sculpture and photography. The family album produced by my lecturer, Matthew Smith, is one of my top favourites.

Lighting practice

01/10/18

On a cold day of October we went out as a group to the park nearby to practice portable light setting outdoor. As the more adventurous photography requires more equipments, we carried all the gears and set them all up.

The lesson demonstrated some outdoor lighting technics. We have covered the topics such as how to set the light, how to measure the light as well as how to filling in the shadows.

Wet Plate

26/11/18

Wet Plate process

This was one the exciting experiments during the course. Wet plate photography uses a glass base to produce a negative image. The process involved adding a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and coating a glass plate with the mixture. In the darkroom the plate was immersed in a solution of silver nitrate to form silver iodide. The plate, still wet, was exposed in the camera. It was then developed by pouring a solution of pyrogallic acid over it and was fixed with a strong solution of sodium thiosulfate. Once the photograph was developed, it could then produce prints from the glass negative.

Day out at Kirkstall abbey

On the 13th/11/18 we went to Kirkstall abbey for photo shoot. Kirkstall Abbey is in Kirkstall, 4 miles (6.4km) northwest of Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire. The place is quite close to where I live. I always wanted to take picture of the inside of the ruins but that wasn't possible for so long. I was surprised to found out the we can enter the building. I was fascinated by the beauty of the place. Later on I red more about it and found out that Built in 1152 and was one of the most important Cistercian abbeys in the country up until 16th century when Henry VIII went on his historic rampage on Catholicism and shut all the monasteries in the country down with force. After Kirkstall Abbey was left empty, it soon deteriorated. The ruins still stand and represent Leeds' storied past.

Style & Substance

Ever Fallen In Love

Taking inspiration from the beauty and heritage photographs of Eugene Atget, I tried finding places in Leeds, mainly bridges, to capture line, shapes and structures. In order to do this, I travelled to various places in Leeds to photograph bridges. The fallen in love is one of my university course work.

13 Years Old

The Faces

21/may/2018

Follow My Lead

The above picture is taken for Fallow My Lead brief, inspired by Jon's street portrait. Street photography is my favourite photography. It's dynamic and it's full of surprises, once-in-a-lifetime moments, stories, and faces, as well as unexpected enchanting corners. The photograph is taken in Roundhay Park in Leeds on the 28th of April 2018 as part of my university course.

One

using one light source

7th of May 1017

For this picture, I used ambient light as a light source. I use this picture to remember during my journey as a photography student how much I learned. Now, if I retake this picture, the result wouldn't be the same.