Thank you to the London Institute of Photography who welcomed VICTA back for our annual photography course with a group of creative 18 to 29s. Our students really excelled in expressing how they view the world through the art of photography and post-production. From exploring street photography to experimenting with light painting, our students were able to learn new skills and produce captivating results, unique to each of their personalities.

Photography might not seem to everyone as an obvious choice of activity for young people who are blind or partially sighted, but the young people we support prove time and again that society’s assumed limits are not just to be accepted but challenged. Art isn’t all about the ‘perfect’ result but self-expression and telling stories, congratulations to our group for achieving just that!

Thank you to Holger Pooten, founder and head of the institute, who led the course and worked with our group to produce incredible prints for their portfolios. We hope you enjoy the gallery and if you’d like to join this activity next year, sign up for email updates here: https://mailchi.mp/victa/sign-up

Abdur-Rahmaan Jamil

A self-portrait of Abdur. Abdur stands in the Brick Lane area of East London. He has taken a photo of his reflection and can be seen looking straight on, directly into the shot. He holds his camera, a small point and shoot, over one eye, covering it completely. He has one eyebrow slightly raised. He has dark hair down to his chin with glasses rested on his head and wears a dark jumper and coat. The photo has a really interesting effect to it, it is grainy, with muted, yellowish tones and Abdur is slightly blurred giving it an urban, retro feel.

Continuing the self-reflective theme, in this shot Abdur stands further back and the flash from the camera completely obscures his whole face. Abdur stands in a courtyard with his elbow leaning casually on an abstract sculpture and with his legs crossed. The reflection has been taken in large windows. Again Abdur has used the same finish with the photo appearing slightly grainy, with muted, yellowish tones.

A shot of Abdur’s shadow which casts a long shape along a London city street. The shadow reaches up to the curb with its textured pavement of raised bumps. A man can be seen crossing the street holding a box. The left-hand side of the photo is taken up by the shadow of a building that cuts in at an angle creating a dramatic side frame to Abdur’s own reflection.

Abdur has taken a candid shot of a busy London pedestrian area. Another member of the photography course can be seen taking a photo next to her guide dog. A shopper passes by, quite close to the camera and at the bottom of the photo rests a bicycle. Coming in on the right of the photo, Abdur holds his camera phone at an angle, giving a clear view of something otherwise out of shot – it shows Miles from the VICTA team with hands in pockets, watching on as the group take their photos.

In the photography studio, Abdur has produced a vanitas photo – it shows items that represent himself, arranged an photographed in the style of an classic still life artwork. Abdur has displayed his basketball kit – a blue top and shorts with the ‘Coventry Tornadoes’ logo on it. The top is draped on a table over a bunched up brown cloth. His tinted glasses sit on top of the top. The shorts are hanging down into shot to the right of the photo. To the left a grey, washed-out piece of fabric drapes down in front of a rusty orange coloured background.

A light painting. The exposure is left open allowing the photographer to draw with light around objects. Abdur has featured the same objects as in his vanitas photo – the basketball kit and glasses, with the glasses the central focus. The photo is dark with bright light lines zigzagging across the image in white and red. Almost like the blurred lights of cars at night.

Ruqaiya Asim

Ruqaiya’s guide dog Bertie has his nose right up to the camera to the point that his face looks almost distorted. The contrast in the colours has been maximised bringing out all of the colours and textures in his nose to extremes – there are bright blue textures on top and reds/pinks underneath. The effect has also brought out the bright blue under the dog’s eyes so that it almost looks as if he is wearing neon blue eyeliner. It is a very playful shot that brings out Bertie’s character.

This second shot of Bertie the guide dog is taken and produced in the same style as the previous one in the series. This time Bertie shows a different pose and expression. He is again right up close to the camera but has his mouth open with his teeth visible and nose pointing upwards and his whiskers showing. He looks happy as if he is smiling!

Ruqaiya’s vanitas photo shows her chosen objects photographed on a table draped in fabric. The colours have been made high contrast and intensive in post production. There is a deep blue cloth on the table and a red wall and fabric draping down behind. The objects Ruqaiya has featured on the table are her guide dog’s harness, white cane folded up, a tin of vaseline, a smart watch and a metal bottle with the slogan ‘save our seas’ written on the side.

Ruqaiya’s light painting features a metallic green jug. It sits central to the photo and the light casts dramatic shadows and highlights over the shape.

Hanna Ajaz

Hanna’s self-portrait taken in the reflection of a window. Hanna stands to left of the frame and smiles into the photo with the camera held out in front of a part of her face. The right half of the photo shows the backdrop of a London pedestrian area with a couple of blurred figures talking in the background. The glass is covered in small droplets of water which creates an interesting texture across the image and brings out high contrasted colours.

Looking up at buildings in the City of London. The ‘Gherkin’ building is surrounded by other glass buildings in London’s business district. To the sides and at the bottom of the photo are concrete and brick buildings. The photo is styled in muted hues.

On an evening photo shoot on London’s South Bank Hanna has captured an image of the London Eye. The burred image captures and suggests movement.

Hanna has chosen to feature a blanket covered in fabric badges earned at Brownies for her vanitas photograph. A blue blanket drapes down from a table and is covered in around 18 visible badges including a Children in Need badge, camping badge, engineering badge and world cultures badge.

Ambi Kumar

Ambi has taken a self-portrait reflected in a café window. She is sitting with legs crossed on an outdoor green plastic chair next to a small square table on the pavement. The camera she is using to take the photo is covering her face. A van can be seen behind her and a pedestrian sign. The colours have been bled out of the image, so the green and purple shades are prominent. The window makes an interesting funnel design which changes the colour of the image down the centre and makes for an interesting abstract composition.

In Ambi’s second self-portrait reflection she stands head on to her reflection with her feet slightly apart and her camera held up to her chin. She has created a light effect by holding her hands slightly over the camera flash. It looks as though her hands are glowing and the refection of the light on the glass gives the effect of flames sparking out from her trainers.

Ambi has photographed her shadow against a pretty blue front door. The shadow cast from her arm reaches across the door as if to hold the doorknob. To the right are bring pink flowers which stand out in contrast to the blue.

In a second shadow based self-portrait Ambi has captured her shadow seeming to leap across a pavement. The pavement has small circular glass windows built into the ground where it meets the wall leading to an interesting pattern.

In a series of three light paintings, Ambi focuses on a perfume bottle. The perfume is ‘Ari’ by Ariana Grande. The bottle has an orb shape but it is multi-facited with lots of angles, this makes it interesting in how it captures the light. Ambi has experiemented with different lights in each image. Image one: Thick red strips of light are in the background and the light gives the effect of smoke surrounding the top of the bottle. Image two: two lines of stripes go behind the bottle containing light cream/white and light blue stripes. Image three: a hand is just visible and a bright blue light wiggles down towards the perfume lid, almost like a lightning strike.

Ewan Waker

A greyscale, grainy image of a shadow cast over a car door and window to create a dramatic effect. It isn’t obvious at first what the object is, it is quite an abstract image. The shadow is cast over the door handle and there is a line where the door meets the window. The shadow shows just the shoulders, head and an arm reaching up to the head, holding the camera to take the shot. This is one of Ewan’s self-portrait reflection photographs.

A blurred image in motion with the resemblance of a building and leaves from a tree. The tones are mainly yellow. In the centre of the photo you can just make out a flash reflected in the window. This is Ewan’s second self-portrait reflection photo.

A brick building with eight windows taken at an interesting angle. The image has high contast showing the light patterns on the brick. There is a place of interest plaque on the side of the building.

Photo taken across the Thames at night from London’s South Bank. The lights across the water are abstract and blurred, in the centre, the small blurred building is Big Ben. In front of the buildings on the river is an abstract shape made from lights, it almost looks like the camera has been spun to make swirling, wiggly, lines of light.

For Ewan’s vanitas photo he has displayed his Arsenal football shirt. It is a red shirt with the Arsenal emblem, Fly Emirates, and a Nike logo. It has been draped over a bunched up piece of fabric to create folds. A grey piece of fabric hangs down in the background.

Ewan’s light painting is a close up of the centre of his Arsenal shirt showing the large white type in the centre reading ‘Fly Emirates’, with the Nike and Arsenal logos above. The lighting effect has made the image much more dramatic than you would expect. There are dark shadows and only these key features of the shirt are highlighted by the light.

Fadzie

Fadzie has taken an abstract photograph at night. Dark silhouettes of trees and buildings are against a dark, yellowish tinted sky. Fadzie has used the lights to make abstract shapes – purple and yellow lights streak upwards in waves and swirls.

Fadzie’s vanitas photo features a keyring with a pendant in the shape of a bear. It is sliver and covered in textured and tiny jewels and a ribbon. It has a leg missing giving the impression it is an old treasure. She has hung the keyring from an antique looking copper jug, presented on a pedestal draped in fabric. Fadzie has chosen a muted, effect with blurred edges making the image seem older than it is.

Fadzie

For Fadzie’s light painting images she has photographed a glass jar filled with light-up cubes. She has experimented with different light techniques. The first image is more simple showing the light up jar as it is against a dark background. The second images has added streaks of red light which swirl around the image. The jar itself appears to be translucent, disappearing into the background in places.

We’d love to hear what you think of the gallery in the comments below, our photographers would love your feedback!

If you’d like to visit our photo grallery, you can see the group in action out and about during the course. Click here to visit the gallery >