For many years, we have supported final year photography BA students at Nottingham Trent University with three bursary awards; two of £500 worth of our production services to aid in the production of their degree show and a third of £1000 for the production of an exhibition one year later in Nottingham in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University and Lakeside Arts. This is part of our dedication to the next generation of creative practitioners, including tours, talks, lectures, portfolio reviews, student and graduate discounts – and much more.
Mark Foxwell, Genesis’ Creative Director and Niamh Treacy, Coordinator at Format Festival, chose the recipients of the annual production bursary awards. We invited students to submit work for initial review before being called back for small seminar-style sessions to gain more insight into the work and to aid in the progression of their projects with opinions and advice from Mark, Niamh, and their peers.
Reuben Frank Woods and Asher Gough were the two students selected for the £500 production bursary awards for 2022. Lucy Collins was selected as the recipient of the £1000 production bursary in conjunction with Lakeside Arts, chosen during the exhibition at Freerange Photography Week One show at London’s Truman Brewery. Lucy will receive mentorship and a £1000 production bursary for an exhibition in 2023 at Djanogly Art Gallery at Lakeside Arts in Nottingham.
About Lucy Collins, Recipient of the Genesis Imaging and Lakeside Arts Award
My work is focused on the history of women and their position in society now. How attitudes and jobs have changed as well as the difficulties that women are still faced with. I initially created ‘Collins Conversations’ as a platform to encourage people to carry on talking about social and political injustices. I have researched women’s organisations and feminist movements that offer facts about sexual harassment and women’s inequality. I then copied them onto stickers and put them up around Nottingham. The intention was to spark small but constant conversations within the community, to educate and encourage people to make a change. I have since gone on to make photographs of a collection of women from and around Nottingham, to celebrate the career paths that women can now hold. I won the Creative Changemaker’s Influencer Award which shines a light on social activism showing reach and impact and I plan to carry on advocating for women’s equality and educating through a visual media.
Lucy Collins
About Reuben Frank Woods and Asher Gough, Recipients of the Genesis Imaging Production Bursaries 2022 with Nottingham Trent University
Reuben Frank Woods
My work is a consideration of outside space and the relationships between people and landscapes. It is in part a document of these interactions, although the work is intended to present a narrative rather than a record and is in some ways a form of visual poetry. The process involved in the making of the work is, for me, as important as the outcome. My hope is to advocate for each space, but also to present a visual representation of my own experience of it. Beyond this, I am interested in how photography can be used as a tool to support our engagement with outside spaces.
At a time when we are ecologically uncertain about the future of the planet, it is important that we reconnect with the landscapes we inhabit. While photography is often viewed as a technology that distances us from the natural world, I feel that it can actually fulfil the opposite purpose, allowing us to rediscover lost connections through dedicating time solely to observation and appreciation.
Reuben Frank Woods
Asher Gough
My project revolves around my experiences of Aphantasia, a condition that means that I do not have a visual imagination. My Aphantasia also presents as a form of Prosopagnosia, an inability to recognise faces, and a poor autobiographical memory. It is difficult to pinpoint, but I cannot remember anything that happened over six months ago. The main body of my work consists of analogue photographs of my family, friends and my home. The film is then treated in a mixture of lemon juice and hand soap to distort the images. I am unable to control exactly what the mixture does to the film, and that unpredictability relates strongly to my memory, I have very little control over what I remember and what I forget.
Asher Gough
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