Manifesto

Manifesto:

Purge the world of artless photography

-       To be experienced, to be seen.

-       Seize the fleeting and conmemorate the momento.

-       Inspiration not information.

-       Be a realist, be a romantic.

-       Celebrate the photographic object.

-       The photo is a product of creative mind(s).

-       Embrace the contemporary and the nostalgic.

-       Photography is useless without he(art)

-       “                                                           doubt

-                                                                     inconsistency

-                                                                     contradiction(s)

Martin Green, Artist Statement

Martyn Green

Artist Statement

Themes and ideas develop into a project of importance to the artist. An audience comes to view your work, takes in the atmosphere and somewhat can relate to your thoughts and feelings but what are we all working towards. This project looks at insignificant objects from the household but is part of a debate in whether if alternative camera less photography is still vital to the world of digital photography.

Ste Dunn, Artist Statement

I’m a Manchester based photographer in which I photograph a wide range of subjects in the documentary style. I am strongly focused on photographing how things are today, shooting my observations of everyday life. I mainly use mainly digital photography yet having a traditional technique allows me the option to shoot analogue. For the project I wanted to explore the suburban landscape, looking at a loss of identity within urban surroundings. I want the photographs to represent today’s reflections on society with people wanting the ‘perfect’ environment. I want to explore and capture beauty yet isolated photographs in these surroundings and hopefully portray today’s suburban landscape.  

Laura Sparks Artist Statement

The Ephemeral Landscape


Permanence is an unrealistic state of matter.
Photography seeks to capture the fleeting moment, a transition from one to another.  
This body of work observes the shift between nature and man and its constant revolving effect of the landscape.
Laura Sparks
laura.sparks@yahoo.com

Artist Statement Laura Mather

I have being exploring the notion of house and home and how each has very different connotations depending on the person you are talking to and the life experiences and memories they associate with them. I used the environment of the salvation army Hostel  on Wilmot street to enable me to do this, as it is a building that seems to be in  a permanent  state of transition.The rooms  a lot with the men seem to absorb these feelings of uncertainty alongside a haunting air of stillness a fragility.

Charlotte Robson

I’m fascinated by other people, why they do what they do and why they make the choices they make. I am an inquisitive person, however some call it being nosey…

"Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." Walker Evans

Charlotte Louise Ainley

Charlotte Ainley

“lost time is never found again”
Benjamin Franklin

My main inspiration is time, or the lack of.
What I see around me each day, the unwanted and unforseen is a big part of my work.
I use different photographic techniques and manipulation in my photography and enjoy traditional methods of practice.
Taking risks and exploration is key.

Amy Clarkson

"For a while now, I have been fascinated with the idea of photographing the female form with a very voyeuristic approach to the subject matter. I feel as a woman photographer, it is almost expected of me, that I must adopt the female gazeand expel any notion of the male gaze, when photographing women.

My work in this exhibition reflects my rejection of what is expected of me as a woman. I have chosen to photograph women through a male gaze and thus try to highlight the ever growing problematic of representing the body in photography. I hope my photographs to seem voyeuristic, awkward and perhaps even self-conscious at times. I have chosen to work with pinhole photography and alternative processes in the printing of each photograph, which gives each image a sense of uniqueness and personality, rather like that of each of the women that I have photographed. "

Amanda Salter Artist Statement

Vulnerable Spaces

Amanda Salter

Forgotten spaces are often the best spots to feel the true burden of time. I am drawn to these places because of the beauty they still hold; beauty that lies within their decay. These places can be anything that society has left behind or pushed aside. They are vulnerable because they exist on the borderline of the past and the present, which comments on the transience of existence. They possess an eerie beauty and intrigue within the frightening mystery of their destruction. They also hold a truth about people that teaches a lesson on change.

            My work is a documentation of how time and people weather the environment around them. The photos explore human history. They hold the key to growth, change, and abandonment. Within my photos I also hope to bring to life again, even just for a short moment, the spaces that I photograph.  I want the viewer to be able to look at the photo and reconstruct the life of the place, as I often do while exploring these areas.

"When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Marcel Duchamp - Anemic Cinema

Le Retour A La Raison by Man Ray 1923

The Photographers

Left to Right 
Laura Mather
Matthew Williams 
Amanda Salter
Martyn Green
Jo Hallat
Sophie Stafford
Laura Sparks
Charlotte Robson
Amy Clarkson
Charlotte Ainley
Alejandra Angel
Hollie Myles
Ste Dunn

Press Release - Ephemeros-Exhibition

Ephemeros is an exhibition organised by 13 photography students from MMU; Laura Mather, Charlotte Ainley, Amanda Salter, Hollie Myles, Martyn Green, Sophie Jane Stafford, Matthew Williams, Amy Clarkson, Laura Sparks, Charlotte Robson, Ste Dunn, Jo Hallatt and Alejandra Angel. 

Taking place at the venue; Kraak Gallery.

The show is a platform for upcoming artists to exhibit their views of the world; each one of them having a very personal approach.
The exhibition is a statement of the ever changing medium. Unlike painting or any other art, photography is evolving fast because of the new technologies hence it is sometimes taken for granted as an art form. This is an opportunity for the viewer to give another chance to photography, separated from its familiarity with publicity and any other commercial use.

“…It is a matter of surrounding with a frame a portion of one’s cone of vision, while standing in the right place at the right time. Like chess, or writing, it is a matter of choosing from among given possibilities, but in the case of photography the number of possibilities is not finite but infinite.” –John Swarkowski

Exhibition will open its doors to the public the 6 of May 2011 and continue to the 10th of May 2011. Timing:






11 Stevenson Square | Northern Quarter | Manchester | M1 1DB


ephemerosphotography@gmail.com
ephemeros-exhibition.co.uk

Alejandra Angel; Artist Statement

“The world is a masquerade where you are the pray and the predator;
an infinite ballroom where you don’t know when the lights are going off.”(Alejandra Angel Rios)
For the ephemeral exhibition I focused my attention on the human condition; youth, death and beauty are some of the subjects I’ve been interested for a while. I find the complexity of the human being fascinating; the mind and body with all the different shapes that can develop especially with the female form. 

I would also like to question the uniqueness of the human being; it could be said that we are all different or rather a mix of pieces that we gather from every human puzzle we cross in our lives and assemble in our own way? 
“The world is a stage” like Shakespeare would say, and in this infinite theatre we are all dancing to different tunes mixed at the edges of a song… 

I took the photographs in the studio to have more control on the image. A sense of mystery and ambiguity is brought by the mask covering her face. The poses rather instinctive (drift/driven) evoke human passions/desires, for we are first animal living in society.

Photography is like any other art it can be a medium of “self expression, of self exploration”; 
“We don't live forever, and beauty is just a passer-by and the joy of youth won’t stay long...”(Alejandra Angel Rios)

About Ephemeros

Ephemeros is a photography organization composed by students from Manchester Metropolitan University passionate and engaged in the visual arts presenting new, valuable visual experience. 
Ephemeros will bring and share their ideas in their upcoming exhibition, providing a place where the viewer will enjoy and communicate their thoughts, connecting with other people and artist/ different practitioners.

Photography is what you see with your eye and it goes so quick, that you don't even have to see it. To photograph means to paint with light. Mistakes are part of it. They are the poetry, the painterly quality. And for that you need a bad camera. If you want to be famous, you have to be worst in something, than anybody else in the world!
- Miroslav Tichý

These are a few images taken from Matthew Williams series on Gender and Landscape.

Matthew Williams

Artist Statement

"From today, photography is dead. My work is out tochallenge that nearly two centuries later it is far from dead. Photographs have unimaginable power no matter what field they are produced in. It is such power that inspires me to create images that can challenge or portray experiences that life reveals to us.

I have been focusing on landscape and gender bycombining the elements of Landscape and Portraiture photography with inspiration from artists over the last century categorized as the ‘masters of photography’. By working a wide medium format I have created images that explore each individuals relationship with their own landscape."

Along the journey I've been influences from names such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, up to Rineke Dijkstra, Hellen van Meene, and Ryan McGinley