Go see the Matt Irwin show at Cordy House/Behind the Shutters...it promises to be a lively, uncompromising vision of his energetic, caustic fashion photography.

Josh Cole came by to do some printing this morning and we started talking some of his personal projects.  He has tackled a lot of controversial subjects such as street gangs in London and Buenos Aires, travelling communities, the homeless and young offenders.  I particularly like his project 'Young Guns' and the confrontal nature of these images. What seems to be most apparent in the images is the individual's awareness of their own image and with this, the fear that they wish to inflict.

Nikolas Ventourakis is a recent graduate from the London College of Fashion's MA Fashion Photography course.  We came across his work as he was printing for his final show, the images immediately stood out due to the unconventional nature of his fashion images. Nikolas' photographs draw on themes of family, ageism and latent sexuality, creating open ended narratives that are both subtle and loaded; allowing the viewer to create their own conclusions.  With this series Nikolas intends to create an "imagined portrait of his grandparents", striving to question the boundaries of fashion photography, portraiture and fine art. 

This is quite a fun project, with some interesting results: photographer Shaun Irving has converted a delivery truck into a pinhole camera.  The images have a rich texture that is filled with chance encounters and happy errors.  You can find more information about it here.

Olivia McGilchrist's 'Portraits of Women', which she printed at theprintspace, is a really nice series that has recently been exhibited at Madame Lillies Gallery in Stoke Newington.  Within the project, Olivia explores the difference between a constructed reality and a documentary approach to image making. She photographs women at home, investigating the emotional structure of the familiar environment; how this can manifest itself in the image and how this can draw out the true character of the sitter.  In contrast to these intimate documents, she also photographs women in a foreign space, asking the women to act out roles: attempting to depict whether the environment connects with their projected personality or alienates them.

In case you don't get the chance to come down to theprintspace to see London College of Communication's MA show, I'm going to post some of the graduates work on here.  I've already featured some of the work, today I wanted to post Mona Simon's beautifully quiet reflections on Transylvania.