Impressions Gallery

The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards are a collaboration between Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Photoworks, supported by Arts Council England and Official Print Partner, Spectrum Photographic. Following a national open call, the three Awardees were selected from over 350 applicants. the Awardees benefitted from a year’s mentoring from internationally-renowned specialists including photographer Mitch Epstein, publisher Michael Mack, and gallerist Maureen Paley, as well as financial support to make new work.

Alejandra Carles-Tolra has photographed a community of ‘Janeites’ who celebrate Jane Austen’s work, dressing up in Regency period clothing and performing activities to keep the novelist’s words alive. Carles-Tolra says, ‘I am interested in challenging stereotypes and getting a better understanding of who these people are. What drives someone to dress up as if they were in the nineteenth century’? The resulting series, Where We Belong, explores the relationships between individual and group identity, as well as themes of femininity and escapism.

Sam Laughlin’s A Certain Movement focuses on patterns of animal behaviour and intricate natural processes occurring all around us. He says, ‘As a keen walker and bird-watcher, I have always been fascinated by the natural world and its systems’. Laughlin’s highly detailed observations of nests and ponds, trees and cliffs, reveal the traces of wildlife in the landscape, and a world that is increasingly marginalised by human activities.

Lua Ribeira’s Subida al Cielo (Ascent into Heaven) is a personal vision built on the fear of dying. Her staged photographs feature participants enacting imaginary and intriguing scenarios in gardens and graveyards. Ribeira’s work is motivated by a desire to escape from reality and a longing for mythological significance in contemporary life. She says, ‘I’m interested in classical mythology and religious symbols of mortality, and Subida al Cielo offers an allegorical exploration of the inevitable decay of the human body.’

The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards are a collaboration between Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Photoworks, supported by Arts Council England.

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All images originally commissioned through the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, 2017.

Exhibition resources

Click here to download an information sheet about the exhibition (pdf 608kb)
Click here to download an interview with Alejandra Carles-Tolra (pdf 68kb)
Click here to download an interview with Sam Laughlin (pdf 128kb)
Click here to download an interview with Lua Ribeira (pdf 140kb)