When photography was first invented, a large part of society binned their brushes and packed up their paint. They said it spelled the end for painting. Photographs were machines and machines make things more perfectly than humans ever could. That was in 1841, the same year, the University of Westminster opened their doors to show off the first public photograph studio in Europe. Since then we’ve found a place for photography and painting to exist together and University of Westminster has established and maintained a reputation as one of the finest schools of photography in the world. In all that time, however, the question of how much of a photograph is the machine and how much is done by the guy with his eye pressed up to the viewfinder. It’s one of the things that will always make photography different to other forms of arts, you get to decide how much humanity to put into it. If you want evidence of that, you don’t have to look much further than this year’s Undergraduate Degree Show. Themes of belonging, cultural alienation and of family are never too far away from any artistic endeavour. But in the work offered up by Westminster’s finest these mainstays of the exhibition circuit find a new richness and colour.
Angela Chiara Ferrotti: ‘First Coat’. A self-portrait centred on the concepts of being and appearing
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