Exposure 3: human drama and documentary: moving and still contemporary photography

Exposure 3 was an event which forms part of an ongoing series of curated presentations of work by staff and students from Middlesex University photography department and guest contemporary photographers. Taking the theme Human drama and documentary Billingham shared extracts from two films about his family. The first Fishtank (1998) 47mins, produced by award winning documentary film maker Adam Curtis and James Lingwood (co director Art Angel) and broadcast on BBC2 in 1998, was made using an amateur camcorder and shot in his parents hi rise council flat in the West Midlands. This was contrasted with Ray (2015) 33mins, produced by Jacqui Davies and shot on 16mm by DoP Daniel Landin, a more recent work shot in the same tower block as Fishtank and in which Billingham has used actors to play his parents to enact scripted scenarios. Alongside this the renowned visual artist Melanie Manchot, whose projects explore notions of individual and collective identities, screened extracts from her recent multi - channel video installation Twelve (2015). The work explores intimate stories, rituals, repetitions and ruptures of lives spent in addiction and recovery. The artists spoke about their work, approaches and methodologies before a question and answer session with Camilla Brown, Michael Bradley and Phil Healey. In the second part of the event three MA students presented on their work. Sarah Davies work De Bowen House provided a portrait of people living with challenging mental health issues. Anna Emilia Becker showcased her series A theory of intimacy taken whilst travelling around Russia, Germany and the UK. Asef Ali Mohammad, who exhibited his photography series The Hazara in Quetta in London Photomonth at the same time as this event, screened an extract of his film Besieged in Quetta, Pakistan.