Broken, Beats and The Other Side

Another month, another exhibition. This one titled Broken, and I exhibited a photograph taken from inside a power station tower. Industrial decay and the strange beauty you only notice when you really stop and look. The theme felt fitting honestly, because the environment does feel broken and industry always seems to get prioritised over it. So the image said what I wanted it to say without me having to say it out loud.

And on top of that I have recently sold some of my photography prints, which feels quietly huge. There is something reassuring and also slightly strange about someone choosing to live with your work on their wall. It shifts photography from passion into something tangible. Still creative, still personal, but beginning to hold its own weight.

The DJ gigs have been picking up too. I played at Metronome for the Sunto Susso gig organised by Acoustickle, playing Afrobeats for the night which felt really fun. It is a genre I fell in love with while in Malawi, discovering artists and rhythms that stayed with me long after I left. Being able to bring those sounds into a UK venue and watch people move to tracks I personally love was very cool. There is something powerful about sharing music that shaped you. It is not just a setlist, it is memory, culture and connection layered into the mix.

Then as well as being behind the lens I got the chance to get in front of it for a change. Lucy, an NTU student, asked me to be part of her project called The Female Focus, photographing women from or working in Nottingham. It was genuinely lovely to be asked and also slightly strange in a good way, being on the other side of the camera for once. The project focused on the work we do and the spaces that shape us, so I chose to be photographed outside the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust office. I used to work there and have always loved the building. Lucy shot the whole series in black and white on an old camera which gave the images a timeless, textured quality. The exhibition was later held at Surface Gallery and I went to see it with mum, which was a really nice way to round it all off.