 UCA Research Student Conference
University for the Creative Arts Doctoral College, Rochester House, Canterbury 13 June 2024 Last month I was invited to share my PhD research at the UCA Research Student Conference in Canterbury. I chose to speak about my case studies which is research only my advisors have previously seen. It is one of my newer chapters and definitely still needs a lot of work and editing. There is something quite vulnerable and nerve wrecking about presenting new research for the first time. But I find huge value in sharing works in progress and receiving interesting questions and feedback. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to learn more about my peers research as well and see the exciting work they are doing. I am also incredibly grateful for the wonderfully kind Camille Serisier for taking these photos and for organizing the event along with the rest of the organizing committee. Photo credit: Camille Serisier
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 Over the past three months I have been working on the Revisions research project a collaboration between The Victoria and Albert Museum and Fast Forward: Women in Photography. The project investigates the representation of women photographers within the V&A photography collection.
The V&A photography collection is one of the oldest and most significant photography collections in the world and holds 800,000 photographs. I have had the pleasure of working with Fiona Rogers the Parasol Foundation Curator of Women in Photography as well as the photography team who have been incredibly generous in welcoming me to the V&A and answering all of my many questions. As part of this research I had the joy of gathering contextual information about the collection from interviews with Martin Barnes, Marta Weiss, Zorian Clayton, Ella Ravilious, Erika Lederman, Mark Haworth Booth, and Fiona Rogers. I also collected and analysed available data on the collection. You can now learn more about this project by heading over to the Fast Forward: Women in Photography website. https://fastforward.photography/.../revisions-with-va.../  I am honoured to be invited back for the second year to be a Juror for the 'Chase the light ' event this weekend. It is a pleasure to be on the Jury alongside some incredible people working in the Creative Industries including the following:
Richard Renaldi, Artist and Educator Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Senior Curator of Photography, Portland Art Museum Kris Graves, Photographer, publisher, and board member At Blue Sky Gallery Alanna Edwards, Curator of Art & Education Initiatives at Surrey Art Gallery Inti St. Clair, Lifestyle photographer represented by Homestead Creatives Victor Yañez-Lazcano, Artist and Assistant Professor of Photo/Media, Universty of Washington Erin Spencer, Gallery and Public Programs Coordinator, Photographic Center Northwest Chase The Light is Photographic Center Northwest’s (PCNW) annual summer fundraising and friend-raising event celebrating photography and community. It kicks off with a 48-hour photo weekend on June 8th and 9th, where people around the globe make photographs on the same weekend. Every participant who submits will have their work reviewed by industry professionals and is guaranteed to have one photograph selected for inclusion in a pop-up exhibition and print sale on June 15th. Gather your creative friends and family and register today!  13 June 2024 | 10:30 am - 6 pm
UCA Doctoral College, Rochester House St George’s Place, Canterbury CT1 1UT I am so excited to announce that I have been selected to share my PhD research at the upcoming PhD Student Conference in Canterbury. I will be presenting my paper titled Migrant Women: Stories of Movement which inserts women’s voices into discourse surrounding transnationality as well as investigating how women’s experiences of migration can be uniquely transcribed using alternative photographic processes such as film soup, soil chromatography, and photograms. Examples are drawn from four case studies including the work of María Martínez-Cañas, Odette England, Izabela Pluta, and Dafna Talmor. From more specific themes of place attachment, memory, and constructed landscapes these artists demonstrate the lived experience of migrant women. The conference will be held in the Gallery on level one at the Doctoral College on 13 June 2024.     On the 28 May 2024 the first ever Women Alternative Photography Group Seminar took place in person at the Brewery Tap Gallery UCA Project Space in Folkestone. It was my absolute pleasure to host photographic artists Melanie King and Ky Lewis who shared their art practice and research with us in a series of artist talks. I also shared my research on homesickness followed by a private view of the Homesick exhibition.  On the 28 May 2024 Homesick opened at the Brewery Tap Gallery UCA Project Space in Folkestone. This solo exhibition showcases the series Homesick where I use the film soup process and hand written letters to investigate homesickness. I worked with ten migrant women from all over the world who selected a liquid that reminded them of a place they have called home. I then took a roll of 35mm colour film and soaked the film in the selected liquid for one hour for every day that it had been since they had returned to their home. This project was created during the COVID-19 pandemic when borders were closed and travel was at a standstill. For many this was the first time they had not be able to travel back home to visit friends and family exacerbating feelings of homesickness.
The exhibition closes tomorrow 1 June 2024.  On the 20 March 2024 I joined researchers Eiji Yasuhara (University of Kent), Sarah Moody (UCA), and Louise Wigglesworth (University of Kent) on the Place and Space Panel as part of the Post Graduate Humanities Research Salon hosted by the University of Kent. I shared my paper titled Place Attachment and Soil Chromatography which investigated the use of the soil chromatography process in my own artistic practice to visualise the lived experience of place attachment.
 On the 8 May 2024 I had the pleasure of presenting alongside Anna Fox at the AHRC IAA SE Regional Research with Impact Event in Brighton. This conference brought together researchers from all over the South East of England to share their incredible and inspiring projects. Anna and I talked about Fast Forward: Women in Photography particularly focusing on the research that has come out of the Manifesto and Manifesto Report. It was such a joy to meet up with colleagues from the University for the Creative Arts and meet fellow researchers doing such inspiring work.
 You are invited to the Women Alternative Photography Groups very first in-person event at the Brewery Tap Gallery UCA Project Space in Folkestone, UK.
This seminar and private view will bring together three incredible women using alternative photographic processes within their creative practice. Interrogating migration, psychogeography, and sustainable photographic processes this seminar will introduce the work of Founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective Melanie King, Artist and Curator Ky Lewis, and Director and Founder of WAPG Elizabeth Ransom. This seminar will be an opportunity to celebrate women working with experimental photographic methods in unique and innovative ways. This seminar coincides with the opening of the exhibition Homesick by Elizabeth Ransom at the Brewery Tap Gallery. Following the seminar there will be a private view with free drinks which you are invited to join to socialise with the WAPG community. To book your free tickets and to learn more click HERE.  I am thrilled to announce that I will be exhibiting my Homesick series at the Brewery Tap Gallery UCA project space this May.
Join me in the seaside town of Folkestone from 28 May - 1 June for my very first solo exhibition!!! In the series, Homesick, I invited ten women and non-binary immigrants to share their stories and memories of homesickness in written form. They also provided a list of liquids that remind them of one of the places they have called home such as coffee, chicken broth, pisco sours, and kefir. I then soaked a roll of 35mm color film in the liquid for one hour for every day since they had returned to that location. This work was created in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic when countries had closed their borders and travel was at a standstill. This was the first time for many of the participants that they had not had the option to travel back home to see their families and loved ones. The experience of homesickness was exacerbated for many resulting in physical and emotional symptoms. For some participants, it had been many years since they returned home. The longer that the participant had been away the longer the film was left to soak in the liquid. The emulsion slowly deteriorating over time. The heat of the liquids warped and distorted the negatives resulting in brightly coloured destroyed rolls of film. I would love to invite you to the PV and WAPG seminar in Folkestone on the 28 May from 6-8pm. |
Elizabeth RansomPhd Candidate at UCA, Research Assistant for Fast Forward: Women in Photography and Visual Artist working with Alternative Photographic Practices. Archives
July 2024
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