FANTASY meets reality in Mersea Island - a photography exhibition which explores the place where Jo Lauren calls home.
The award-winning photographer is gearing up for her first solo exhibition at Shed 128 in Coast Road, which she says presents a “semi-imagined Mersea”.
Her haunting but beautiful photos represent “a deeply personal experience of a physical space,” and will be on display on August 11 and 12 from 10am until 6pm.
She said: “Mersea Island is part of an ongoing psycho-geographic exploration of this place where I’ve lived throughout my life.
“The images draw together place and memory, people and experience, creating narratives which combine the imagined and the real.
“In this way, the work represents a deeply personal experience of a physical space.”
Jo, 22, graduated from Norwich University of the Arts where she studied photography and plans to study a Masters degree.
Jo Lauren at her university exhibition
One of her images, named Things, went on to win Best in Category at the 2018 Association of Photographers Student Awards, following an overall win of the same competition in 2016 and being selected as a finalist in 2017.
Her work was also recently chosen as an editor’s choice as part of the British Journal of Photography Portrait of Britain Awards.
She said: “I’m interested to see what people think of the work.
“My style is generally quite dark and atmospheric.
“I like to explore emotion within a semi-imagined space.
“This is different from much of the artwork usually on display in Mersea.
Titled Still, Jo says it is a calm and thoughtful moment before dark
“Hopefully the reaction will be positive as it shows something a bit different.
“However, as with all artwork, everyone has different opinions.”
Although she has exhibited at the Old Truman Brewery, Printspace Gallery and Mother London, this is her debut on home soil.
“It seemed appropriate to end my photography degree with an exhibition of my project,” she explained.
“Before this point I didn’t feel confident with the work I’d created and didn’t have a substantial body of work to show.
“Shed 128 will be a great space to display Mersea Island.”
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