FREE RANGE 24′ [Top 10]

Free Range is a fantastic initiative set up to showcase the year’s photography graduates from all across the UK in the heart of London. Free Range takes over a cluster of warehouse spaces at the Truman Brewery for emerging artists to plan, curate and build their own group exhibitions giving them the opportunity to execute their first show out of university.

We’ve selected some of our favourites from this year’s event below. If you can’t see the show this weekend, we advise you follow these artists. We’ll certainly look forward to following their careers.

20 — 23 June, 2024

Truman Brewery
15 Hanbury Street
London
E1 6QR

Congratulations to all the artists this year.
Here are our Top 10 in no particular order…

Emily June Smith | A dissonant past unmasked

“At primary school, a teacher told me I would end up in prison. I struggled more at home. Diagnosed since childhood with ADHD and Autism, my shouting and hitting were moments no-one looked forward to. Stigmatised by the community, and isolated without adequate training, my family and I had to learn to cope. For me, I morphed myself to fit in, by hiding behind imaginary masks.

A Dissonant Past Unmasked is a photographic project positioning my family and myself inside re-enactments of our lives. Private sufferings from the past are performed against the backdrop of suburban domesticity. Traversing bygone ruptures, my autobiographical approach is an attempt to acknowledge my history. By confronting my difficult past, I am looking for catharsis and closure within quiet scenes of dissonance.

The complexities of disability are circumvented by society, as they seemingly misalign with standardised social norms. This has left us with no voice nor visibility, whilst our stories are often told by someone else. I shine a light on my challenges, in the hope of encouraging others to take back control of their lives. In doing so, I seek to alter the way disability has been side-stepped by bringing visibility where there had been none.” — Emily June Smith

Follow @emilyjunesmithy

Anaïs Jourdan | The Destruction To Which I Am Doomed

“This work explores my experiences within the Mormon religion and the profound effects it has had on me since leaving the church I was a part of for sixteen years. Capturing the quilt, tear and shame that is built into my being has become a way for me to navigate and overcome these emotions that remain present in my life today. My work focuses on self and identity and has given me the chance to liberate myself from an adolescence spent constrained by expectations imposed by religion.” — Anaïs Jourdan

Follow @anaisjourdanphoto

Elizabeth Blackie | Outlines

“Outlines is an ongoing introspective enquiry into the self. Uneasy with my identity and sense of place in my environment, the series is both a work of fiction and documentation of an investigation into how we can formulate an understanding of the detached self…Depicting fragments of dreams and nightmares, contemplating the known and unknown, rearranging visual perceptions of what is real. Outlines introduces a visual inquiry into how things can appear familiar but uncanny when one starts to question identity and place.” — Elizabeth Blackie

Follow @elizabethblackie_

Jessica Collet | To Be Trusted With A Hammer

“To be Trusted With a Hammer is a photographic exploration of the idea that learning by playing offers a child the most solid foundation from which to grow. Spending time in a Cornish forest school, I worked to visually emphasise the seemingly eccentric and unconventional approach that differs to traditional early-year learning… The subsequent series visualises a supervised, yet self-motivated learning environment that provides an alternative to the current structure. The process of creation has allowed me to reflect on my own relationship with play as an adult and contemplate the ways in which I experienced education as a younger child.” — Jessica Collet

Follow @jessicacollett_

Beth Laws | The Roots Remain

“For centuries, humans have held a symbiotic coexistence with the forest. This bond has fuelled imaginative stories, passed down through generations and ingrained as folklore. Oral traditions
transmitted through epochs of time mimic hidden root networks, connecting entire forests.” — Beth Laws

Follow @bethlaws._

Lauren Morrison | 246 Flowers

“Blending art and activism, 246 Flowers highlights the human toll of mass shootings in Texas and the
influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) on elected officials.

Created as a poignant memorial to 246 lives slain over the past decade, scanned flowers represent
victims, as they lay in rusted tins lined with body bags. Each tin, symbolizing a casket, includes a newspaper rendition of a Texas politician and their NRA financial support, illustrating the prioritization of personal gain over public safety.” — Lauren Morrison

Sophie Ackroyd | Wild Hound

“Wild Hound, is an exploration of what being Irish ‘means’ to me through the lenses of blood and law, intertwined with traces of my grandmother’s life. Her maiden name, McNally, means “wild hound” in Gaelic. In the work I trace her journey not directly as I know her, but as Kathleen: a young Irish Catholic growing up on a farm in Ballinagilley, Northern Ireland. As I grew up between Switzerland / France, Irish heritage was of no true relevance to me until Brexit, when I suddenly “became” Irish. Even though my status was legally grounded, it felt emotionally fraudulent; a passport with no connection to it, except through Kathleen, the most Irish figure I ever knew in my life This project is simultaneously an ode to Kathleen and her life, a tribute to my Irish heritage and to my way of finding my way back into this nationality that I am proud to inhabit because of my grandma.” — Sophie Ackroyd

Follow @sophieaackroyd

Olive Dickson | A Lasting Impression

“A Lasting Impression is a flirtation with death and an ode to Linconnue de la Seine’ (The Unknown Woman of the Seine), a notorious muse to a plethora of artists, writers and photographers Poetic, performative and playful, this body of work toys with the muse’s connection to a camera that enshrines them, and invites the viewer to breach the figurative, accessing an unsettling yet peaceful
sanctum. A Lasting Impression posits the muse, so often invoked and consumed, a keyhole through which we may observe our own bodies and relations to presence.” — Olive Dickson

Follow @epistemoli

Viviana Almas | Three Associations

“The unknown Is what occurs In the transition between wakefulness and sleep. “Three Associations’, a series of spontaneous works developed over the year. It features a looping Super 8 film, photographed performances, and round objects, deliberately manifested as embryonic. Theatrical staging and miming by charismatic figures create alternate realities.” — Viviana Almas

Follow @vi.v.almas

Kitty-Fern Cairns | Will you be there when I wake

“Will you be there when I wake, delves into the many complex layers of childhood griet and how these emotions transform as you age. Grief is a never-ending and universal experience that grows from memories, sentiments, longing and loneliness… I have created small moments that when combined,
tell the journey of my grief.” — Kitty-Fern Cairns

Follow @kittyfernphoto