William Lakin grew up in a small town in rural Bedfordshire and chose to study photography at college almost by accident. He is now studying for a practice-based PhD at the London College of Communication, by way of an MA at Middlesex University (where he also taught until recently). Lakin won a spot on the Paris Photo Carte Blanche Students prize in 2017, and has exhibited at Boutographies and Format festivals. He has also been shortlisted for the Mack First Book Award, and the Grand Prix Images Vevey.
His second major project, Five Minutes After Birth, explores masculinity and the ways in which it is performed in the UK. This work includes quotes from interviews with British men, in which Lakin asked them to describe masculinity without using words such as masculine or feminine, and man or woman.
Find the full interview in the latest Ones to Watch issue via the BJP Shop. Grab your copy via the link in bio.
This issue will soon be delivered to our Print Subscribers and Full Access Members. In the meantime, all Members can read the online version on our website.
📷: @williamlakin
🖊: @dismy
#BritishJournalOfPhotography #OnesToWatch25 #photographymagazine
It is a real honour to be included in the @bjp1854 Ones to Watch this year, particularly considering the other excellent artists featured in the issue. Thanks so much to @dismy for the words and to @kalpeshlathigra for the nomination 🙏
Some install pics from last week, a huge thanks to everyone who came to the show, particularly those who took part in one of the workshops ❤️ @fourcornerse2
Next Wednesday 15th is the opening of my exhibition @fourcornerse2 the PV is 6-9, all welcome!
There are also a few spaces left for the workshops I am running throughout the week, see link in bio for more info and to sign up.
Here are some install shots from a previous installation of the work @lcclondon 😊
During my up-coming exhibition at @fourcornerse2 Gallery I will be running some workshops about collective storytelling and online communities. These sessions centre around some interactive sculpture pieces I have been working on for the past year or so, and which I first showed at the Social Media and Society conference at LCC in July (see images 3-9).
The workshops will be 1.5 hours and will encourage participants to work collectively to create a narrative and build a structure. Anyone is welcome to attend and they will be particularly relevant for those interested in or studying online communities, collective storytelling, expanded photographic practices and participatory art practices.
Link in bio to sign up. Please also share with others who might be interested. You are welcome to sign up as a group.
Show open 15-18 Jan, PV 15th 6-9pm.
In January I will be exhibiting my on-going PhD work for the first time publicly @fourcornerse2 Gallery. The PV is on the 15th from 6-9, all welcome!
I am also running some free workshops during the exhibition, (see image 2), these will be particularly relevant for those interested in or studying online communities, collective storytelling, expanded photographic practices and participatory art practices. See link in bio to learn more and to sign up for a workshop.
Also, thanks to the UAL postgraduate student support fund for making this possible.
Who is represented and why? The bust of Lord Chesterfield was chosen at random for this project, but like every artefact in the V&A and museums around the world, each piece has a rich history, bound up in, and representing the hegemonies of its day.
Through Ai generated texts which reframe, parody and fictionalise, this project challenges the history of Lord Chesterfield and Roubliac’s bust, offering a playful and critical lens through which to perceive historic museum artefacts.
Follow link in bio to see the full project.
Using 3D scanning, modelling and AI, this project removes a museum artefact from its usual domain and places it into virtual and imaginative realms where it can be manipulated, dissected and narrativised through a decolonial and deconstructive lens.
Follow link in bio to see the full project.
Introducing Chesterfield: a project centring around the 18th century bust of Lord Chesterfield by artist Louis-François Roubiliac and held at the V&A.
This mini-project presents the bust, and the life of Lord Chesterfield, through a decolonial and deconstructive lens, narrativising, parodying and speculating around the artefact and its history through the use of 3D scanning, modelling and AI generated text.
Follow link in bio to see the full project.
‘Political Gestures (or) Why people are no longer willing to suspend their disbelief’ is about the performance of political campaigning and the first article published on XLVI in two years.
Keen to keep the ball rolling, I am looking for collaborators who have ideas for unconventional written or visual essays, on any topic. Please get in contact or share this post with anyone who might be interested.
This animation is part of the visual essay titled, ‘Political Gestures (or) Why people are no longer willing to suspend their disbelief’. The piece is on the performative nature of political campaigning and uses cross party visuals and manipulated imagery to question the predictable and choreographed nature of political campaigning.
More importantly it poses the question, how does this one-size-fits-all approach fare in a world where it is possible to live in distinct, bespoke realities, curated by social media algorithms?
XLVI has been resurrected! Beginning this new chapter with a visual essay on the performative nature of political campaigning titled ‘Political Gestures (or) Why people are no longer willing to suspend their disbelief’.
The essay questions the stage managed nature of political messaging, using cross-party visuals from the recent UK general election, and poses the question; how does the one-size-fits-all approach to political messaging function when people are increasingly able to live in bespoke, algorithmically curated realities online?
Click on link in bio to see full article.
