The Eye on Asia display was in the Parkinson Building and, when I arrived I was both amazed (by the quality of the imagery) and regretting saying yes – the decision to make a selection was a difficult one. With a breadth of imagery across differing genres of photography and across the breadth of South Asia, I was truly gob smacked – and struggled to make the selection.

Luckily I wasn’t the only judge – the images had already been whittled down by the committee and there were two other judges plus a public vote – to avoid me having sole responsibility for the overall winner.

I was invited back to see the prize giving – and, again mesmerised by the images, I offered to show a selection to another audience through the Exposure Leeds website, so here is a selection of the images I got to see printed and displayed in the University:

Photographers showing here:

Alice Elphick, Eva Tuckman, Ujwala Subba Rao, Keiko Shinoda, Chris Kennerley, Sophie Bramley, Catherine Poole, Anita Cheung, Jenny Spruell, Tom Baker, Georgina Barker, Beth Iveson, Ali Glen, Eve Baker, Freddie Simmonds, Huang Yi, Jo Cutler, Denny Moyers, Malin Hagman, Rebecca Jane Macklin, Roxy Feng, Ruairi Garvey, Tom Mahony.

Thanks to all them and to all the exhibition organisers – and especially Isabelle and Kezia – for their help and in allowing us to share this with you.

© Paul Dishman

For me the title ” Your Retail Soulmate” was very much a typical big business strapline (it is drawn from the Trinity Shopping Development promotional blurb). I wanted to show the other side to retail in the city – the smaller pop-up businesses, buskers, stall holders and sellers who are just as much a part of the city of Leeds as big business.

It made me more aware of when it is busy and when it is not as I tried to get the images I needed. Also made me engage more with some of the characters in the city who are having just as hard a time as big business just now. Their absence from the street due to going bust will have as much effect as an empty shop here and there. Some of them have real stories behind how they have ended up working on the streets of Leeds and have travelled huge distances to get there. Some are having a real struggle at the moment and others are bringing new sounds and street food to the city.
I could have gone more into the persona of the characters in my images and have more information than I have shared. I just wanted to use what I knew they were comfortable with but would be interested in going deeper on a future project perhaps.

^ Paul Dishman

© Claire Selman

When considering the relationship between Holy Trinity church and its surroundings in Leeds, I came to the conclusion that retail could be considered a contemporary religion. Of course there are numerous references to religion in the advertising of retail, however my work for this exhibition is concerned with the way in which the behaviour of shoppers can convey this worship. It seemed to me the lustful gaze into a shop window was the point at which this worship revealed itself.

The transformation of a window of Trinity church into a scene more familiar in a shopping centre, complete with inquisitive shoppers and seductive offers, creates a fictional scenario in which the church becomes the shop. This is intended to act as both an observation and comment on the role of religion and retail in contemporary life.

^ Claire Selman

My images are selected from a wider project which I have been shooting since 2009 and as recently as last month titled Sister in the Sticks. This project explores what it means to grow up in an isolated rural environment through a cathartic investigation into my teenage half-sisters life. After never living with my sister Danniella, the project began as a process through which to reconcile our relationship. We are very close now and shooting has developed into a documentary of her experience of living in such a rural location. I am interested in the challenges that face the contemporary British countryside, and the challenges that face the teenagers who live within it. I am now developing a wider survey of teenagers living in the North Pennines titled The Rugged Places, with the support of the IdeasTap Innovators Fund, Killhope Lead Mining Centre and Dale Force.

© Anne-Marie Atkinson

For Your Retail Soulmate, the selected images contrast Danniella’s life at home with the experience she has when visiting me in Leeds during school (now college) holidays. It was a while before she was allowed to make the trip down herself, but she has since visited me for up to a week on 3 or 4 occasions. At home, she has no access to clothes shops, cafes, night spots. The last bus from the nearest (still very small and run-down) town is at 7:30pm, and the journey costs best part of a tenner and takes best part of an hour. In these respects, her life is very different to the teenagers in Leeds. These images address access and aspirations of ‘retail’, which I believe can represent transitional zones to young people.

Soul is linked to people’s inner beliefs – their very person – how do you feel you’ve represented this?

‘Soul’ and ‘soulmate’ are words appropriated by culture; it was interesting to take the exhibition title from one of the hoarding boards surrounding the Trinity Shopping Centre development and place it within a church, to see what that threw up. My project is a documentary, so I feel it is important to represent Danniella as truthfully as possible. We often work very collaboratively and discursively. My sister is very important and fascinating to me, I’m driven to explore both her inner and outer life and photography is the ideal medium through which to do this.

^ Anne-Marie Atkinson

Retail work has often been referred to as a thankless task; some have proclaimed it is a soulless experience. To many it has however crossed over into the realms of the spiritual in terms of how we experience it

I am interested in the spaces we find in-between our daily routes, the architecture we are surrounded by shapes our habits and behaviours.
Often it is remarked how globalisation renders one city indistinguishable from the next. Despite this our cities are ever evolving epicentres of ideas and contradictions. We come together for our own individual purposes; the presence people leave behind often contributes to the next person’s experience of a time and a place.

Within the spaces we create and inhabit, there is an infinite amount of information vying for our attention, how much we absorb and experience is down to us as individuals

In each of the three set ups I placed a large QR tag in to the frame. So what you get in the final print is a barcode that links to a connected series of images on my site that expand upon the shows overall theme, so the act of scanning the barcode is in a sense a connection to the idea of retail/redemption as a new religion.

© Steve Schofield

The work was shot with a large format camera so I find that always makes me look at a place differently, it forces you to be a little more patient and take the time to look a little deeper and take in small details you would perhaps ordinarily pass by. Leeds is a great city to be around at the moment, it has some amazing architecture and it feels like a positive place where things can happen.

Soul is linked to people’s inner beliefs – their very person – how do you feel you’ve represented this?

A very subjective matter, I think there are themes and threads of thought that run through this work that have possibly crept in from the work I have been doing over the last six months, I am fascinated by religion as a subject and a lot of my recent work has been centred around faith and its numerous representations. For me the very act of creating something becomes a bit of a baring of the soul, it is exciting though, the way things evolve after the shutter has been pressed!

^ Steve Schofield

© Alex Dodgson

Shooting for this exhibition has made me look at the city centre with new eyes and most notably at the seemingly endless sea of people that wander through it. To walk through the shopping centre is to walk through a mass of nameless faces that fade into the background with only a few steps further. I wanted to listen to some of these people’s stories and reflect on this as a photographer. The notion of storytelling remains fundamentally rooted in what makes us individuals and something i have really tried to reflect in my work.

^ Alex Dodgson

© Lloyd Spencer

For this exhibition I have created two “stained-glass windows” by taking many (several hundred) photos on my mobile phone. These were processed by means of the Instagram mobile phone app. and then printed as a bright backlit poster.

So we contacted Adam and asked if he’d be interested in featuring his work on the Exposure Leeds website; his response was favourable – and here, in his own words, is his introduction:

“I bought a digital point and shoot in March last year to take on holiday but found myself using it to make observations of where I live. Informed by New Topographics I focus on the mundane and unremarkable: part of my motivation for making these pictures is to show people the environment that they take for granted and perhaps look at but don’t really see. Hopefully the images communicate something of Armley’s post-industrial landscape and are of interest to people familiar with Leeds, as well as to those who have never visited.

I’m based in Leeds and work as a contract UX* Designer.

For more of Adam’s work, please visit his website.

*User eXperience

Katie, thanks for agreeing to the interview – let’s start with; how long have you been making photographs – and how did you first get into it?

I have now been photographing for eight years, and first began to use the media seriously in college. The first photographic project I had was documentary; I took a film SLR out in Bradford and shot whatever interested me. I began to see people and places in a different light and started to focus on the stories behind them. I remember meeting one individual, a man that used to sit in the square by the Oastler statue and feed the pigeons and they’d all gather around him and perch on his arms and his hat. Photographing him took quite a long time, as every time I moved the pigeons would take flight, but he told me a lot about his life and time spent in Poland, and I realised then the connection photography has with personal stories and how they can also invite narrative.

How did you make the selection for Leeds Gallery – was it an easy choice or…?

Stone | It is said that sometimes, at day or night, the Town Hall clock strikes past twelve. The people of Leeds freeze and the four stone lions watching the entrance begin to move, greet each other and set about safeguarding the city. They circle the steps three times before returning to their positions. Then the people of the city carry on unaware. It is believed the only way of knowing if the lions have moved is to check their posture and expression; they never return exactly as they were.

I was making work that connected fragments of local myth to landscape and saw Leeds as an opportunity to create a new set of photographs focusing on the dialogue between Leeds as a modern, contemporary city and the history and social culture which is embodied in its unique folklore and local stories. The research was surprising. I wanted to uncover the narratives and present them to a new audience, drawing on Leeds’ cultural heritage and reinterpreting it visually. I find it hard to select a favourite, each image took several days to complete and each was a new discovery of the city in its own way. If I had to choose one I would say ‘Stone’, it focuses on a narrative centred in the heart of Leeds.

You mentioned you’ve an interest in ‘narrative and the created scene’ – can you expand on that a little?

From very early on I have been interested in narratives, stories within images and photographs which suggest something more having happened behind the scenes. I have recently been exploring narrative structure; how stories are essentially made up and comprised. I have begun to translate this to my practice through the created scene. This sometimes involves an element of performing arts, recreating a scene and improvising movement, or as with the Leeds series, separating components of a story and displacing and reinventing them to form the final narrative, through analogue and digital manipulation.

Can you share an image or small series from another project and tell us a little about how it came about and the story behind it.

This project stemmed from exploring folk tales and the memories and associations of childhood. I wanted to make work that began to deconstruct the myth of it being a perpetual state of innocence and timelessness. This perception of childhood as a fixed condition stems from a western culture of fairy-tales often subverted by a patriarchal authority for political needs. The project investigates earlier folk tales, where the emphasis was on a mixed audience, in both gender and age, and a celebration of growth. In redressing the balance of beauty and horror, play and malice, the work draws upon the messages of sexuality, nature and domestication inherent in folklore, superstition and gothic romanticism.

How do you feel about the exhibition?

I feel the exhibition draws on artists from different backgrounds, with diverse practices and collectively highlights and celebrates Leeds, from a wide range of angles. I think the exhibition allows you to see the city anew, and look differently, discovering more about Leeds, from well known landmarks to an ‘underground’ city, literally in some photographs. I feel the range of work and different perspectives embed the theme and create a strong exhibition.

Where next for you? Where do you see your work going next – or any further exhibitions planned?

Exploring narrative structure has led me to work more closely with the elements which form different tales. I am currently working deconstructing and reassembling these different components to play with the way an image is viewed. Source work and sketches are also taking a more central role in my practice. I publish ideas and developments in small run artist publications with Sheer Wonder Press, an independent publishing house which I co founded in May 2011. The next Sheer Wonder event will be at the Ante-Art Bookfair, Saturday 5th May, with full details on the Sheer Wonder Website.

You can see Katie’s work alongside the other photographers at Leeds Gallery until May 16th. You can view more of her work on her own website.

All images © Katie Bootland – all rights reserved.

On the discovery that Leeds was to be blessed with a new and to my knowledge, with its first gallery dedicated to photography and film I’d been counting down the days to its birth. Well, what can i say but that my high hopes and expectations were more than satisfied and realised on the opening night of the White Cloth Gallery. On arrival (and only 10 minutes fashionably late) I was pleasantly surprised to see the place bustling and a hive of activity at such an early start to the evening. A very promising start.

First port of call was to find the free booze and nibbles (usually expecting some cheap caustic plonk in white plastic disposable cup and paper plates scattered with some flavourless crisps and nuts). Yet again I was blown away when i was greeted by the friendly staff offering me some nice fizz in a glass flute and a selection of delicious canapes served with a tantalising description of what i was proceeding to stuff me gob with. Yummy!

Fed and watered, I wandered past the second, yes second bar, to the two rooms at the rear of the building where the distant murmurs of some live gypsy jazz a la Django was playing and the sound of excited conversation echoed. Bumping into a few friends and new aquaintances on the way up I finally made it to where the magic was and i really wanted to be – surrounded by the numerous beautifully created and displayed photographic works of Jocelyn Bain Hogg’s ‘The Family’ along with signed copies of the book and an open bid to win a signed, limited-edition print. After feasting my giddy and greedy eyes on all the ‘sweets in the shop’, I legged it to the bar on discovery that all the drinks were free for the night and what a great selection there was too. Although I would have liked to have had a nice local hand-pulled one on offer though.

The ‘party was in full swing’ when we were greeted with some inspirational and welcoming words from the legend that is Peter Dench (and he’s also the gallery’s Creative Director) about the gallery’s hopes and aspirations to become a cultural hub to showcase not only the “A-list photographers of the likes of Jocelyn Bain Hogg” but also established and emerging local artists as well as a great place for like-minded, socially-aware artists/photographers and art-lovers to meet up, hang-out, socialise, network, be inspired and put Leeds on the map as the premiere destination in the North for photography.

This is exactly what Leeds needs. With the White Cloth Gallery it’s definitely not ‘grim up North’.

The future’s bright, the future’s White!

Words and photographs by Mat Dale.

© All rights reserved

Here we begin with Ryan Learoyd…

Ryan, thanks for agreeing to the interview – let’s start with; how long have you been making photographs – and how did you first get into it?

My love of photography has always existed & my adoration of the still image is merely an extension of my passion for film. I went to uni in York and studied a BA in Film and TV production which strangely gave me my calling within still imagery. I began to capture behind the scenes using video lighting rigs. I found it astounding how a story could be told within a single frame. I bought my first DSLR, shot some film and was hooked.

How did you make the selection for Leeds Gallery – was it an easy choice or..?

Reality Bites - Just another Leeds business left in ruin. Broken glass and weathered brick, empty halls and desks. A stark reality of the fast moving financial climate in the UK. © Ryan Learoyd. All Rights Reserved.

Making my selection for the ‘Leeds Through a Lens’ exhibition came surprisingly easy. My first and favourite shot submitted to the gallery is ‘Reality Bites’ taken in Holbeck. There’s something about when I finished processing the shot that made me want to hang it on my wall. Not because of the stark financial times the image communicates, but because of how it connects with me on a more personal level. I will get home from the day job, turn on the computer, load up some images and that print is hanging just above my desk. It kind of makes me smile, this is my true ‘Reality’, my dream, an image which reflects what I strive to become. I felt all three of my submissions worked well as a collective. All were shot in a similar area and mirrored in some sense how I felt about the city, sometimes bleak, sometimes beautiful, sometimes unseen.

Why did you take part?

I love my city, I grew up in Leeds and still live within the city centre. Throughout the years I have watched my home change for the better and sometimes for the worse. When I heard of ‘Leeds Through a Lens’ I was excited for the opportunity to have my work displayed alongside some of the cities best image makers. Within every creative mind there is a different perspective, and it is with this that the most enticing bodies of work are created. Leeds through a lens is made of 15 different photographers including myself – a mish-mash of creative outlooks upon the city we call home.

I see you also operate commercially – in what way does your personal work differ from that which others commission from you?

Short answer, it doesn’t… Long answer, I always shoot what I love. The minute I stop doing that means it’s time to put the camera away. It doesn’t matter if it’s personal work, weddings or commercial imagery. That’s why I believe in displaying my fine art & travel photography alongside my wedding portfolio. The same subtleties in meaning and passion for colour are apparent throughout all of my work. My style is spontaneous, bold, graphic and creative. I believe in capturing those fleeting moments of emotion, expression, love. I would like to think I specialise in not having a speciality, it keeps me on my toes and hunting for that next great photo.

How do you feel about the exhibition?

First of all the exhibition has been fantastic, it’s given a lot of photographers there first chance at exhibiting work to the public. Plus to see their photos alongside the cities best is truly a great feeling. The work of Joe Stenson, Peter Mitchell and Ricky Adam were the ones that blew me away. It’s incredible to see the sense of variety and intensity in subjects which our home city provides.

Where next for you? Where do you see your work going next – or any further exhibitions planned?

I’m always on the look out for further exhibitions, but at the moment my work is finding its place in wedding photography. I specialise in affordable contemporary reportage style wedding photography in Leeds, York and the Yorkshire area. Of course my fine art and travel photography doesn’t take a back seat. It’s riding up front with the rest of the gang, that’s me, my camera and my love for the moment.

You can find Ryan’s work in Leeds Gallery, alongside the other photographers, until May 16th. Please also view his extended online portfolio of Leeds images. To contact Ryan, visit his website.

Team Snap Shot Leeds – the ‘beginners’ – set off in a clockwise direction from the Corn Exchange – heading towards the station, City Square and Town Hall and the Exposure Leeds crew – the ‘experts’ – set off toward the Parish Church and Bus Station.

We gave all the photographers a deadline to return their photos, before we then pass them over to the public to review and let us know which you think is best.

So… go have a look, choose which set of images you like the best and vote – then we’ll know who was best on the day!

• View the video from TEAM 1
• View the video from TEAM 2

The Poll is now closed and we can reveal the results as…

• Team 1 – the ‘experts’ – 45%
  In order of appearance:
• Marcin Musiol
• Lloyd Spencer
• Jitesh Mistry
• Jon Eland
• Debi Holbrook
• Anzir Boodoo
• Lucinda Dransfield
• Mark Jaffe
• Team 2 – the ‘novices’ – 55%
  In order of appearance:
• Steve Watts
• Claire Rose
• Adam Bailey Cooke
• Neil Brennan
• Georgia Halston
• Jennifer Scott
• Mick Neville
• Pablo Fernández
• Sharon Dale
• Thomas Joslin-Tan

A big thanks to the musicians – Himself and Serious Sam Barrett for letting us use their music.

These images are from my series-in-progress, Economalypse, which explores the human-marked landscape of the Las Vegas metro area in the wake of the Economic Apocalypse (hence, econom-alypse) that began in 2008. The US housing “bubble” burst, and with it the wider US, and world, economy; Las Vegas, Nevada — that capital city of hedonism and escapist pleasure — was among the hardest-hit places in the United States. The collapsed economy decimated its tourist industry, and its job and housing markets tanked as a result. Once the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the US, Las Vegas has since the collapse led the nation in “underwater” mortgages and foreclosures. I’m hoping to return to photograph further, and perhaps include other cities in Las Vegas and the American southwest.

Economalypse is really an extension of the work I have done for the past several years — focused on the landscape as it has been shaped by the presence of human-kind. I am fascinated with suburbia, for instance (where I live), and its über-groomed, manicured perfection — a manifestation, like much of the “built” landscape, of the compelling human need to leave one’s mark on one’s own little patch of space, however grand or humble it might be. I took a closer look at suburbia and exurbia in my project 52 Miles, which explores many of the same themes as found along the 52-mile route of my daily commute to and from my day job as a physician.

I welcome inquiries and look forward to sharing work and insights with our comrades in Leeds.

All images ©Mike Sebastian. All Rights Reserved __________________________________ View full screen! ^^

You can find more of Mike’s work on his website and flickr photosteam.

Here’s the email Kathy wrote:

Hi Jon,

Here are 20 photos, taken around Louisville. I pretty much just chose my favorites from the last 8 months. I’m not sure if these are what you were looking for, but here goes.

I am a For-Fun photographer and can find things that interest me visually just about anywhere. I just like the whole process of photography. It gets you to see things from another perspective. Most of these photos were taken during some sort of photowalk with other people: the one set up by Jon in September, the Worldwide Scott Kelby Walk, weekend planned walks with one or two other local photographers. It’s one of my favorite hobbies, and a cost-friendly one, at that (you know… once you have the camera). The two locations in most of the photos I have included are Downtown Louisville and the Blackacre Nature Preserve (www.blackacreconservancy.org/).

My favorite subjects are pretty much anything that isn’t a person. I particularly love macros and close-ups of nature-stuff, plants and flora. I also favor sunsets, graffiti, clouds/skies, and anywhere that is abandoned.

Since taking up photography as a semi-serious hobby, I’ve been happy to organize and participate in photowalks. They are not only a great place to socialize with all types of people, but it’s a wonderful, free, learning tool!

I guess that’s it

Kathy Van Ryzin

All images ©Kathy Van Ryzin. All Rights Reserved __________________________________ View full screen! ^^

You can see more of her images and contact Kathy on Flickr.