Daniel Blau is pleased to announce the five winners of the gallery’s first annual Young Photographers’ Competition: Marianne Bjørnmyr, Madoka Furuhashi, Andi Schmied, Tereza Cervenova and Lara Morrell. We are delighted to present a selection of work by these five talented photographers in a group exhibition here in London this July.

Marianne Bjørnmyr - The project Shadows/Echoes II presents a culmination of perceived ideas, a myriad of stories and myths, where the authors of the material have become blurred. Photographs have been collected and archived in an attempt to get closer to a system of belief in Iceland, where the existence of elves and fairies are most certainly not considered marginal; photographs depicting Icelandic clairvoyants attempt to photograph what we cannot see with our bare eyes. Without any valid proof of the ‘Hidden’ world, the gathered material operates as a link between the existing reality and the possibility of another, bringing the familiar into doubt. Marianne Bjørnmyr is a Norwegian artist, living and working in London. She received her MA in Photography from London College of Communications in 2012 and her work has been exhibited internationally. Her photographic practice is concerned with culture intertwined with landscape; myth with story; and belief with desire.

Madoka Furuhashi - In the series of works entitled Inventory of 140 Old Ford Road, objects found in Furuhashi’s home in Bethnal Green, London are set into displays reminiscent of museum or gallery exhibitions. The photographer takes inspiration from Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Readymades’, and explores the ways in which apparently redundant everyday objects can be reenvisioned as valuable, meaningful and significant. This body of work is presented alongside a further series of conceptual photographs entitled Condition Report. Madoka Furuhashi is a Japanese artist, completing a MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art. Having studied architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture previously, Furuhashi’s pursuits in contemporary art stemmed from a desire to articulate the sense of places through formal interpretation. Furuhashi’s art practice investigates forms of exhibitions, displays and other ways of instituting ‘arts’ by generating their significance.

Andi Schmied - Tel Aviv at its beginning, just over a hundred years ago, was inhabited by early settlers and later a massive inflow of people – both young and old – mainly from Europe and the Middle East. Those young people are now the oldest part of the population and only 10% of them were born there. They speak the common language – Hebrew – with different accents and it’s still a deep part of their identity that although they are all Israelis, actually they are partly-German, partly-Yemeni, partly-Slovak or partly-Hungarian. In her Tel Aviv Grannies series, Andi Schmied documents the everyday lives of this elderly segment of Israeli society. Schmied walked the streets, visited the beaches, joined them in their play and sports activities, their private pilates classes and opera nights out to capture them on film. Andi Schmied is a Hungarian artist, having studied in diverse cities such as Budapest, Tel Aviv and London. Schmied is currently living and working in London. Throughout her artistic practice, her main interest has been the psychological landscape of the urban reality from a human and architectural point of view.

Tereza Cervenova - In her series Identity, Tereza Cervenova creates an expansive self-portrait through her depictions of other people. By photographing young women, she explores the ways in which her earlier experiences as a model have influenced her life and sense of identity. The photographer works with natural light and employs analogue shooting and printing processes in order to create intimate portrayals of female friends, relatives and acquaintances. Tereza Cervenova is a Slovakian photographer, currently undertaking a BA in Photography at Middlesex University.

Lara Morrell - The name of the project, Christ Stopped at Novoli is a play on the title of a memoir by Carlo Levi, Christ stopped at Eboli in which he gives an account of his political exile from Mussolini’s regime in remote towns in southern Italy. Choosing the group of apostles to question various issues surrounding Catholicism throughout history, Morrell incorporates the ancient Italian technique of Carta Pesta, which involves creating a wire skeleton and moulding a form using hay and string which is then covered with clay, sculpted, painted and adorned. In her photographs she chooses the saints’ methods of martyrdom as their main attribute, stripping them of decoration. The composition is inspired by Italian Renaissance painting and the lighting by Caravaggio’s use of chiaroscuro. Lara Morrell is a British artist, completing a MA in Photography at Central Saint Martins (CSM). Born and raised in London, Morrell studied and worked in Turin before returning to her hometown. Morrell has been published in the British Journal of Photography and was recently awarded the Cass Art Prize for her piece at the CSM degree show.