Geneviève Bland is a third-year student of Creative Media combined with Journalism. Her creativity and uniqueness are at the heart of all her work and her time at university has allowed her to develop key skills such as time management, software proficiency and communication. Now concluding her studies, she feels enthusiastic about pursuing her master’s degree in journalism. With a passion for photography, this degree allowed her to explore broad themes through the variety of briefs she has fulfilled. She has also had the enthusiasm and dedication to drive herself in learning the skills of graphic design, garnering much knowledge on the subject to now work efficiently in producing graphic content for a range of briefs.
Social codes, or in other words social expectations based on pre-conception, are omnipresent in our society. Gender expectations for example is something taught through early socialisation, the teaching of social norms. However, the impacts these social codes have on individuals, whether its gender pay gap or unequal divides of domestic chores for example, are immense. Recently, society is starting to raise awareness. The core of this issue is in our individual capacity to recognise our own prejudices.
These pictures, part of an ongoing project, are meant to do just that; challenge the viewer’s pre-conceptions by creating a discord between the written words/message and the subject’s actions.
Part of the Sony Awards 2020 challenge “Building a better future”, this project aimed to showcase what would help to make a positive change in the world. Displayed here is the ‘Feminist Library’, situated in the heart of Peckham, London, one of few in UK but their archiving and activist work dates to 1975. In these bookshelves you will find a large collection of Women’s Liberation Movement literature, masterpiece’s written by women or essay’s surrounding the issues of feminism. A center for eclectic knowledge on all that is womankind. It’s also a celebration of female entrepreneurship in a world built for male dominance, a bookshop that stands for empowerment.
Challenging our reality is the motivation behind this selection of images, shot on an analogue camera with an emphasis on a sense of oddness and eeriness. Photography can be used to interrogate our reality, seeking beyond convention and challenging what our eyes are used to seeing. Revealing the unsuspected, impromptu moments of life.