Bangor & North Down Camera Club welcomed Aneesa on Friday 10th March to give her presentation. Gerry introduced Aneesa and explained that she had gone for her Associateship with BIPP (British Institute of professional photography) which she got and then she was immediately reassessed for Fellowship, which she also got. To pass both in quick succession is quite an achievement.
Aneesa introduced herself as a mixed heritage from South London. Her photography journey has directed her towards portraits, and she would describe herself as a social documentary photographer. Before Aneesa shared the first image in her talk, she explained how protective she was of the people she photographed in her panel and of their stories. Her panel of images was aimed at connecting us all through humanity. Her main goal was to reach out to the children, so she managed to get funding from the arts council which enabled exhibitions and workshops to be held for the children in her local area.
Aneesa’s images touched on themes of mental health, their identity and social issues of how and where “we fit in’’ to every aspect of life. Through her photography she wanted to show her audience how to fight when nothing else was going in their favour by promoting positivity. Bridging gaps in the community was also important to her as images can do that. Aneesa’s panel of images was based around Muay Thai, which is a traditional form of martial arts which concentrates on discipline and strength and endurance which can help build confidence within yourself.
As Aneesa went through her collection of images, she told us how she had built up a rapport with each of them and how they had trusted her enough to share their own personal story with her and how they had overcome or were learning to deal with their trauma and difficulties through this sport.
By putting together her panel of black and white images of the fighters, Aneesa hopes that people can see the exterior and obvious fighting connection between them all, yet hiding a different fighting connection between them all that is invisible to the eye.
BNDCC would like to thank Aneesa for her time and her illuminating talk and wish her every success in her photographic future.
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