Six exciting new photographic careers launched at Ffocws
Friday 30 May - Saturday 12 July 2025
Public Preview: Thursday 29 May, 6pm - 8pm (Free - All welcome)
Exhibition Continues: Friday 30 May - Saturday 12 July 2025
Wednesday - Saturday, 12pm - 5pm
Launched in 2022, Ffocws is Ffotogallery’s annual development programme for graduates and emerging artists, consisting of mentoring and presentation of work. Liam Anthony, Lucy Beckett, Llŷr Evans, Taiye Omokore, Alina Potapenko and Madiha Malik have been selected for this opportunity this year, and will present their work at Ffotogallery in a new exhibition opening with a public preview 6pm, 29 May 2025.
Ffocws is part of Ffotogallery’s mission to support early-career visual artists in Wales, for those who have been through formal education, and those who have had other paths into photography. Artists have been selected following an open call that invited recent graduates and emerging artists who have been through other forms of education, as well as nominations from various course leaders in Photography across Wales. Ffocws 2025 is generously supported by the Darkley Trust and the Oakdale Trust.
Siân Addicott, Director at Ffotogallery, said: “We’re thrilled to be showcasing this exceptional collection of emerging photographers at Ffotogallery. The diversity of themes, techniques, and unique artistic voices reflects the rich creativity in photographic talent flourishing across Wales. Now in its third edition, Ffocws will offer vital, tailored career support and networking opportunities to help these artists navigate the crucial early stages of their professional journeys.”
Images © The Artists - Left > Right, Top: Madiha Malik, Llŷr Evans, Liam Anthony. Bottom: Taiye Omokore, Alina Potapenko, Lucy Beckett
Liam Anthony creates a series of photographs and archival material. This Is Not Your Home is a personal project that provides us with the complexity of trauma and the nature of grief. This body of work, following a family bereavement that resulted in the loss of the primary home, introduces you to the precarious socio-political climate of today. It aims to present the feelings associated with death and loss and invites the viewer to consider their own experience.
Lucy Beckett’s Essence/Substance works set out to convey how it feels to be within the body, like a metronome swinging between subjectivity and objectivity, between internal feelings and external representations and otherness. Lucy deconstructs the medium of photography to reveal these paradox of the interior and exterior ‘selves’ as both familiar and unfamiliar, presenting fragments from a whole.
Sharing works from his My Story in Red series, photographer and editor of Klat Magazine, Taiye Omokore brings a narrative that shares his Nigerian heritage and life in Wales. Welsh, Black individuals clothed in iconic Nigerian cultural symbols, such as gele and filá, shot in St. Fagans Museum of Welsh Life shows how belonging isn’t static; it evolves with every story shared, every connection made.
Exploring the overlooked and the forgotten — small places, silent details, and moments suspended between presence and absence are the touchstones of Alina Potapenko’s practice. Walking long distances through unfamiliar surroundings, she enters a dissociative, meditative state, dissolving into the world, led by an ambiguous curiosity, toward textures, traces, and remnants of life. The images (principally shot in film) invite viewers to wander, to notice, and to feel the quiet, alien beauty in things that seem insignificant at first glance.
Llŷr Evans explores the intersections of history, storytelling, and identity, examining how they connect with broader cultural and emotional landscapes. In his current work, he combines research, lens-based media, and sound to interrogate the emotional and cultural dissonance that arises when familiar actions or rituals are reframed, and crucially, the tension between expectation and reality, whether in personal relationships, cultural rituals, or systems of value.
As a photographer and visual artist, Madiha Malik’s work bridges the worlds of visual storytelling and cultural introspection, connecting people across cultures, traditions and heritage. Focusing on the intersections of identity, community, and humanity, she highlights the lives of marginalised groups, everyday resilience, and the moments of shared humanity, approaching subjects with respect, ensuring that their voices are integral to the narratives shared.
For all enquiries, please contact : bob@ffotogallery.org
