Lee William Hughes & Jovi Mullen


Lee William Hughes

'The Rural Eye'

As a long term project, The Rural Eye has grown to become a significant photographic archive of rural activity in North Staffordshire and the surrounding areas. Lee's approach to documentary has been entirely sympathetic to his subjects, seeking to show you a culture stoically apart from the mainstream, and yet fundamentally connected to the welfare of a nation reliant on its food producers.


From sleeping in a barn with forty cattle for company, to trudging through deep snow on the high hills of The Peak District, Lee has sought to do justice to the agriculture industry by meetings is people, understanding their ways and motivations, and using those experiences to inform the picture making that can then represent those people as an historical document, in a very traditional style that echo's the documentary makers of the past.

For this exhibition, the focus has been the livestock auctions themselves, a place where commercial necessity comes together with the social requirements of the farming community. According to a major study, forty-eight percent of all attendees at the livestock auctions are there purely to socialize, to keep in touch with friends and remain a part of a culture often fractured by distance and a hard working life. The auctions are at the center of the farming community, as they used to be at the center of every market town and local community in Britain, and now, as many close each year, it is more important than ever to document this moment in time and show what exists right now, so that its value can be appreciated, understood and perhaps preserved with the benefit of greater understanding.

Please follow The Rural Eye archive at its current location online.. flickr.com/photos/theruraleye/sets



website: leewilliamhughes.com
email: leewilliamhughes@gmail.com
facebook: facebook.com/leewilliamhughesdotcom
telephone: 0798 4744 062


Jovi Mullen



The main theme surrounding my work for the degree show is entertainment. I have been fascinated by live, event photography and have been photographing this type of work since a young age. I have decided to research and document a not so typical sector of the entertainment industry which is the sport of boxing.


email: jovimullen@hotmail.com
website: jo-vphotography.com
facebook: facebook.com/jovphotography 
twitter: @jovimullen

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