‘The Coming Soon Land’: Introducing Amber Brown’s Photography

Each year, the Global Justice Academy runs a photography competition as part of Edinburgh College of Art’s MA Photography degree programme. The 2018 competition was run in conjunction with the ERC Greyzone Project and its Summer School, ‘Navigating the Grey Zone: Complicity, Resistance, and Solidarity’. This post is the first in a short series of three, where we introduce this year’s winners, their images, and the stories behind their submissions

Single Image Winner: Amber Brown, ‘The Coming Soon Land’.

Q: What inspired your competition entry?

My concept of ‘The Coming Soon Land’ sprouted from the emotional disarray I found in observing a town undergoing change within development. Whilst the project grows from a frustration, the landscapes are in some sort of structural purgatory which I find aesthetically interesting, a grey zone that is not quite one nor the other, plans proposed but stuck in quicksand amidst a crisis concerning social and urban justice. Solidarity in this, comes from an accumulation of observed opinions which have been illustrated through my imagery. It feels a complex situation, one that is constantly progressing.

About Amber

Amber Brown is an aspiring photographer studying at Edinburgh College of Art. She was born in Northumberland in 1997, and as a result of this, most of her degree work concerns the notion of home in various aspects over a social, political and personal promise whilst she continues to learn and explore traditional analogue processes. Prior to ‘The Coming Soon Land’, previous projects have also concerned the fishing industry, journeys through sea and Northumberland’s textile industry.

Amber has completed an internship as a gallery assistant in ‘The Bakehouse Gallery’, Northumberland, volunteered for John Akomfrah’s ‘Vertigo Sea’ at the Talbot Rice Gallery and is now a digitisation volunteer at the Side Gallery, Newcastle over the summer. Amber has taken a strong interest in events organisation and exhibition curating during her degree so far and subsequently hopes to further her studies with a Masters in art practice or curating, whilst continuing to create work about her social environment.

Click here to view Amber’s winning photos on the Global Justice Academy Flickr account.