These 20 images form my Fellowship panel for the Royal Photographic Society. Statement of Intent : In 2011 I was commissioned by my Uncle to illustrate his latest book of poetry and prose entitled 'Star Blossom'. The project was to become a completely new way of working for me, for instead of going to a specific location and taking my photographic inspiration from what I saw before me, I was reading his words and creating photo illustrations from the emotions that were conjured up in my mind and heart by his writing. His theme of ‘space as a metaphor for distance, no connection, pain and loss’ runs throughout the book, and in some cases my photographs are a quite literal interpretation of his words, yet in others far more subtle and less obvious, arising from the feelings that I experienced, that were very personal to me. I am presenting my panel with separate brief extracts from each poem or piece of prose that I have used. A more detailed article on my Fellowship can be seen on my blog: http://www.vivecakohphotography.co.uk/2014/08/19/article-frps-panel-digit-magazine-2014/

These 15 images form my Associateship panel for the Royal Photographic Society. For blog post see http://www.vivecakohphotography.co.uk/2011/06/15/my-arps-panel-left-behind/ These fifteen photographs are also available for purchase in my Blurb published book: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2492886?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget Statement of Intent : "Left Behind" Abandoned buildings and the objects within them are the most fascinating of photographic subjects, one that will always engage my attention and utmost respect as a photographer. When the people leave a building for the last time, what remains of their possessions is poignant and at the same time heart-breaking. Mundane everyday items still imprinted with the memory of their old owners - Bond Street shoes for a tiny feminine foot, bottles of pills well past their "use by" date, a typewriter on which someone may have written their magnum opus, even the casualties of abandonment such as the butterfly that flew in unawares to become forever trapped in thick spider-webs - and always, everywhere, so many varieties of chairs. These treasures left behind deserve to be photographed as still life portraits, and turned into modern works of art that are altogether more sublime, because for me, there really is beauty in decay.

My successful Licentiateship panel submitted to The Royal Photographic Society, charting birth to death in an asylum. Most of these photographs were shot at West Park Asylum, but a couple are Hellingly Asylum. These photographs are also available in the printed book 'Lost Asylum Sonnets', a poetic collaboration with Catherine Lupton. See the 'Links & Books' page of this site for more details. Blog post on the book: http://www.vivecakohphotography.co.uk/2010/12/lost-asylum-sonnets/

‘The Past is a Foreign Country: they do things differently there.’ L.P. Hartley    Once upon a time we would send postcards home from our travels, but in the era of social media and instant gratification this is a neglected pursuit, consigned to the past. Vintage postcards hold a special fascination for me – I adore the old-fashioned, inky handwriting, the exquisitely designed stamps and simple postmarks, but also that deep sense of history and perhaps a certain nostalgia for simpler times.  Derelict buildings keep a similar place in my heart, for their air of melancholy, transience and ghosts from a bygone era, residing in every crumbling corner.  In amalgamating the two, overlaid with decrepit and decaying textures photographed in these locations, my aim is to create a visual interpretation of ‘past as a foreign country’ - postcard correspondence from the last century, and unloved, abandoned places containing echoes of different lives.