My project this year is about the exploration of my personal experience as a black British woman and growing up in the UK with West African parents. I delve into how the lack of representation of black women in the media and many other things has affected the way I view myself and others. I have been very inspired by the works of the Black Arts Movement in the 1980’s and how they used art as a collective to show what it is like to be black and British. I also look into feelings of not knowing where I belong as I grew up and I’ve been looking at how westernised beauty standards have affected my relationship with my own hair from an age as young as 5 years old. I have decided to use a long exposure photography technique called light painting to illustrate this. I have used light

painting methods and new tools such as fibre optic brushes that illuminate and colour my facial features for my work, and plan to develop this skill further. This technique is inspired by the German light painter, Gunnar Heilemann.