Mary Ashokeji Recognised For Her Religious Photography Work

July 12, 2023224 views0

Mary Ashokeji Recognised For Her Religious Photography Work

2023-07-12T10:50:17+01:00

By Marie

Mary Ashokeji, a third-year Ravensbourne University London student in the BA (Hons) Digital Photography course, has received nominations for her religious photography work.The prestigious Sony World Photography Awards student competition called for submissions of five to ten images that delved into the theme of ‘In a Changing World’.In her remarkable entry, Mary leveraged her encounters with worship and skilfully captured a poignant series of images portraying individuals from her church community. These emotive photographs authentically depict the essence of worship and encapsulated the powerful emotions evoked during moments of religious celebrations.In an interview with the media, she had this to say about her inspiration behind the brief, her devotion to religion, and her passion for photography.What motivated your decision to take part in the Sony World Photography competition?I initially enrolled on the BA (Hons) Advertising and Brand Design course at Ravensbourne University London. During my second year on this course, I had a significant realisation. At the time, I was living in London, away from home, and had just been diagnosed with ADHD. Although I initially chose the |Advertising and Brand Design course to pursue art direction, I had been studying and taking photographs since college, and it became clear to me that photography was my true passion and what I wanted to focus on.Every year, students in the digital photography course have the chance to participate in this competition, and I knew this was my opportunity to showcase what religion means to me and how I celebrate religion at my local church.How did you come up with the idea to use religion as the foundation for the competition brief?It took some time for me to develop my idea for the brief. I wanted my work to align thematically with my existing body of work whilst incorporating a personal touch.Being a Christian, worship and the church hold great significance in my life. Drawing inspiration from my past experience with creating social media content for my church, I decided to centre my project on worship and individual expressions of it.Serendipitously, a friend asked me to photograph one of the services a week prior to the competition, which became the catalyst for my idea. After discussing the concept with my course leaders, we refined the specifics, such as the choice of camera and desired angles.The resulting piece is titled ‘Expressions of Worship’. There are many ways that you can express yourself in worship, but I wanted to hone in on the physical expression and to try to reveal its intimacy.ALSO READ: RCCG Organises All Sisters Conference