Photography pHD at Maidstone University College for the Creative Arts

Press Release:

Eva Kalpadaki and Nigel Green have become the first PhD students to graduate from the University College for the Creative Arts at Maidstone.

Coincidentally both Eva and Nigel were working with different aspects of photographic abstraction at the University College's Maidstone campus, which is home to a specialist Photo-Video Research Cluster.

Eva Kalpadaki, 33, is originally from Crete but now lives in Maidstone, Kent. Eva was awarded a Greek State Foundation scholarship to undertake her PhD research in the UK and also holds Diplomas in Physics from the University of Patras and a Diploma in Photography from TEI of Athens.

Eva's research project explored the relationship between photography, abstraction and psychoanalytic theory. Her exhibition at Maidstone's George Rodger Gallery included a number of large trompe-l'oeil prints of empty wall surfaces traversed by cracks and fissures and marked by small interventions by the artist.

Eva said: "As an artist photographer I love flirting with reality, which is always a challenge for me. I am currently interested in the notion of abstraction in photography and how space can be represented in such a way that it can evoke a relationship to the inner world and a transition from the unconscious to conscious reality."

Eva has exhibited in a number of group and solo shows and both her written and practical work has recently been published in the inaugural issue of Spaces - the new on-line research journal published by the prestigious institution of Teachers College, University of Columbia New York.

Nigel Green lives and works in Pett Level, East Sussex. Following and MA in Fine Art at the University of Brighton, Nigel's PhD research is based on the relationship between modernist architectural space and its photographic representation.

The resulting large colour images – one twelve foot long – were the outcome of a subtle process of reprocessing, scanning and printing fragments of images from early colour photographs of modernist architecture.

Nigel's photographic work has been published and exhibited widely. In 2003 he was commissioned to document the power station complex at Dungeness in Kent. The book which accompanied the project was short listed for the 2004 Arles Festival book Awards.

In February a selection of Nigel's Dungeness photographs were shown in The Nuclear Dilemma at the International Red Cross museum in Geneva. In October a body of Nigel's photographs documenting reconstruction architecture in the region of Picardy, France, will also be shown at the Phoenix Gallery for the Brighton Photo Biennial.

Joanna Lowry of the Photo Video Research Cluster at the University College Maidstone said: "We are thrilled to have two such renowned and accomplished practitioners complete their PhD research at Maidstone. A first for the University College, this highlights our thriving and growing research culture."

Click here for more information on photography courses at Maidstone University.