Alina, making work for the Deaf Power zine (2025)

I work with individuals and communities to create images and stories that reflect lived experience, challenge misrepresentation, and support collective expression. Rather than approaching photography as a process of observation alone, I treat it as a shared practice built on trust, dialogue, and care, all the while recognising and challenging the power dynamics inherent in image making.

My work often takes place in non-traditional settings, such as on housing estates, in public spaces like shopping precincts, and in community venues, making photography accessible to people who may not typically engage with arts projects. Alongside making images, I facilitate workshops, conversations, and collaborative storytelling, using photography as a tool for connection, reflection, and advocacy.

For funders and partners, this approach offers meaningful engagement, strong public outcomes, and work that is rooted in real relationships rather than extractive storytelling. The resulting images and stories are not only visually compelling but socially grounded, contributing to exhibitions, publications, and archives that reflect communities with honesty and dignity.

How my practice has evolved

Today, my practice sits at the intersection of photography and community development. I use photographic processes to work within community settings, supporting collective reflection and self-representation. The resulting images are important, but the process of making them - listening, collaborating, and creating together - is central.

This approach to socially engaged photography has developed over many years. In the early 2000s I studied politics and international development. I developed a commitment to social justice and ethical engagement, in particular concerning the importance of working with and alongside communities rather than speaking on their behalf. My experience in community development has included work in Kenya, Ethiopia and Cameroon as well as with the Refugee Council and other organisations in the UK. Alongside this development work my photography practice was emerging, underpinned by a love of making images with people.

I completed an MA in Documentary Photography in 2024 and this really brought these strands of work together. I came to see photography as a powerful tool for opening conversations, building confidence, and enabling people to articulate their own stories, concerns, and hopes for the future.

fILMfAM members prepare for our Dec ‘25 showcase exhibition

Discussions on a shoot, Sent North (2023)

Sammy, assisted self portrait for Free, Not Free (2023)

Current Projects

People of Gleadless
People of Gleadless is an ongoing portrait series exploring the individuals and relationships that make up this distinctive part of Sheffield. Developed through informal encounters and sustained engagement, the project celebrates everyday life while challenging reductive narratives often associated with the area. The work foregrounds dignity, presence, and individuality, creating a growing visual record rooted in everyday life.

Voz Theatre / Deaf Power
Deaf Power is an ongoing, collaborative zine-making project developed with my colleague at Voz, Jessica Matthews, alongside members of the d/Deaf community in Sheffield. Using photography, illustration and collage, the project explores d/Deaf identities and ways of life, including issues around structural inequalities and agency. Co-produced with participants, the zine making process supports self-representation while building creative confidence and shared authorship. This project is not currently online.

fILMfAM CIC
I am a co-director of fILMfAM CIC, a community photography and film organisation based on the Gleadless Valley Estate in Sheffield. The group meets weekly to explore visual storytelling, produce photo stories and short films, and use creative practice as a form of advocacy. Recent highlights include a community-led film focused on youth voice and a series of pop-up exhibitions staged in disused local shops, bringing work directly into public space.

Emerging Work: Reborn Dolls, Grief, and Family
Alongside my community-based practice, I am also developing an emerging body of work exploring reborn dolls as objects connected to grief, care, and family relationships. This research-led project examines how people use material culture to process loss and emotional absence, expanding my practice into more intimate territory while remaining grounded in lived experience.

Recent work

Vibrant Voices (2025)
Vibrant Voices is a collaborative photography project developed with members of Sheffield One World Choir, a choir for refugees and people seeking asylum. The project uses portraiture and verbatim reflections to explore identity, belonging, and collective voice, reflecting the role of creativity and music in building community and connection.

Free, Not Free (2023)
Free, Not Free is a collaborative portrait and verbatim text series exploring the lived experiences of queer people seeking asylum in Sheffield and Doncaster. Developed in close partnership with participants, the project foregrounds personal testimony and agency, allowing individuals to shape how their stories are told. The work examines themes of freedom, displacement, identity, and resilience, while drawing attention to the structural conditions affecting queer asylum-seeking communities in the UK.

Sent North (2023)
Sent North is a workshop and book-making project supporting eight young Afghan boys living in a bridging hotel in Doncaster. The project created a temporary space for creative expression and social connection, offering relief from the uncertainty and suspension of everyday life while participants’ futures remained on hold.