̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - photography

Gone to the dogs

zs332 — Mon, 24 May 2021 23:00:00 +0000

A story of finding unexpected companionship at the site of the worst nuclear accident in history, Chernobyl.

Britain from the Air: 1945-2009

sjr81 — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 17:25:21 +0000

Aerial photographs of Britain from the 1940s to 2009 – dubbed the ‘historical Google Earth’ – have been made freely available online.

‘Photographing Tutankhamun’ exhibition reveals historical context behind pioneering images

sjr81 — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 08:30:06 +0000

̽��ֱ��exhibition Photographing Tutankhamun has been curated by ̽��ֱ�� of East Anglia (UEA) Egyptologist Dr Christina Riggs and gives a different view on the ‘golden age’ of archaeology and photography in the Middle East.

̽��ֱ��exhibition highlights the work of famous Egyptologist and archaeological photographer Harry Burton and the iconic images he captured during the lengthy excavation of the Pharoah’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Dr Riggs is the first person to study the entire archive of excavation photographs, as well as the first to consider them from the viewpoint of photographic history in the Middle East.

She said: “ ̽��ֱ��exhibition gives a fresh take on one of the most famous archaeology discoveries from the last 100 years. It questions the influence photography has on our perception and provides insight on the historical context of the discovery – a time when archaeology liked to present itself as a science that only Europeans and Americans could do.

“Through the eyes of the camera lens, the exhibition demonstrates the huge input from the Egyptian government and the hundreds of Egyptians working alongside the likes of Harry Burton and Howard Carter. This refreshing approach helps us understand what Tutankhamun meant to Egyptians in the 1920s – and poses the important question of what science looks like and who does it.”

As part of her project, Dr Riggs studied some 1,400 photographs by Burton in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Burton worked for the museum for most of his life, and his personal correspondence in their archives has offered important new insights into his work on the tomb of Tutankhamun – including some of the technical problems, personal tensions, and political issues behind the scenes.

Dr Chris Wingfield, Senior Curator (Archaeology) at MAA, said: "With strong collections of historic photographs documenting the history of archaeology and anthropology, we at MAA are excited about hosting an exhibition that explores the important ways in which photography contributed to – you could even say created – the field. We continue to train Egyptologists and archaeologists here in Cambridge, so this exhibition is an opportunity to think about how these disciplines were practised in the past, and to help shape their futures."

More than two dozen images have been created especially for the exhibition using digital scans from Burton’s original glass-plate negatives, including some never seen before. Also on display are newspaper and publicity materials from the 1920s and beyond, which show how the photographs were used in print. ̽��ֱ��scans have been made by ̽��ֱ��Griffith Institute at the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford, which is home to excavator Howard Carter’s own records of the excavation, including around 1,800 negatives and a set of photo albums.

̽��ֱ��exhibition comes to Cambridge from ̽��ֱ��Collection in Lincoln, where it debuted in November 2017. It runs from June 14-September 23, 2018. Entry is free.

Iconic photography taken during the decade-long excavation of King Tutankhamun’s tomb has gone on display at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA).

̽��ֱ��exhibition gives a fresh take on one of the most famous archaeology discoveries from the last 100 years.

Christina Riggs

Credit: Copyright ̽��ֱ��Griffith Institute, ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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̽��ֱ��Longing of Belonging: African photography on show at MAA

sjr81 — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 10:53:05 +0000

Kholwa: ̽��ֱ��Longing of Belonging showcases the work of South African photographer Sabelo Mlangeni who dreamt up the exhibition during conversations with Joel Cabrita, a researcher from Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity, who is researching the history of Zionism in South Africa. ‘Kholwa’ means ‘belief’ in isiZulu, one of the most widely spoken languages in South Africa.

Approximately 30 per cent of all South Africans are members of a Zionist church. Zionism (unrelated to Jewish Zionism) is the country’s largest popular religious movement but began life as a 20th century Protestant faith healing movement, originating in the small town of Zion (pop. 24,000), Illinois, in the largely white Midwest of the USA.

Cabrita’s work charts the dramatic shift and 20th century expansion of Christianity and seeks to explain how Zionism travelled across the Atlantic Ocean and became one of the most important influences in black communities more than 8,000 miles away. With approximately 15 million members, it is the largest Christian group in the region.

Mlangeni is a member of the Zionist church and his grounding in the religion can be traced in the intimate and person portraits of church members going on display in Cambridge. He and Cabrita are interested in examining what is at stake when a photographer turns his camera on a religious community they are part of.

Mlangeni said: “ ̽��ֱ��biggest question for me is being part of the community, part of the church. How can I point out other people as being ‘amakholwa’ (‘the believers’) when that is what I myself am? This is a body of work that doesn’t ‘look’ at the Zionist church. It is very important for me to emphasise this, I am not interested in exotifying the church.

“I want to look at people gathering beyond church, and the strong spiritual relationships, which also include me. A long time before even studying photography, I made a lot of work about the church and church members. So my camera was in the church for a long time, church people knew me with a camera. When I look at this work, what’s important is the sense of intimacy between me and the church.”

“For me the most important part of meeting with Joel Cabrita is that it brought something new to me, an understanding of where the Zionists came from, what their beginnings were, where the church was really born [in the USA].”

Some of Mlangeni’s images portray the umlindelo amakholwa (the night vigil of believers). This all-night service forms the cornerstone of Zionist worship across South Africa.

̽��ֱ��service consists of long nights of the entire community gathered in longing expectation for the spirit to descend, whether ancestral spirits or the Christian God. Song, prayer, sermons and dance see the believers through the night. Umlindelo amakholwa is the occasion when bonds of solidarity and community are cemented between those who spend the night in expectant waiting. As dawn breaks, the believers make their way home, while some head to a full day of work.

“Zionism was founded in the in the American Midwest in the 1890s and spread to South Africa in 1904 via missionaries and the circulation of faith-healing literature,” said Cabrita. “From the small town of Wakkerstroom, near the village of Driefontein where Sabelo grew up, Zionism spread across the region with migrant labourers returning from Johannesburg’s gold mines. Today, Zionism has adapted to African understandings of the world, with few traces of its North American roots. Southern African Zionists remain committed to the power of prayer to heal bodily illness as their American forebears.”

Working mainly in black and white, Mlangeni’s photographs focus on capturing the intimate, everyday moments of communities in contemporary South Africa. His work includes ‘Big City’ (2002 to 2015) which focuses on Johannesburg’s history, and ‘Country Girls’ (shot between 2003 and 2009), which focuses on gay communities in rural South Africa, especially in the area of Driefontein, his own village in the province of Mpumalanga.

As a childhood friend of many of his subjects, Mlangeni has been able to create photographs from a perspective of unique understanding and membership of the community he is portraying. Throughout his work, Mlangeni avoids ‘othering’ or ‘exoticising’ his subjects, and instead attempts to show the multi-faceted, intimate reality of daily life of these individuals. While many of them face discrimination due to their sexual identities, or are living in precarious socio-economic situations, Mlangeni’s work does not cast his subjects as ‘victims’ but rather portrays their resilience, joyfulness and dignity as ordinary people.

“His photography continually erases and removes the boundaries between observer and subject,” added Cabrita. “Mlangeni is portraying his own belief as much as he is exploring the spiritual commitments of his photographic subjects.

“They chart his own journey towards belong, and longing for belonging within the Zionist community, a journey that has been mediated through a photographer’s lens. While some photographs reveal open, friendly gazes, others confront us with turned backs, inscrutable silhouettes and hidden figures buried deep in pictures, hinting at anonymity, inaccessibility and profound longing.”

Kholwa: ̽��ֱ��Longing of Belonging – which runs from June 13-September 10 – is free to the public. Visit www.maa.cam.ac.uk for further details and opening times.

A photography exhibition capturing the black South African Zionist community – the most popular religious denomination in the country – opens at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) today.

What’s important is the sense of intimacy between me and the church.

Sabelo Mlangeni

One of Sabelo Mlangeni's images going on display at MAA from today

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Museum archive reconnects a London-based Congolese community with its heritage

lw355 — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 09:30:18 +0000

̽��ֱ��community is a London-based group called the Congo Great Lakes Initiative (CGLI). Its members aim to help people with Congolese and African heritage, some of whom are victims of post-conflict trauma, better integrate in the UK.

“One way for building confidence and skills has been to re-connect ourselves and our children to their heritage through museum collections,” says Didier Ibwilakwingi Ekom, Executive Director of CGLI and project coordinator. “It’s helping us to find new ways to tell our stories.”

Reverend Smith’s collection of 242 photographs is held at Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and now forms part of a collection that numbers around 650 images from the Congo Basin, many of them still on their original glass plates. In addition, the Museum has around 1,200 objects from the Congo, just under 400 of them associated with members of the Baptist Missionary Society.

With funding raised from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the CGLI worked with the Museum to unlock new understanding of the images through CGLI members’ unique indigenous insights. Their collective efforts have resulted in an exhibition, 'Carriers of Culture: Women, Food and Power from the Congo Basin', currently at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Hear what matters about the photographs to the community, how the Museum has some brand-new materials, and why every party needs kwanga...

“During the 19th and 20th centuries, Britain was a major supplier of missionaries to Africa and around the world, many of them sending home materials from these early encounters,” explains the Museum's Dr Chris Wingfield. “Missionary collections have been under-researched and overlooked in Britain and yet histories of missionary activity can really matter to people in these now strongly Christian parts of the world. One of our interests has been to understand who cares about this material today, in what ways, and how this can influence the ways we engage with collections.”

̽��ֱ��Great Lakes region of Africa straddles the equator of the continent and in recent decades has suffered interlinked conflicts, famine, violence and refugee-related problems. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone, the war that officially ended in 2003 claimed up to six million lives, displacing over two million people.

“When refugees first arrive, questions of heritage are not necessarily the priority,” adds Wingfield. “But after 10 or 20 years there can be a search for connection and a desire to discover traces of shared histories. This group in particular has been very active in drawing out those aspects of Britain’s history that connect and crossover with the Congo.”

One CGLI member describes what the exhibition has meant to her and her family: “Involvement in political activities led to me fleeing my country. This exhibition has made me really proud that [information] can be passed on from generation to generation. I’ve got my grandson who is five years old and he keeps on asking me questions. He has learned, and in the future he can pass it to his brother, his siblings.”

Wingfield adds: “Re-engaging with the collection, identifying themes and then co-curating the exhibition with the community has been enlightening. This project has partly been about giving children who are growing up in London a link to their Congolese heritage. These kinds of collections are a resource they can draw on. But it’s also given the Museum a sense of the different ways people feel they have an ongoing stake in historic collections.”

Among the collection is a series of photographs showing women making kwanga, a manioc bread. It’s a laborious process. Manioc roots are harvested, then soaked, dried, sieved, boiled, pounded, wrapped, re-steamed and re-dried – the multistep process is needed to rid the starchy vegetable of its cyanide-like poison.

̽��ֱ��community returned again and again to these images, and suggested they form the heart of the exhibition. “We looked at these pictures of women carrying huge baskets of manioc to market and we thought that’s really where the power lies – in those who sustain life,” explains Pamela Campbell, Vice Chair of CGLI. “That’s not to denigrate men. But keeping things going is powerful and that power lies with women.”

Kwanga is still an important part of Congolese life both in the DRC and in the UK. As Ibwilakwingi-Ekom says, “there is no single party where you won’t find kwanga… if there is none there has not been a party.”

Remarkably, women are still processing the vegetable almost the same way, a century on, as shown in contemporary photographs donated to the Museum by the CGLI. One photograph taken in the DRC shows a woman carrying the manioc she’s harvested, the effort etched on her face of hauling the heavy basket. It’s surprisingly similar to photographs taken in the 1890s by Smith; the basket is almost identical to one collected by Baptist Missionaries and given to the Museum in 1910, and which now forms the centrepiece of the exhibition.

For Wingfield and his colleague Dr Johanna Zetterström-Sharp, the project represents a “new path” for working with museum collections. “It’s really important to work with communities like the CGLI because they bring fresh approaches to the curation of objects,” she says. “We often think about our collections in relation to the disciplines that we come from but there are lots of other forms of knowledge and understanding that projects like this bring out, and our perspectives are shifted as a result.”

̽��ֱ��community describes the partnership as one in which universities have the knowledge, but members have the information.

Ackys Kituba, President of the Congolese Community in the UK, adds: “Although we are educated, we are discovering new things about our country. ̽��ֱ��link will be stronger than before. We are learning something as a group but we are doing it for our children.”

Nine-year-old Enoch was born in the UK and travelled to Cambridge with his Congolese family to see the exhibition. Asked what he’d remember most, he says: “How they make kwanga. It was really interesting. It’s helping me find out more about my family. It’s kind of clever… they wouldn’t make it for no reason.”

'Carriers of Culture: Women, Food and Power from the Congo Basin' is at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology until 2 April 2017.

Inset images: photographs from the exhibition (credit: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology).

When Reverend Kenred Smith captured moments of life in the Congo over 120 years ago, he couldn’t have imagined that the photos – now in Cambridge's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology – would be chosen by a Congolese community to help them remember a country that many of them had fled.

We looked at these pictures of women carrying huge baskets of manioc to market and we thought that’s really where the power lies – in those who sustain life.

Pamela Campbell, Vice Chair of CGLI

Josh Murfitt

CGLI members visit the exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Another India exhibition gives voice to India’s most marginalised communities

sjr81 — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 13:59:14 +0000

Putting on display never-before-seen objects from the Museum’s historic collections, as well as stunning, newly-commissioned works from contemporary Adivasi sculptors, Another India tells the stories behind a remarkable collection of artefacts while confronting head-on the role played by Empire and colonialism in the gathering together of this material. ̽��ֱ��exhibition also features 23 works acquired by its curator Mark Elliott, using a New Collecting Award from Art Fund.

“This is an exhibition about the India – or the many Indias – that most people in the UK don’t know,” said Mark Elliott. “It’s about 100 million people of Indigenous or Adivasi backgrounds who are marginalised by majority populations and the state. It’s an exhibition about identity, diversity and belonging; and the role that objects play in creating a sense of who we are.

“These are issues that affect all of us, particularly now when Identity – who we are, where we come from and where we belong – is being fought over here in Britain. Another important story is how these things came to Cambridge in the first place. Many of the artefacts were acquired through colonialism: sometimes fair exchanges, sometimes gifts, sometimes not. This is about legacies of empire for people in the UK and India.”

Among the objects going on display are a head-hunters skull, pieces of the Taj Mahal and a snake-charmer’s flute. Ten new sculptures, specially commissioned by Elliott after working closely with Adivasi and indigenous artists at workshops across India, will also take pride of place in Another India, thanks to the prestigious New Collecting Award from Art Fund. ̽��ֱ��workshops took place from Gujarat in the west to Nagaland, right on the border with Myanmar (Burma) in the North east.

̽��ֱ��sculptures, the largest of which is 13 feet (3.9m) high and the heaviest of which is almost a tonne, have been shipped from the sub-continent and will sit alongside stunning photographic portraits of Indigenous Indians – from the late 19th century to the 21st. ̽��ֱ��most recent works include photos of Naga men in their 80s and 90s proudly displaying their tattooed faces and bodies.

“We are trying to make this less of a show about dead white guys by living white guys,” added Elliott. “We showed artists across India some of our collections and said ‘here’s the stuff we have from your place, what do you think? What would you make now if we asked you?’ ̽��ֱ��whole brief was to produce new works in response to the collections we have.”

Ruby Hembrom, an Adivasi writer and activist, who has worked closely with Elliott and MAA on the planning of the exhibition, said: “Another India is the only India we Adivasis know. Identity is belonging and we belong to this India. We belong to the objects of this India and belong to the feelings they trigger and emotions they evoke. ̽��ֱ��India that ‘others’ use is the one where we are confronting hatred, racism, sexism, exploitation, brutality, dehumanisation and stereotyping in our everyday lives.

“No matter how much we’ve talked of or engaged in social and political change, very little has changed for us. This is not the India our ancestors sacrificed for, or hoped for us, and this is not the one we want for our descendants.”

Among the historic objects going on display at MAA is a coin necklace from the ‘Criminal Tribes’ settlement in Maharashtra which was collected by Maguerite Milward in 1936. Milward went on expedition to make portrait sculptures of Indigenous and Adivasi men and women. ̽��ֱ��necklaces show how Adivasis whose lives were transformed by colonialism, reappropriated and repurposed coins issued by the British Raj as jewellery, signs of wealth and status.

̽��ֱ��head-taker’s skull meanwhile comes from Nagaland and was worn on the chest by a Konyak warrior who had captured an enemy head. ̽��ֱ��monkey skull, with red, white and black hair woven into the crown, was collected by JH Hutton, Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills and later a Professor of Anthropology at Cambridge, who put it in a glass jar and kept it in his office until he retired.

Headhunting was a popular but ambivalent topic of anthropology in the first half of the 20th century. It was an aspect of Naga culture that the British sought to eradicate but found fascinating, and which despite the coming of Christianity, remains a hugely important part of Naga identity today.

“Another India is talking about a very different India to most people’s expectations in Britain and possibly India too,” said Elliott. “We didn’t want to do a show about Bollywood, saris and curry, but instead highlight a massive body of marginalised people – numbering nearly twice the population of the UK – who to a great extent aren’t seen as having culture, heritage and history of their own.”

Many of the objects going on display – whittled down from the 10,000 plus Indian objects in MAA’s collections – are the product of an extraordinary industry of exploration, survey and classification whose advance started with the East India Company and continued under the Crown until independence in 1947.

By the mid-19th century, scholars and administrators were working through masses of linguistic, economic, ethnographic and criminological data to decode the demography of India, defining groups of people as distinctive on the basis of shared language, customs, religious belief and ‘racial’ characteristics.

By the end of that century, such groupings had been consolidated into a fundamental distinction between ‘castes’ and ‘tribes’. Tribes were identified as groups of people who were separated geographically, socially or both from ‘mainstream’ caste society. Often living in more isolated territories away from large population centres such as hill and forest regions. These groups were defined first as being outside the caste system but furthermore as ethnically or culturally distinct, often being described as ‘primitive’.

While the constitution of India identifies these groups as Scheduled Tribes or ‘Tribal’, this term is widely seen as derogatory with connotations of primitivism, backwardness and even savagery. In truth, all the categories are remarkably slippery. Indigenous, Adivasi and Tribal identities are still fiercely contested.

“ ̽��ֱ��objects on display resist pigeonholing, just as people do,” added Elliott. “ ̽��ֱ��identities presented here are ambiguous and contested. But this is not just an historical exhibition, the artefacts and the stories they tell are the stories of communities who are living, struggling and thriving today.

“Putting together this exhibition has brought me and the museum into contact with extraordinary people: scholars, activists and artists and more – from the tribes, groups and communities that we are incredibly proud to represent here in Cambridge.”

Another India is the centrepiece of the ̽��ֱ��’s wider celebrations entitled India Unboxed. To mark the UK-India Year of Culture 2017, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, are hosting a shared season on the theme of India with a programme of exhibitions, events, digital encounters, discussions, installations and more within the museums and the city of Cambridge. Rooted in the Cambridge collections, the programme will explore themes of identity and connectivity for audiences in both the UK and India.

For further information, visit the Another India website.

Hundreds of objects which tell the story of 100 million of India’s most marginalised citizens – its Indigenous and Adivasi people – are to go on display for the first time in a ground-breaking exhibition at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) from today.

We didn’t want to do a show about Bollywood, saris and curry, but instead highlight a massive body of marginalised people.

Mark Elliott

A head-hunter's skull from Nagaland which was worn on the chest of a Konyak warrior who had captured an enemy head.

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Exhibition reunites artworks from Captain Scott’s final expedition – a century on

sjr81 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 08:53:35 +0000

Visions of the Great White South opens at Bonhams in Bond Street on August 2 and uses collections from the fateful Terra Nova expedition, held by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��British Antarctic Expedition, better known by the name of its ship the Terra Nova, took place from 1910-1913. Captain Robert Falcon Scott appointed Dr Edward Wilson, a close friend and a fine watercolourist, as his chief scientist. He also invited camera artist Herbert Ponting to join the expedition as official photographer; a bold move in an era when high quality photography required great skill and careful attention in ordinary circumstances, let alone in the extreme environment of the Antarctic. Both Wilson and Ponting captured expedition life as well as keeping a visual record of scientific phenomena that the crew were studying.

Making use of the Scott Polar Research Institute’s historical collections, the exhibition will also show examples of Captain Scott’s photography from the expedition in a series of beautiful new platinum prints of his work, produced by Belgian photographic publishers Salto Ulbeek in collaboration with the Scott Polar Research Institute. Scott was taught photography by Ponting during the expedition, and, in the images he produced, the influence of both Ponting and Wilson can be discerned in the ways he captured the vast and compelling landscapes of the Antarctic.

Both Ponting and Wilson hoped to hold a joint exhibition. However, the catastrophic loss of the South Pole party including Scott and Wilson made that impossible.

Owing to the death of Dr. Wilson his pictures could never be reproduced for sale, as he had intended. His widow, therefore, considered it better that they should be exhibited separately. ̽��ֱ��whole beautiful series of his water colours was shown at the Alpine Club, whilst my photographs were exhibited at the Fine Art Society's galleries, London.

Herbert Ponting

Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, said: “It is a great privilege to hold the remarkable paintings of Edward Wilson and the striking photography of Herbert Ponting in the Scott Polar Research Institute’s historic collection. By reuniting their work in this special exhibition we are pleased to give the public the opportunity to see their works together and at their best.”

Alongside the historic artworks, visitors will have the opportunity to see contemporary interpretations of the ‘great white south’. For several years the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute, with the support of Bonhams and the Royal Navy, have run an artist-in-residence scheme which sends an artist to the Antarctic on board the icebreaker HMS Protector. Artists including Captain Scott’s grand-daughter Dafila Scott and renowned wildlife artist Darren Rees will exhibit their responses to the frozen wilds of Antarctica.

Robert Brooks, Chairman of Bonhams, said: “It is an honour for Bonhams to exhibit the art of two such extraordinarily talented and brave men and to be able to hang works together publicly for the first time ever. ̽��ֱ��Terra Nova expedition is famous, of course, for the tragic loss of Captain Scott and his companions. But its purpose was primarily scientific and Wilson and Ponting's work reminds us of the pioneering quest for knowledge that underpinned the venture."

̽��ֱ��chairman of the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute, Rear Admiral Nick Lambert, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Friends are extremely grateful for Bonhams’ and the Royal Navy’s ongoing support of the Artist in Residence Programme enabling five artists to experience and record Antarctica’s fabulous environment hosted by HMS Scott and HMS Protector over the past five years. ̽��ֱ��exhibition is a brilliant opportunity to display modern works alongside those of the Terra Nova expedition.”

̽��ֱ��Friends are also pleased to announce that this summer their first Arctic artist-in-residence will be travelling to Svalbard, with the support of One Ocean Expeditions.

A new exhibition has reunited the iconic photography of Herbert Ponting with the watercolours of Edward Wilson – more than a century after the two Antarctic explorers first dreamt up their plan for a joint exhibition.

By reuniting their work in this special exhibition we are pleased to give the public the opportunity to see their works together and at their best.

Julian Dowdeswell

Emperor penguins drawn by Dr Edward Wilson on board the Terra Nova

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Prospective students share their view of Cambridge

ta385 — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 09:00:00 +0000

Every year, CUSU’s Shadowing Scheme offers an inspiring taste of life as a Cambridge student. Over three days, prospective applicants (‘shadows’) attend lectures and supervisions as well as getting involved with the ̽��ֱ��’s vibrant social life.

CUSU received dozens of entries for this year’s competition and after much deliberation its judges have selected the best.

Winning the diary competition, Shabnam Tariq from Thomas Rotherham College in Rotherham, described going on a tour around Cambridge with her student mentor:

“ ̽��ֱ��community was vibrant with people from all sorts of social and cultural backgrounds which I was not expecting.”

Shabnam particularly enjoyed dining in Trinity College:

“ ̽��ֱ��architecture was beautiful and the ceiling was just as stunning. Being an A-level historian, I even spotted a portrait of Henry VIII, which helped me to understand Tudor propaganda even more. Who wouldn't want to stare at a portrait of Henry while enjoying a three-course meal?”

Shabnam also described in lively detail the academic components of her Shadowing Scheme weekend, writing:

“I visited the beautiful Fitzwilliam Museum and then went to a ‘Life as a medical student’ introduction at Addenbrookes Hospital. Everything was very practical. I got the chance to test people's blood pressure and do a cardiac examination which was very fun. We then received a talk from a consultant on medical school admissions. This was very useful because it made me realise that you need more than knowledge to become a doctor…”

Shabnam concluded: “I had an amazing time on the Shadowing Scheme and it has made me want to study medicine at Cambridge even more. I learnt that nobody is arrogant, obnoxious and has 20 A-levels. Well, most people are not! It has also made me realise that you do not need to come from a wealthy family or a private school to study there; if you are dedicated and hardworking, then it can be the place for you. It is now my aspiration and goal to study medicine at Cambridge!”

Runner-up, Dominic Crombie from St Aidan’s Catholic Academy in Sunderland, wrote:

“There are certain things a person can’t do in good conscience anymore after having gone to Cambridge. They can’t be a cynic, seeing all the students will quickly dispel that. They can’t question the value of a university; it’s in every conversation on everything from [Nicki] Minaj to Marlowe. They can’t waste time; there are far too many plays to write and music-related debates to be had for that. And they can’t be satisfied with not knowing things, with not being curious …”

In the Photography category, Silas Hope from Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester (Kent) took first prize with an atmospheric and brilliantly executed shot of St John’s College taken from the Kitchen Bridge.

̽��ֱ��Runners-up were:

Mohammad Haris Fazal from Loxford School of Science and Technology in Ilford (Essex) whose decision to snap the view through the window of his room at Queens' College resulted in a highly original photograph which captured the sense of becoming a Cambridge student for the weekend;

William Keeley from Cronton Sixth Form in Widnes (Cheshire), who presented two photographs, one of Gonville & Caius College, the other of King’s College, to create a striking collage effect.

̽��ֱ��CUSU Shadowing Scheme will return in early 2017.

Around 350 state school Year 12s and mature learners who took part in Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Students’ Union’s (CUSU) student-led Shadowing Scheme were invited to enter a photography and diary competition to share their experiences.

If you are dedicated and hardworking, then it can be the place for you. It is now my aspiration and goal to study medicine at Cambridge!

Shabnam Tariq, student at Thomas Rotherham College in Rotherham

Silas Hope

St John's College from the Kitchen Bridge.

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