Sam Pierce, Born 2005, Shropshire, UK​

I am a photographic artist and a recent first-class photography graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University. I have been making photographs since the age of 14.

During the 2020 pandemic, I began photographing the local area I was confined to, an environment I initially perceived as mundane, overfamiliar, and lacking in subject. At the time, I resisted its banality. However, this period became formative in shaping my practice.

I now work to challenge these early perceptions of the everyday, reimagining familiar environments both for myself and for others. My practice is driven by an interest in what William Eggleston described as ‘shooting democratically’, treating all subjects with equal attention and potential. I am particularly drawn to overlooked details, finding significance in them wherever I go.

I am interested in working across a range of environments, whether on the street or in more natural landscapes. Wherever I work, I aim to reveal and reframe overlooked qualities within place, drawing out human and emotive traces that may not be immediately visible. In doing so, I am interested in re-presenting the world in a way that encourages viewers to reconsider what they might otherwise overlook, and to recognise a sense of value or beauty within it.

Alongside this, I have a strong interest in publishing and storytelling through images. I am interested in how meaning shifts when photographs are sequenced, and how a single image can communicate one idea, but take on new readings when placed in dialogue with others. Project-making and book-making are therefore a key part of my practice, particularly in how they allow photographic work to develop narrative, rhythm, and reinterpretation.

My ethos can also be distilled into a desire to simply make work that I enjoy making and looking at. I am particularly interested in when those images are also enjoyed and shared by others.