Jerome Ming, MFA'2014 wins First Book Award

Winner: Oobanken by Jerome Ming

(re-post from www.firstbookaward.com)

Combining fragments of personal history, of memory and imagination, Oobanken builds photographic narratives through constructions and performances. The spaces created are different in character from their wider surroundings, as if confined in an enclave or compound, revealing an attentiveness to what lies beyond the threshold of this self-imposed isolation. Made while living in Yangon, Myanmar, this series derives from Jerome Ming’s early interest in built structures and interventions. While Oobanken may direct us to inquire about the function of objects and the actions presented, Ming’s photographs also mirror the context in which they are made: that is, during a time of transition, in a place once isolated, a place once suspended in time.

Jerome Ming is an artist and works primarily with photography. While studying Fine Art at Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham, Ming utilised photography in his installation and performative work. He later joined the photojournalism program at the London College of Printing and subsequently was based in Asia for about 19 years as both photographer and artist. Ming received an MFA in Photography from the Hartford School of Art in 2014. He currently lives in Pretoria, South Africa.

The First Book Award 2019 is published with support from Wilson Centre for Photography and Kraszna-Krausz Foundation.