CSM MA FASHION IMAGE 2025: EXPRESSIONS OF SELF

It makes sense, then, that personal and introspectives themes can be traced from project to project, “How they can use image-making to question, challenge or offer new ways of seeing,” says Adam Murray, Pathway Leader for Fashion Image. “Kaine Harrys examines representation of the Black body within Italian culture, Stella Nunes uses styling to move away from caricatured representations of Latin America, Gabriel Chiu addresses what he sees as the intentional omission of Asian identities in the visual narratives that surrounded him, and Yongjie Hu’s project is essentially one hundred photographs of him and his boyfriend.”

“Although rooted in deeply personal experiences,” Murray adds, “the work is not self indulgent and introspective, audiences will no doubt find entry points they can relate to.”

Kaine Harrys, 28, Italy, photography

“900 (Novecento) is a series of portraits shot in Milan. The series positions the Black body inside the nation’s aesthetic and cultural vocabulary, drawing directly from the language Italy uses to imagine itself. Fashion (all Italian) serves as a context rather than a statement, it is simply the environment the portraits emerge from. I wanted the presence of the sitters to feel completely integrated, not as commentary but as reality. You are seeing an image of Italy that has always been there but never shown. Ultimately, 900 is very personal. The project questions how visibility is constructed and who is permitted to inhabit the national image. It traces the possibilities that arise when a body historically unacknowledged by the cultural frame steps fully into it, making space for a more complex image. My wider practice is concerned with how identity is produced through images. I often work with staged portraiture and fashion as a way to talk about power, visibility and belonging without being purely documentary. It uses the visual language of fashion and portraiture to negotiate presence within a European context that formed me but did not always reflect me. Image-making in 2025 feels defined by speed, circulation and volume. I am interested in slowing things down, in making images that feel considered, that have weight and that do not get swallowed by the pace of everything around them. I intend to keep carrying these questions of presence, and the lack of it, into how I photograph and how I collaborate with the world.”

Jake Leong, 21, UK, 3D art

“My final project explores the idea of reimagining the world around us by creating stories about the people we encounter every day. I am fascinated by the thought that everyone, whether friends or complete strangers, has their own complex life, experiences and choices that brought them to the same moment in time as us. Working on this project helps me step outside my own thoughts and remember that everyone is carrying their own stories while also reflecting on my life as a spectator of London. Much of my creative work stems from a curiosity about the everyday world and the stories hidden within it. By focusing on the imagined narratives of strangers, I am exploring the same themes that guide my wider practice: empathy, observation and the idea that everyone carries a complex inner world. I think image-making is more important now than ever. With AI proving that it is not going away anytime soon, I think it is the job of the image-makers to make sure their work has something to say outside of just a pretty image. I have become very conscious of this as a 3D artist which is why I have been trying to incorporate photogrammetry and photography. After graduation, I would like to explore new formats. I want to see how this work could evolve into film or installation and experiment with other ways my work can portray these narratives.”

Gabriel Chiu, USA, photography, art direction

“Breathe Me In is a project created to humanise Asian people within Western society. The title itself is an invitation for viewers to pause, take someone in and recognise them simply as a person. Through universally relatable emotions such as pain, joy, tenderness and longing, I hope to de-fetishise Asian women and challenge the way Asian men are perceived. My aim is to create space for desire, dignity and complexity, and to present Asian identities with fullness and honesty. In my past work, I dressed Asian subjects to help Western audiences find a point of connection. My future work is about undressing, not literally but symbolically. I want to strip away stereotypes, expose honesty and portray Asian people as fully human. I hope this shift encourages the younger generation to find courage, be themselves and pursue their dreams. Many of us in Asian communities are raised to obey and to stay in line. My work pushes back against that narrative. Image-makers are becoming cultural voices. In Breathe Me In, I was not able to explore the depth of this concept as fully as I wanted to. After graduation, I plan to expand this project and continue diving into these ideas with greater honesty, vulnerability and ambition.”

Lorane Hochstatter, 24, Switzerland, photography

“My project examines the dissonance between the idealised vision of England, constructed through visual culture, and the lived reality I encounter every day. Through the staged portraits and reimagined everyday scenes of my project, I reconstruct the environments that actually shape my life in London, merging them with fragments of an imagined England where everything felt possible. This blending allows me to question how screen-generated fantasies influence my understanding of place, identity and belonging. Light becomes a metaphor for the seductive power of digital imagery, a force that flatters, distorts and blurs the boundary between what is real and what is performed. The resulting images reflect a mix of longing, routine and the quiet solitude that arises when constructed fantasies collide with everyday experience. This project extends the core of my practice, which is driven by a curiosity for the blurred boundaries between constructed imagery and lived experience. I continue to explore the themes that anchor my wider work: the fluidity of identity, the feeling of being slightly out of place and the ways digital aesthetics influence how we perceive ourselves and our surroundings. My practice relies heavily on post-production and digital manipulation, which allow me to construct my own visual universe and explore the tension between reality and imagination. Photography has always been a tool of freedom for me. This project has the potential to continue over several years, reflecting a period of my life through recurring characters and familiar places. I would love to develop it into a book.”

Stella Nunes, 25, Brazil, styling, art direction

“My project began from the realisation that the ways Latin America is still depicted in fashion imagery felt distant from my own experience. I am from São Paulo, a city that in many ways mirrors London or New York. It is multicultural, contemporary, layered and full of contradictions. I do not recognise myself in the stereotypical depictions of Brazil. A central element of the project is a personal archive of photographs I have been building since 2019. These images focus on cars, wheels, stickers and garages. Including them clarified a strand of my gaze that had been developing quietly in parallel. I wanted to create photographs rooted in the culture I grew up in while translating it into a visual language that could exist beyond its usual frames. The project also became a reflection on female existence, probably my own. There is a quiet interplay between vivid cultural references and still, distant bodies that shapes the tone I am always searching for. My wider practice unfolds between styling and visual research, exploring how identity and cultural perception shape the stories we tell through image. I revisit references from the Southeast of Brazil, creating images that hover between familiarity and distance, memory and imagination. Working with elements associated with spectacle such as carnival-inspired pieces, sparkle and fantasy, and displacing them into scenes that are still and almost muted, allowed me to explore the contradictions I am interested in. I think creating images in 2025 carries a lot of value. For me, the importance of this project lies in shaping a visual language that feels new to me as a Latin American creative. This project made me understand the time that ideas require. I want my work to be a bridge between São Paulo and London, because I feel suspended between both now.”

Songsong Chen, 24, China, photography

“Willow Branches is an ongoing visual and oral history project that centers on a group of young women from Northern Jiangsu (Subei), China, who have lived in London for extended periods. The project examines the interplay of regional identity, gender and transnational mobility as it unfolds in memory, self-representation and lived experience. Rather than reinforcing a single narrative of what a Subei woman is, this project invites plural expressions of identity and creates space for voices often marginalised in both domestic and international contexts. As a woman raised in a multigenerational, female-led household in Subei, I grew up surrounded by the strength of women whose values differed from dominant narratives. My creative practice has consistently focused on the visual exploration of identity, memory, regionality and women’s experiences. For me, fashion image is not merely an aesthetic medium, it is a method to pose critical questions. Willow Branches is evolving into a long-term, multi-phase project focusing on the lives of women from Northern Jiangsu, building a local visual archive to address a gap in the Subei aesthetic.”

Jordy Nasa, 25, USA, art direction, styling

“A BLA_K DREAM looks at imagined realities of the Black diaspora through a Black gaze that is not filtered or defined by anything outside of us. Inspired by Frantz Fanon, the title plays with Black and Blank, pointing to both erasure and the chance to rewrite our own story. The project sits between fashion photography and fine art, driven by my interest in making images that feel intentional and layered. I am also moving toward design and installation work, exploring rhythm, movement and the worlds that connect fashion, music and art. This project is my way of building a visual space shaped from inside the Black imagination.”

Maya-Aska, 24, France/Japan, photography

“My final project examines how people of colour find belonging with British nature and explores the diaspora experience. The tension between belonging and being conspicuous is translated through the use of colour. The work serves as a reconciliation, where many people of colour face prejudices and systemic barriers when interacting with nature. Casting was important, gathering individuals with various relations to British land. My subjects helped shape each shot, crafting props based on their personal stories and photographing them in the landscape they feel attached to. This project also led me to research land art. It is an interesting time to create images, with an influx of images created through emerging technologies and a return to the analog. I have chosen to photograph on film and handprint in the darkroom. I appreciate the slower, more meditative approach. I am eager to develop this project further and would be delighted to revisit the place.”

Abi Perkins, 22, France, photography, print-making

“My final project is about creating fashion images through analogue printmaking techniques that emphasise texture and artisan processes. I prefer a pace that takes more time, exploring where an image can develop. I focused on photopolymer etching, as it offers a new grain, a slight frame and an embossed feel I enjoy. Conceptually, I engage with themes of female identity, self-reflection and self-exploration, capturing women in states of authentic intimacy and unposed presence. This work reflects my ongoing interest in artisan processes. Hand printing entails time, effort and unpredictability. I believe image-making in 2025 is crucial to help us communicate and bring awareness to perspectives far from our own. Fashion photography has an ethical responsibility: to make us dream but also to make us conscious. After graduation, I will continue exploring analogue processes and collaborating with artisan-focused brands.”

Matt Hickmott, 25, UK, photography

“My final project is an exploration into the tension between the supernatural and the mundane. Drawing from film noir, I wanted to create surreal scenes where colourful subjects are surrounded by mystery and an ambiguity of power, fear and desire. Shooting in British suburbia, each image reveals a hidden, impending domestic terror. My practice searches for the intersection between hyper-dramatic and camp aesthetics. Big hair and colourful garments contrast with the mundane to create everyday surrealism. The filmic approach lets me create a feeling of before and after, and through lack of context, a sense of unsettling ambiguity. I think image-making is in a weird place, with rapid AI developments and pressure to keep up with oversaturated social media. If artists stick to their point of view, maybe we will be okay. Moving forward, I hope to get bigger with my storytelling approach, creating new characters and stories. Suburbia has endless potential and I am excited to tap into it.”

Holly Lavelle, 27, UK, photography, art direction

“Another One Bites The Dust! is a humorous exploration of death and mortality, emerging from a personal yet universally shared discomfort with temporality, ageing and the passage of time. The work plays with tensions between glamour and the grotesque, using dark humour as a tool to face mortality. The visual language draws from fairytales, parodies like Final Destination and Scary Movie, 80s and 90s kitsch horrors and the meme Dumb Ways to Die, using absurdity to create camp spectacles of ridiculous demise. I have always been a storyteller. Over time I realised what I love most is shaping the world around the image: the characters, atmosphere and emotion. This project allowed me to deepen my world-building while drawing on my interest in surrealism, fantasy and dream logic. In a world of overstimulation and relentless visual noise, fictional worlds allow people to process difficult truths. It also offers escape. I want to continue expanding this series and move into art direction full time.”

Xueling Chen

“This project centers on the coming-of-age narratives of girls in Chaoshan. I returned to my hometown and spent a season with two girls aged 13 and 15. Leaving the Garden borrows the name of a Chaoshan coming-of-age ritual to explore the space between love and restraint, tradition and self-awakening. My work has always grown out of the stages of my own life experience. I explore relationships among urban nomadism, female identity and spatial emotion. This project deepens my long-standing interest in womanhood. I believe image-making remains a tender form of expression. Even in the age of AI, human emotion cannot be replicated. My plan is to continue developing my personal IP, participate in exhibitions in Europe and China, publish photobooks, grow my studio in Shanghai and pursue commercial fashion photography. I will also continue my project on Europe’s new nomadic generation and prepare my next photobook.”

Karol Chmielewski

“My final major project, shot in Warsaw, explores corrosion as both a physical process and a cultural metaphor. I am interested in how corrosion can be a lens for thinking about identity in transition, how identity can feel worn, fragile and marked by time yet carry beauty and memory. I look at my country as corroded not as decay but as a place whose history has left visible scars that are nostalgic and resonant. The work is as much about my personal sense of identity as the wider cultural context. My practice mainly revolves around art direction, but for this project I photographed it myself. I follow my curiosity and do what feels right in the moment. I try not to dwell too much on technology’s rapid changes, and focus on creating work that fulfils me. I plan to return to Warsaw in a few weeks to continue shooting this series and expand it further, capturing winter’s different energy.”

Olivia Chen, 28, China, art direction

“The field of art direction allows me to discover new possibilities and balance pushing my creative ideas with what relates to the audience. My projects begin from recalling moments of my life experiences, memories in vague but meaningful states. This final major project allowed me to work with collaborators across formats, mediums, audiences and cultural contexts. I focused first on second-generation Chinese youth from Wenzhounese families in Prato, Italy, reflecting their straddled cultural and transnational journeys. My second project explores how people and spaces reflect each other in the context of art, architecture, public display and private identity. As an art director, my work oscillates between art, image and research. I observe how people and spaces shape one another. These projects reflect my curiosity for the interplay between space, fashion and social dialogue. I have noticed how much more attention roles like art director, casting director and 3D artist are receiving. Image-making is expanding.”

Yongjie Hu, 25, China, photography

“My final project began with the theme of intimate relationships. It is not a documentary of love but a personal journey exploring intimacy through imagery. Some images were not planned, they were captured in moments that moved me. I also created staged self-portraits with my boyfriend. Emotional relationships are fluid, like water. This project aims to capture shifting emotional states that are blurred but real. These images will become part of my personal history. I have always been fascinated by the ebb and flow of human emotions, how they grow and transform. Photography can extend or preserve emotion. The visual landscape of 2025 is characterised by excessive speed and saturation. Photographers must refocus on slow imagery, authenticity and serendipity. After graduation, I want to broaden my perspective beyond romantic partnerships toward a wider notion of intimacy and embrace greater creative freedom.”

Pacor Wang, 32, China, photography

“My final project is a two-part exploration of youth, identity and emotional landscapes. One part was photographed in Morocco, observing teenagers along the coast. The project looks at the relationship between the sea and teenage imagination, especially in summer. The second part focuses on Hackney Central. Over time, fragments became a map of a young creative community and how young people construct identity in a moving city. My practice is built on observation, documenting scenes that feel emotionally charged. My projects carry a documentary sensibility but are reshaped through styling and staging. I negotiate between reality and imagination. Image-making in 2025 feels exciting and unsettling. AI can generate infinite images, but it cannot feel. Image-making is about emotion, identity and presence. After graduation, I want to continue developing the Morocco project as a long-term work and expand my research in London.”

Kaiwei Duan, 25, China, photography

“My final project focuses on femininity that swings between softness and resilience, and the friendship and cohesion among women. It contains vulnerability, uneasiness, hidden aggression and resistance. I try to present layered female experiences through images. I am interested in images and female portraits between reality and dream. This project uses bodily details, tactile textures and uncommon light as visual punctums. It extends my exploration of female experiences. Image-making can be a medium for understanding others and building interaction. In an age overwhelmed by images, I value photographs that can be looked at carefully. The sympathy and resonance between women have always been the driving force of my creation, and how to express strength, fragility and resilience will continue to guide my work.”

NATSUKO, Singapore/Japan, photography

“My project looks at identity as something that is never fixed but constantly shaped through how we see, how we are seen and what we find beautiful. This work returns to the questions that have guided me from the beginning: how identity is shaped and how our perception of beauty shifts. The Kitsune, a Japanese shape-shifting fox, becomes a way to think about fluidity, transformation and reinvention. I am interested in the evolving language of fashion photography and how images move and accumulate new meanings. This project gives me space to question the systems I work within while creating work connected to my way of seeing. After graduation, I want to follow the unfamiliar and unresolved parts of the work, trusting that it will continue to change me as much as I change it.”

Liz Rundbaken, USA, styling

“My final project explores creative dressing using secondhand clothing. This mirrors my practice: a pull toward eccentric styling and an obsession with secondhand clothing. I look for ways pre-loved pieces can be reimagined and pushed into new shapes and identities. There is a sense of freedom in image-making in 2025. New technologies expand what is possible, and people need fantasy and escape more than ever. I plan to continue shooting secondhand and possibly develop a platform to present the work with text and video.”

Carina Kehlet Schou, UK, photography

“My final project is called Aletheia, an Ancient Greek term meaning unhiddenness, revealing and reality. Aletheia was the goddess of truth. The notion of truth and the search for meaning is something I am always thinking about. Alongside William A. Ewing’s idea that all photographs portray desire, the project explores desire as an abstract state of being. This work develops my previous interests in female experience and portraiture. It can feel frivolous to talk about visual culture given the political context of the last few years, but I think image-making is more important than ever. Photography relies on social connection and reality. AI scares me, it is becoming very sophisticated. For me, next, hopefully an exhibition and a photobook eventually, but there is no rush.”

Edith Liben, 23, USA, art direction

“My practice explores the intersection of fashion and art, using humour and quirk to inject excitement back into contemporary fashion culture. I spent much of my year at Central Saint Martins reading photobooks and magazines asking why fashion does not feel fun anymore. My major project, I’m going to the store, do you need anything, reflects on London’s concept store culture and investigates the relationship between the city’s fashion and art worlds. It manifested as a four-day gallery show in Hoxton titled F(un)/W(ears) Collection, featuring works from six artists and a live events programme of performances, workshops and talks, designed to reignite enthusiasm for fashion. After graduating, I plan to continue developing live events programming personalised for brands and stores.”

Selina Subba, India, photography, art direction

“My final project, A Home Within Home, is rooted in Ladakh and shaped by the people who inhabit its shifting landscapes. I lived in Leh Ladakh, immersing myself in the lives of local Tibetan nomadic tribes. I witnessed how communities navigate the balance between tradition and change, cultural continuity and climate crisis, while sharing their homeland amidst geopolitical tensions. The work blends documentary sensitivity with a touch of fashion, but at its heart, it is how people create a sense of home where land, climate and traditions feel delicate. The project grew through conversation, time and quiet observation. Image-making is a way of learning the inner landscapes of people, culture, history and emotion. My practice moves between documentary and fashion. Growing up in the Himalayas shaped how I see, paying attention to subtle movements and quiet light. I love fashion imagery, but never want clothing to overshadow the story. Image-making in 2025 feels full of possibility and contradiction. There is a hunger for work that feels rooted and human. After graduation, I hope to continue long-term projects in the Himalayan region and explore film and installation to extend stories beyond still images. I want to keep listening, learning and collaborating.”