Tim Sullivan, a lecturer on the Basis Diploma in Artwork & Design at Arts College Plymouth, has been awarded a prestigious €20,000 (roughly $22,000 / £17,000 / AU$35,000) grant from Finland’s Cultural Basis to supply a brand new photobook; the biggest grant of its variety awarded by the group for a photographic publication.
The forthcoming e book will doc Russian-language learners dwelling in Finland, capturing how their private tales are formed by wider historic and political shifts for the reason that fall of the Iron Curtain. The work types a part of Sullivan’s broader analysis into borders, reminiscence and the afterlives of geopolitical change.

“My analysis focus all through has been on the subject of borders. I started interviewing individuals with cross-border connections with my Finnish buddy and colleague Anni Huttu. We’ve got had many conversations, however one query that retains recurring is: How does the post-Chilly Battle period of globalization sq. with our present second? This was the spark that lit the proposal.”
Sullivan’s photographic follow spans themes of historical past, migration, and the politics of place. Earlier tasks Wo/anders – Elsewhere (2017) and Havina (2022) have explored contested landscapes and the lingering influence of Romanticism on how we see land and reminiscence.
His work has earned help from Arts Council England, the British Council and worldwide residency applications throughout Northern Europe.

“Images current us with the borderlands of the expressive and the causal,” he mentioned. “This mix of framing and contingency is what has all the time motivated me to pursue picture making.”
The grant will help the manufacturing, design and publication of the photobook, which is about for launch in early 2027. Developed in collaboration with Finnish journalist Anni Huttu, the venture will embody interview-based texts alongside pictures, with exhibitions deliberate internationally.
“Tim’s venture exemplifies the facility of pictures to open dialogues throughout cultures,” mentioned Professor Stephen Felmingham, professional vice-chancellor (tutorial) at Arts College Plymouth.
“The dimensions of this Finnish award acknowledges each his creative rigor and dedication to socially engaged follow. Our Basis Diploma in Artwork & Design college students benefit from the alternative to study from a frontrunner in his discipline, benefiting from the depth of Tim’s expertise engaged on transnational artistic collaborations.”

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