Contact

Email: laura@yumi.eu

Instagram: lauramchen


Print sales available. 

Please contact me with any enquiries.

Laura Chen (b. 1997) is a Dutch image maker and writer based in London, UK. Working within the fields of photography, mixed-media and found or archival material, her multidisciplinary practice associates a fine art and documentary approach where research, implementation and intervention are closely intertwined.

Recurring themes and interests include identity, memory, tactility, the marginalised, disregarded and overlooked - whether in everyday objects or groups of people who live and work on the fringes of society. Fascinated by observing and recording her daily encounters and whereabouts, she uses photography as a catalyst for her imagination, her camera as a tool and device to make sense of the world and the obscurities of the mundane.

She is currently editorially contributing to GUP Magazine, Photomonitor, Discarded Magazine and Mirrored Society, writing feature articles, interviews, portfolios, exhibition and book reviews about contemporary photography.

In 2022 she was nominated as FOAM Talent. Her work has been featured in and published by FOAM, British Journal of Photography, Photo London, PhMuseum, PHROOM, Lensculture, Canon, GUP, Life Framer, Refinery29, Aesthetica Magazine, amongst others. She has exhibited at 1014 Gallery London (UK), Open Eye Gallery Liverpool (UK), Midlands Art Centre (UK), Ikon Gallery (UK), Westergas Amsterdam (NL), Keilepand Rotterdam (NL) and Garagem 180 Porto (PT). 

In 2020 she graduated from Birmingham City University with a BA in Photography. She is currently undertaking an MA in Photography Arts at the University of Westminster.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Awards

2022:

  • Foam Talent 2022.
  • Palm* Photo Prize 2022 Finalist.

2021:

  • PhMuseum Women Photographers Grant 2021 shortlist.
  • British Journal of Photography Edition 365 Award Winner.
  • Selected for The Top 200 PhMuseum's Stories of 2021.
  • Honorable Mention Budapest International Foto Awards.
  • GUP FRESH EYES Talent.
  • PhEST Reunion Calling Winner (PhMuseum). 
  • BCN Bursary Winner by Multistory.
  • Shortlisted for Galleries Without Walls (Gallery of Photography Ireland).
  • Shortlisted for RPS Postgraduate Bursary 2021/2022.

2020:

  • GUP New Talent.
  • Life Framer Editor's Pick Humans of the World.
  • GRAIN BCU Graduate Award.
  • Canon Student Development Programme organised by Visa Pour l’Image-Perpignan Festival.
  • Shortlisted for the EIZO Student Award.

Exhibitions

2022:

  • Palm* Photo Prize 2022 group exhibition - 10 14 Gallery - Dalston, London, UK.
  • The Unexposed by Canal180 - Garagem 180 - Porto, Portugal.
  • then there was us. Ways of Living - Open Eye Gallery - Liverpool, UK.

2021:

  • British Journal of Photography Edition 365 - Virtual Exhibition on New Art City.
  • SHOUT Festival / QUEER PHOTOGRAPHY AT SOUTHSIDE (Killer Queens) - Birmingham, UK.
  • FRESH EYES group exhibition and book presentation - Keilepand Rotterdam, NL.
  • Shutter Hub YEARBOOK.
  • Ikon for Artists - Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK.
  • Mass Energy Group Photo Exhibition + Zine Project - Bibliotheca, London, UK.

2020:

  • Shutter Hub EVERYDAY DELIGHT (Windows Edition) poster exhibition across the UK.
  • The Nationwide Degree Show by Fresh Meet.
  • Birmingham City University Online Graduate Show.

2019:

  • GUP New Dutch Photography Talent 2020 group exhibition and book launch - Westergas, Amsterdam, NL.
  • Sky High Skies - Transpace Gallery at Illinois State University, USA.
  • Sandwell Pride of Place Project as part of Blast! Photo Festival - Multistory, UK.
  • Chinese New Year Festival  - Birmingham Hippodrome, UK.
  • The Green Lens group exhibition, EcoBirmingham & Ampersand Projects - Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), UK.

2018:

  • Project Birmingham group exhibition - Medicine Bakery, Birmingham, UK.

Online Features

2022:

2021:

2020:

Printed Publications 

2022:

2021:

2020:

2019: 

  • Midlands Zone #Issue 271.
  • Riffs Journal - Volume 3, Issue #1.

WRITING

Book Reviews

Paul Guilmoth - 'At Night Gardens Grow' (Mirrored Society)

Jamie Hawkesworth - 'The British Isles' (GUP Magazine)

Dora Lionstone - 'Cosmic Stream' (Discarded Magazine) 

Rick Schatzberg - 'The Boys' (GUP Magazine)

Fulvio Ventura - 'Sagacity' (GUP Magazine)

Interviews

Stephen Gill: A Retrospective (GUP Magazine)

Antony Cairns: 'CTY' (GUP Magazine)

Kíra Krász: 'Squaring each other to fit' (Discarded Magazine)

Vasilis Nikolopoulos: 'Today is my Birthday' (Discarded Magazine)

Siqi Li: 'Empty Nest' (Discarded Magazine)

Exhibition Review

Noémie Goudal / 'Post Atlantica' at Edel Assanti (Photomonitor)

Articles

Simon Lehner - 'The mind is a voice, the voice is blind' (GUP Magazine)

Juliana Gómez Quijano - 'The Two Strands' (GUP Magazine)

Portfolios

Wanda Tuerlinckx - 'Androids' (GUP Magazine) 

Colin Delfosse - 'Fulu Act' (GUP Magazine)

Kensuke Koike and Thomas Sauvin - 'No More, No Less' (GUP Magazine)

Weronika Gęsicka - 'Traces' (GUP Magazine)

EDUCATION

2020-2022: MA Photography Arts at University of Westminster London - Part Time Postgraduate Scholarship.

2021: Global Photographies Network - Photobook Production & Publishing programme with Ana Casas Broda from Hydra + Fotografia, Mexico City.

2017-2020: BA Photography (First-Class Honours) at Birmingham City University.

Mentoring 

2020/2021: 

  • Redeye Photography Graduate Mentoring Scheme.
  • Photochat Mentor Session with Sophie Wright (Magnum Photos | Global Cultural Director, Curator and Writer).
  • GRAIN mentoring Nicola Shipley (Director) and Stephen Burke (Project Producer) | BCU Graduate Award.

Portfolio Reviews & Crits

2021: 

  • The Photographers' Gallery DEVELOP Folio Review with Anthony Luvera. 
  • Nationale-Nederlanden Portfolio Day with Hans van der Meer, Nederlands Fotomuseum.
  • The Pupil Sphere Online Crit.
  • Exposure Emerging Photographers Showcase + Blast! Creative Network: Online Crit.
  • Nationale-Nederlanden Portfolio Day with Dana Lixenberg, Nederlands Fotomuseum.

2019:

  • The Ian Parry Scholarship at Frontline Club, London.
  • GRAIN / Multistory Portfolio Development Day as part of Blast! Photo Festival.
  • Iron House Portfolio Reviews, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham.

Artist Talks

2021: 

  • GRAIN Photo Café / SHOUT Festival.
  • BCN Bursary artist event by Multistory.
  • Halesowen College Photography Course.

2020:

  • GRAIN Photo Café, Jewellery Quarter.
  • Birmingham City University (BA Hons Photography).

Press

Foam Magazine #61 Talent - 'Words From Dad'

FOAM Talent 2022

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙄𝙄  featuring Laura Chen  /  Canal180.

The Unexposed brings together the work of different photographers, national and international, showing how a new generation of artists is making use of photography to communicate their reality. It all started with a question: can young people have control over their own narrative? Four international photographers answered the challenge in a series premiering in 2019, in partnership with Negative Feedback. "The constructed image" was the motto for the second season, featuring young artists whose work is not only limited to the photographic representation of a reality imposed on them, working imagistically from universes created, altered or subverted by themselves.

FRESH EYES 2021 - Powered by GUP Magazine, distributed by Artibooks.

From 'Killer Queens', the Polaroid series.

Ikon for Artists at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham | 17 - 31 May 2021


GUP New Dutch Photography Talent 2020 at Machinegebouw Westergas, Amsterdam | 6 - 8 December 2019



Encourage book published by Canon and Postcart Edizioni as part of Visa Pour l'Image-Perpignan Festival 2020.



The Green Lens exhibition at the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) Birmingham, UK | 1 Sep - 28 Oct 2018

Using Format