A final year photography degree student at Cleveland College of Art and Design (CCAD) has captured the attention of the photography industry with his innovative work featuring in a leading publication.

Experimental photography student Marius Hanzak, 20 from Runcorn in Cheshire was approached by Petapixel, a leading online photography publication to share his video titled ‘RGB Church Street’.

Currently living in Hartlepool during his studies, Marius experimented with making colour photographs using black and white film, which he focused on Church Street in Hartlepool as the location for his inspiration.

The 4-minute video – which demonstrates the process from shoot to print – was spotted on social media platform Reddit by Petapixel, and is now published on their site. The video is accompanied by an article detailing the work.

Marius, who describes his current style as objective cinematic minimalism, experimented with the colour separation technique as part of his final year studies at the specialist northern art school, and was pleased to have his creative forms of photography and moving image generate interest in the industry.

He said: “Petapixel approached me with the request to share my video after seeing it on Reddit. It was great to have my work made available to such a large audience and the recognition was flattering. It was particularly useful to have feedback on a far larger scale than I’m used to.”

Although Marius plans to continue with the colour separation technique for his personal work, in preparation for his forthcoming degree show in June he will be taking a different direction artistically, and producing regular colour street photography shot at night.

Marius added: “My tutors past and present have been a huge inspiration and technology has also had a huge influence on my work. Discovering the possibilities and limits of a particular piece of equipment or method always teaches me a lot and helps to develop my career as a photographer and artist.”

Jamie MacDonald, Programme Leader for Photography at CCAD, said: “This is a specialist project that resonates with early developments in photography. Marius has a fascination and passion for specialist photographic processes and his work demonstrates again how he understands the wider links to painting and visual culture that inform photographic practice. Throughout this project he has continued to experiment with new techniques and utilize the resources such as the colour dark rooms at CCAD to create challenging and new work – finding beauty in the everyday and often mundane. The work is supported by a competently produced short film (by Marius) that visually describes this fascinating process. ”

Pat Chapman, Head of Employability and External Relations, said: “Marius deserves the industry recognition as he continues to demonstrate his technical skills and talent in the final year of the course.

”We actively encourage our students to push the boundaries and explore their creativity as part of their studies. I very much look forward to seeing the final work for his degree show in June this year and I am sure that Marius will go on to a successful career.”

To read the article on Marius and his project, please visit https://petapixel.com/2016/11/25/creating-color-street-photo-using-black-white-film/