Portrait nominee

Greek antiquity brings us the tale of Echo and Narcissus. Echo, a nymph, carries a curse that only allows her to repeat that last few words that are spoken to her. Narcissus, a hunter, is bestowed with great beauty. Echo falls in love with Narcissus but her curse prevents her from telling him how she feels. Narcissus is so beautiful that he falls in love with his own reflection and can do nothing except stare at himself all day. Narcissus eventually dies, driven mad by his own beauty and Narcissus also fades and dies from unrequited love.

This tale has been the subject of many pre-modernist works of art. This series takes a more contemporary approach to the story.

Born in England, Shaun Lowde is a photographer with a lifelong obsession with the arts. Having initially trained as a classical musician, Shaun also developed an early love of photography winning several prizes for work in conceptual still life. To pay the bills Shaun went on to study law eventually co-founding a firm dedicated to helping those in the creative industries who were engaged in some of the most cutting edge explorations of their art. This included a two-year relocation to Los Angeles where Shaun worked with a wide range of media and entertainment companies.

During the small amount of spare time available Shaun honed his photographic skills through a combination of self-teaching, photographer masterclasses, numerous Royal Photographic Society training courses and an Open University course on Digital Photography.

Having now left the Law, Shaun has relocated to West Wales has recently graduated with a first class honours degree from Carmarthen School of Art.

Shaun has had his images published in Golau Magazine and Nawr Magazine and he has had his work featured in exhibitions at Aberystwyth School of Art, Carmarthen School of Art and Ffotogallery in Cardiff.