Exploring how humans connect to the world around us, the recent BA Photography exhibition sprawled across campus and showcased the exciting work of London Met students
Date: 8 June 2026
Second-year photography students transformed London Metropolitan University’s Holloway Road library, weaving a vibrant art exhibition titled 'Rhizomes' into the library’s study areas and communal spaces.
Students marked a major milestone with this exhibition, as it was the first to be held since the Photography BA was relocated to the Holloway campus. Rhizomes continued a long-standing tradition of students using the university's libraries to showcase their talent and explored our connections as humans to the environments around us.
The exhibition featured work exploring themes of planet, politics and cultural values. Its title, Rhizomes, was inspired by underground plant stems that constantly grow and branch out – a metaphor for how ideas, communities and art can connect across the university campus.
From the margins: a punk exhibition that challenges the gallery world
Artist and Senior Lecturer in Photography, Ania Dabrowska, curated the exhibition and said the annual project was inspired by her enduring love of libraries and an interest in challenging the elitism of the art world by bringing ambitious photography to unexpected, everyday places. She said:
“There was a somewhat punk attitude at play here, a 'can-do' energy that I found genuinely exciting. It was a deliberate challenge to the assumption that ambitious, strong work cannot emerge from outside the established gallery world, or that it will fail to generate genuine public interest if it does.
“I think there was real empowerment in proving that to be the case, especially in the context of so many of our wonderful institutional galleries, museums and exhibition spaces suffering from funding cuts and facing ever-precarious economic challenges.”
Photography students gain hands-on experience
Forming part of the Professional Photography Practice module undertaken by students on the course, for many this exhibition offered them the first opportunity to publicly showcase their work and learn about the complexities and nuances of exhibition-making and curating while gaining site-specific practice.
Photography student Auriella Campolina said working on Rhizomes gave her a practical understanding of what it takes to curate a project from start to finish and maintain a high standard.
“We were fortunate to have our tutor, Ania, guide us through the process as she has a lot of hands-on knowledge. I loved every aspect of it, especially seeing the finished results of my peers’ hard work," she said.
