About me

My photography and styling are my own narrative and I tell the story of me. Having an opinion, attitude and a voice through styling is what I do, and within my photography work I focus on confidence, mental health, breaking my own boundaries, sexuality and femininity, exploring my own experiences within menswear and women’s fashion and I use my photography and styling as a means to show messages through to help myself and other people. My work is more than outfits and photographs, they’re expressions of me and my emotions, my experiences, every image and theme has a personal story behind them and why they were taken. I always work with a goal at the end of my projects and images, whether it be to end up loving a colour I previously hated, making myself more confident, accepting my body, and I focus on the outcome of bettering myself and others, always challenging myself. My styling is my way of showing my individuality and creativity through, always pushing my own messages through the clothes I wear or style in my shoots. Photography allows me to channel all of my creativity and show everything I love and which catch my eye.

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Projects

• PROTESTProtest, was a visual protest where I focused on body confidence and breaking boundaries, for myself and other women. Protest was a series of images shot and styled by me where I focused on using red and black as a way of portraying sexuality for a women, for women only, whilst these colours still have connotations of danger and sex. I used these images to speak my own voice in order to say that we should never be shy with our bodies, sexuality and confidence is everything, we deserve to rule th
• VENUS COLLECTIONPhotographed Salford Universities VENUS COLLECTION at Barton Arcade, Manchester, as part of their final year show. Which included a diverse range of female models, ranging ages, backgrounds and ethnicities, all unified by wearing white.
• 'FAMILY OF MAN'For one of my first year modules we were following in the Footsteps of Edward Steichens Family of Man exhibition from 1955, I took this concept and created my own twist into it, scouting people in the street purely based on who interested me and I was instantly drawn to, in venues, capturing animals, plants, scenes, objects, things which for me create the family of man on this planet. Our family of man to me is more than just people, it's everything we see, opinions, own, pass by, take interest
• Interning with COTTWEILERThroughout my time interning with COTTWEILER I documented my days in and out of the studio with digital, film, videoing and using Polaroids. Capturing their old archive stock, new and current collection. And styling and visual merchandising in the studio to create my own visual story.
• A retaliation to women being shy with their bodies.Looking at socio-cultural memes, I created a retaliation meme to shout that women should not be shy with their bodies. After extensive research I found many articles which were showing women to be ashamed by their bodies and I wanted to go against this and show women's bodies are amazing, using 6 outfits consisting of lingerie to promote confidence, the images I have taken of my bare faced model, are all unedited purely for the reason that we shouldn't be shy with any part of ourselves. All the
• MISUERMISUER is my zine based on my 4 favourite menswear styles, it explores the different mens fashion styles I have found myself fall into the categories of since I got into fashion and the importance of mens fashion to me as a female more than just being clothing. Fashion for me is an expression of myself. The images are all photographed by me, and all styling and model scouting also by me. The zine explores different boys and completely different styles from my view of menswear, and photography fo

Projects credited in

• 1

  Cottweiler SS20
• Staging Schielean ongoing collaboration with Shobana Jeyasingha and Cottweiler for the production of 'Staging Schiele'. Photographs by Chris Nash

Work history

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Writer/ContributorMiuse Magazine
Aug 2019London, United KingdomFreelance
Weekly writer and contributor for Miuse magazine, an online platform bringing fashion news and articles.
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Studio InternCottweiler
Mar 2019 - Jun 2019London, United KingdomFull Time
Working in the studio, completing important daily tasks for upcoming SS20, travelling all over London to source materials, pick up garments, drawing cards, dropping clothing and stock off to the likes of Oki-ni and Shobana Jayasingh Dance. Also working in the studio on twirls, sewing and with calico creating copies for Ben and Matthew to work on for stock. Always in my spare time documenting everything in their studio, visual merchandising and styling within the studio, creative direction also photographing the Cottweiler studio and all of their archive and new stock. I was luckily chosen and trusted to photographed all of chosen Cottweiler inventory for Universal Studios, taking all the photos of their stock and creating the whole inventory paper work. BEN COTTRELL; "Ashleigh was fantastic working within the studio + team, her documenting + styling / visual merchandising + computer skills were perfect".

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Skills

• Adobe
• Photoshop
• Drawing
• Film
• Darkroom Printing
• Adobe Indesign
• Pattern Cutting
• Visual Merchandising
• Photographic Direction

Education

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Fashion Image Making and Styling BA (Hons)The University of Salford
Sep 2017United Kingdom