News / 07 Nov 2023

Photography graduate featured in Dazed

BA (Hons) Photography

Black and white photograph of a person dressed in black holding three dogs on a lead on a pavement

Photography by Charlie Birch. Courtesy of Dazed

Photograph of a person dressed in black walking three dogs on a lead towards some tower block flats

Photography by Charlie Birch. Courtesy of Dazed

BA (Hons) Photography graduate, Charlie Birch, has been featured in Dazed Digital for their short film and photo book ‘Loaded Gun’ which tells the story of a young ex-offender (Jay) that uses his dogs to help rebuild his life.

“The project is a deeply personal piece that charts both Jay’s own journey in rehabilitation and the perception of “dangerous” dog breeds in an uninformed society. Birch’s photographs, at once serene and arresting, expertly draw parallels between these two things via the metaphor of a firearm. In the book, images of calmness and tranquillity sit beside those of anger and abjection, forcing the viewer to wonder, of man or dog, who is the loaded gun?”

Elliot Hoste, Junior Writer at Dazed

Liverpool and London based photographer, Charlie Birch, discusses ‘Loaded Gun’ and their relationship with Jay in a conversation with Dazed. You can find the full article here.

The ‘Loaded Gun’ exhibition and screening took place in July 2023 at the Photo Book Café in London.

“‘It’s like having a loaded gun, but it hasn’t got a safety that you can flick, the safety is in the own dog’s head.’ What interests me about this project is, although Jay is talking about the dog, sometimes it seems he could be talking about someone like him.”

Charlie Birch, BA (Hons) Photography graduate

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