Art exhibition in The Fratry, Carlisle explores a range of topics

Called the Mismatch Collective, the group of second-year photography students at the University of Cumbria worked together to put on an exhibition in the Carlisle Cathedral's Fratry, which saw a variety of topics discussed and techniques displayed.

One artist, a photography student named Mark Paterson, chose to photograph dairy cows.

He said of his work: "What I was trying to do was document the milking process.

"People seemingly tend to think that cow's milk just comes from supermarkets, but what I was trying to do was make everybody more aware that there is more to it.

"There is an actual process behind it all.

"It goes from being pasteurised to being then bottled up."

The cows he photographed are based just over the border in Dumfries.

In an abstractly similar vein, CJ Pitcher's work attempts to show the process behind photography itself.

They explained: "I photographed a photographer and one of the alumni of Cumbria Uni as he was creating this project in his bedroom.

"My focus is on how creatives work, the aspects, the parts, and the bits.

"We recreated a section of his studio in the gallery space and added photographs that have been taken throughout his process and combined that with text, objects, and paraphernalia of what he has made.

"I think we live in a world so obsessed with perfection and the final product, so I've stripped all that back."

Sophie Connel's work focuses on diets and addictions, featuring a trio of photos, each respectively of a pack of cigarettes, a can of lager, and a depiction of the cotton ball diet.

Sophie explained: "People have an idea of what they want to look like, so they'll go to extreme lengths to get to it.

"That could be simply cutting out all foods and smoking all day or just drinking, or a diet where you can have just five cotton balls soaked in orange juice a day.

"It's looking at how people manage to still be able to do day-to-day things while living of these, and also how much damage both physically and mentally can be done."

Also on the topic of body image is the work of Rhys Thomson, whose collaborative work with their girlfriend Olivia Walters focuses on confidence and self-image for transgender women.

Rhys explained: "(Olivia) is going through her transition now, and struggles with confidence, so this project aims to create awareness of these issues as right now there's a smear campaign against trans people, particularly in England, so we wanted to create a positive awareness of the emotional impact."

Rhys explained that the first set of photos shows how Olivia would like to be seen, how she perceives her ideal of beauty, and how she wants to be beautiful, whereas the second set shows a societal expectation.