Chance Encounters in The Valley of Lights

May 18, 2023

Chance Encounters in the Valley of Lights tells the story of an unsolved extraterrestrial case from 1980s Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Photographer Rik Moran combines original imagery with never-before-seen archival material to investigate the possible alien abduction of PC Alan Godfrey. In illuminating one of small-town England’s most unlikely protagonists, Chance Encounters unearths another other-worldly mystery along the way.

Recent Stories

Missed Care
The referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU was one of the most divisive moments in modern history — back in 2016 and ever since then, the country felt more polarised than ever before with a clearly growing sense of “us” and “them”. People were either unable to or would refuse to see some of the good points that the other side was making. The Remain side was branded “Project Fear” as they were providing predictions of what would happen. Some of these didn’t happen, but others, unfortunately,
Gianluca Urdiroz
Merlion Memories
Darren O’Brien’s project takes this fragile idea of the nature of memory as its starting point. He accompanied his partner on her return to Singapore, where she spent six years as a child, eighteen years later.
Darren O'Brien
London '82
Sunil Gupta enrolled at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London in the early 1980s. Having access to colour negative printing at the college, the young photographer began to roam the streets of the Big Smoke searching for the epicentres of queer life — Earl’s Court, King’s Road,
Sunil Gupta
Calais Migrant Camp ‘The Jungle’
Back in September 2016, Aaron Chown set out to document the Jungle Camp in Calais where asylum seekers reside before attempting to enter the United Kingdom. The photographer highlighted the humanitarian migration crisis that engulfed the continent 5 years ago and decided it’s appropriate and important to remind us of the situation on the 5th anniversary of the demolition of the camp.
Aaron Chown
Case 3181
Nieves Mingueza is a Spanish documentary photographer whose work bridges the gap between the conceptual, personal and political. She often works as a multimedia artist using images as well as text, collage, video and installation. In her own words, Mingueza “explores and activates the archives to address social and gender
Nieves Mingueza
St Paul's Cathedral — The Central Spot Of All The World
Architecture with religious purposes has quite different functions from residential or commercial. While the latter is mainly functional and economic, the former intends to be grandiose. It’s very much part of its design to make humans feel small, minute and God, or whoever the deity is, appear grand, larger
Stephen Leslie
Kibera
Edwin Ndeke’s body of work focuses on Kibera — one of the largest urban settlements in the world which is situated on the periphery of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital with a population of approximately 2.5 million. Poverty, disease and crime are not uncommon when discussing Kenya and Africa in
Edwin Ndeke
Southtown
Tommy Lee Grimmer is a young photographer based in Great Yarmouth, East England, which is, in fact, the part of the country which is the furthest East. His project Southtown explores his hometown, the area where he grew up, its physical environment and community as well as the change of his perspective from a child to now an adult. © Tommy Lee Grimmer | SouthtownThe text accompanying Southtown is nostalgic and evocative of innocent childhood — Kickpost, a game similar to hide and seek, late ni
Tommy Lee Grimmer
Charcoal of Cyprus
Tradition and family-run work of charcoal miners in Cyprus. We are very likely looking at the craft that is to become a thing of the past very soon.
Stefanos Kouratzis
Small Town Inertia
Jim Mortram’s Small Town Inertia is an ongoing project which shines a light on the real life consequences the so-called “A-word” is continuing to have on communities, over a decade since its introduction. It wreaks havoc on the most vulnerable in our society and it targets those who can least afford basic necessities.
Jim Mortram

mnngful Originals

mnngful Members

Nathan Benkemoun
FR
,
Montreuil

Nathan Benkemoun (1983) is a French photographer born in Nice and based in Montreuil (France). In his work, he tries to illustrate how people interact with environment such as nature, cities or open spaces. He also works in making concrete some common human feelings and sensations.

Verity Adriana
UK
,

Visual artist who uses light, installation and photography to investigate the phenomenology of the metaphysical and existential. She has been a practicing and exhibiting artist for over a decade. Adriana was born in Hull, UK, and grew up around the world wherever her mother found work, including Spain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Adriana returned to Hull independently at the age of 14 to see herself through her final years at school and went onto establish herself in the regional arts community.

Floriana Avellino
IT
,

Laura Pannack
UK
,
London

London-based photographic artist. Renowned for her portraiture and social documentary work, she seeks to explore the complex relationship between subject and photographer. Her work has been extensively exhibited and published worldwide, including at The National Portrait Gallery, The Houses of Parliament, Somerset House and the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Shervine Nafissi
CH
,
Lausanne

Self-taught photographer with a passion for sports and politics. Based in Lausanne (CH). Swiss of Iranian origin. In his thirties. Young father. Also Doctor in law.

James Rudoni
UK
,
London

Photography allows me to express myself using the world around me. Things that I would have otherwise ignored take on a new weight and potential. With my curious eye, I am motivated to capture the chaos, weirdness and beauty of our lives.

Louis Sartori
UK
,
London

Independent Photojournalist and Writer focusing on matters of cultural obscurity, documenting groups/spaces on the borders of popular recognition.

Melanie King
UK
,
Ramsgate

Multi-Disciplinary Artist. Co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a practice-based PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency. To purchase original prints, you can visit the Land Art Agency and Argentea Gallery websites. Books are available via the website store, and monthly limited edition postcards are available on Patreon.

Jim Mortram
UK
,

Social Documentary Photographer and the creator of these photo stories: Small Town Inertia.

Marc Wilson
UK
,
Bath

Documentary photographer working on long-term documentary projects, such as his previous work, completed in 2014, ‘The Last Stand’ and his current work, ‘A wounded landscape’. Marc tells stories through his photography, focusing at times on the landscape itself, and the objects found on and within it, and sometimes combining landscape, documentary, portrait and still life, along with audio recordings of interviews and sounds, to portray the mass sprawling web of the histories and stories he is retelling.

Lewis Bush
UK
,

Photographer, educator and curator working across media and platforms to visualise the activities of powerful organisations, practices, and technologies. Since 2012 his practice has explored issues ranging from the aggressive redevelopment of London, to the systemic inequalities of the art world. Recent works include Shadows of the State, which examines the democratic deficit of intelligence gathering, and Wv.B which examines the dark histories of space exploration. He is currently working on a long-term project about computer vision which runs in parallel with an ESRC funded PhD at the London School of Economics. He is also course leader of the MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (online) course at London College of Communication.

nick linnett
UK
,
Leicester

Photographer based in Leicester UK

Stuart Freedman
UK
,

Commercial, editorial and travel photographer based between New Delhi and London working worldwide on a range of consumer brands with/without art direction.

jose artur macedo
PT
,
Ponte de Sor

Self-taught photographer, based in Ponte de Sor (PT)

Pippa Healy
UK
,
London

Artist based in London Her practice responds to her personal history, to events which have impacted on her life. Her handmade ‘Zines’, raw and diaristic in style are central to her practice. Themes encompassing loss, longing, violence and grief are frequently referenced. Her work is held in private collections and has been exhibited in group and solo shows in the UK, France, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Lithuania, Sardinia, Turkey and Italy. Her zines have been exhibited at numerous exhibitions and in 2019 at Les Rencontres Arles Photo text Award. The books are sold in The Photographers Gallery in London, Cent Quatre in Paris and The Library Project in Dublin. The zines are also held at The Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, The visual Library in New York and The Self publish Be Happy Library.

Stories worth seeing

mnngful is a platform supporting independent documentary photography & photojournalism.

Thanks to passionate storytellers, we learn about matters that otherwise stay neglected. Stories that matter, but have not been covered enough are captured and told by passion-driven photographers and journalists.

They create because they care about the world they live in and tell us about matters beyond our eyesight.Their work is often driven by pure enthusiasm, fuelled by own beliefs and dreams for a better world. That's why such independent work is worth special attention.

mnngful is here to support the meaningful stories they tell.

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