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Valentine's major body of work, Plunge, is a set of semi-abstract images documenting three London Lidos during the winter months - one in use, one empty and one derelict. Together they speak to the history and demise of the British open-air pool. She gained a distinction in her MA Photography at the London College of Printing in 2002. For her MA she presented panoramic portraits of long-distance swimmers immediately after their swim (Eight Miles). Valentine also created a memorial to prisoners executed in the USA during 2002 (TEXAS) and has recently completed a commission for Amnesty International. In February 2003 Valentine extended her study of endurance with a set of images of Finnish ice-hole swimmers (Minus Seven). In December she completed a new set of images inspired by the adornment of Kerala's often crumbling walls (Adayalam) and in 2004 she photographed members of the Crystal Palace Children’s’ Diving Academy positioned on the ten meter high board (Elevate). Between 2005 and 2006 she created a further body of work looking at swimming in extreme conditions (first length in hmp). This study of prison swimming pools, and some of the inmates who swim, examines the freedom to swim within the context of incarceration. Valentine's latest work (transposition) places a German educational toy with the structures of Birkenau as its setting. Symbols of innocence are married with the structures and memory of the Holocaust. |