Meet Photography Student Flo Hendriks

In this interview, BA(Hons) Photography student, Flo Hendriks discusses how she began exploring self-portraiture and how her studies at Falmouth have influenced her career aspirations.

"Hi, I’m Flo Hendriks and I’m at Falmouth University studying Photography BA(Hons). Oh and I’m in second year, too!

During the lockdown, I didn’t have any models to access so I turned to self-portraiture - which is my main aspect of work now.

The best thing about Falmouth is definitely the studios. Falmouth brought in a photographer called Stuart Harper and that was our introduction to the studios; I got the opportunity to speak to him personally at the end and it was a really nice connection.

I think being so close and interactive with people from different courses, you think “oh my God, I want to photograph them!” so you shoot them a message and before you know it you have different connections on different courses, and I really like that aspect of bringing people together.

Behind the camera I’m actually quite a nervous photographer, and have a very 'perfectionist' mindset. But then when I’m in front of the camera, it’s all about embodying a character of confidence, even though I probably didn’t have that confidence really. you can dress up as whoever you want. You can embody whoever you want, and it’s kind of relaxing, kind of refreshing.

I was recently diagnosed with the ‘holy trinity’ of learning disabilities: Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and ADHD. I don’t think my work would be my work if I didn’t have that barrier. It’s important to actively speak about it and just be like “I might need a bit longer on this project, you know I suffer from this and I’ll get the work to you in a good time but just give me a few moments”. I think communication is definitely really important with your lecturers, even in email or speaking to them in person it helps a lot.

I’m on social media and I use my Instagram as an online portfolio. If you scroll down you’ll see in a lot of my work there’s suddenly highs and there’s suddenly lows, and I think it follows my mood quite a lot. What I really enjoy about my work is that it kind of speaks out to so many different ways. It’s like a visualised diary as some would say.

I did produce one video it was all the voice recordings left on my phone from mental health teams from the University saying; “Flo, how are you?” And I overlaid that with the images that are you know black and white and low and I had a lot of audience members come out to me and say that “this has been really helpful for me - I see your work and I think ‘wow she has it all” but then they don’t see what’s behind, and that was a deep insight into my personal life. I left a paragraph explaining that even though my life is kind of chaotic, I’m definitely not who I show I am.

I actually came to Falmouth wanting to be a photographer, but now that I’ve experienced it a bit more, I’ve decided potentially creative direction is more my path. I’m able to jump from each sector, one to the other - creative direction would fit that almost perfectly - so that’s probably the one!"