My family has been my rock throughout university and life – by Ellie Ward
Ellie Ward was hiding her Romani identity when she first started studying fashion photography at university – until a photographic project at the end of her first year forced her to confront her heritage head on and open up about it to her lecturers
My name is Ellie Ward and I am a creative who is born and bred in Darlington in the North East. My family are Romani Gypsies and they are settled here now. This has left me with opportunities to follow through with my education and explore different paths for myself, which has led me to university.
At Salford University I studied Fashion Image Making and Styling which essentially is the photography, styling and art direction wrapped up into one course which doesn’t allow any creative aspect left untouched. I chose this course because it showed me so many aspects of creativity that I hadn’t heard of or even thought about before. It taught me about certain skills like the height of a light affecting the whole feel of an image. It gave me an opportunity to think deeply about my work which I hadn’t done before.
Personally, I think my creative spark comes from me having bipolar, it allows me to feel things so intensely, that the only way to make sense of them is to make them real, if you get me? I get this urge to need to show the feelings otherwise I feel like those emotions are pointless or maybe not as valid. So therefore, most of my photographic shoots are based on real life experiences and expressing how I feel with my emotions. This also means that I get to see a new perspective on my emotions and create something lovely and fulfilling.
When I first started university, I was very much in my head about not telling the university lecturers about my Romani heritage due to bad experiences in the past, particularly in education. Unknowingly I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t. This caused me to feel unhappy and extremely lost in my first year, producing work that didn’t feel right and that I wasn’t pleased with.
All that drastically changed when we had to create a project at the end of my first year called Family of Man, which was about understanding the emotional side of photography and how images can have a real impact. The project also asked us to explore what “family” means in today’s world by creating our own photographic essay.
I spent three weeks following my family around in a documentary style, taking raw, unfiltered and true depictions of them - my family – ‘normal’ Travellers. My driving reason for this project was to desperately try and dismantle any stereotypes or preconceptions of Travellers. However, by the end of this project and year I just fell in love with my family, our background and so much more. This project was turned into a zine named “A Gorja’s Travelling Guide” which was essentially acting as a guide to Travellers for non-Travellers, shown through the real lives of Travellers.
The positive response from my lecturers to me essentially ‘coming out’ at university as a Traveller honestly changed the way I see myself. For the first time, I felt like I could really lean into my own skin and be proud of it. Achieving a 1st degree was unbelievable, I’ve never achieved anything like that in education before, so it meant the world to me. What made it even more special was how genuinely interested the lecturers were in me and my work; they wanted to understand more, and they celebrated me for exactly who I am. I can’t thank Christine and Dan enough for opening that path of acceptance and giving me the confidence to believe in myself. They proved to me that being myself and being real is the way forward. As cringe as that might sound, it’s honestly sorted me out and given me a whole new sense of direction.
The acceptance, warmth and inclusivity about my heritage and my work that I felt at university really made me feel confident and heard and I really hope that in the future it will carry on into the wider world.
My family has been my rock throughout university and life. They are the sole support in me still living alone in Manchester and trying to make it work here. It gets lonely being so far away from my family and not being able to just pick up and go see them for a week. However, it’s their belief in me that makes me stay. My grandad was the first person to get me a real camera and since that day not one of my family has ever doubted me, even since my work has developed into a more unconventional and “strange” direction as they would say (hahaha). They have never once questioned it and have only ever been proud of me.
Regarding my future, I just want to continue creating art, taking photographs, and expressing myself in a way that feels honest and healthy. I don’t want to lose that spark, the part of me that sees the world through a slightly surreal lens and turns everyday moments into something a bit more magical. I hope to keep evolving creatively, but also personally. Most importantly, I want people to connect with what I make not just to admire it, but to actually feel something. Whether it's joy, discomfort, nostalgia, or even confusion. I want my art to stir something new in people. I want to open conversations, challenge perceptions, and maybe even help someone feel more seen or understood. So … fingers crossed.
Words and photographs by Ellie Ward
(Top photograph: University Family of Man project (Ellie's family) (c) Ellie Ward)