My background is in newspaper reporting but I’m now combining words with photography and audio to tell stories in a different way. I balance my commissioned work with independent documentary projects destined for the web, print or exhibition.

I was chief reporter at the Evening Leader, investigations reporter at the North West Enquirer and reporter at the Manchester Evening News. I went freelance in 2006 and now supply features, images and multimedia to a range of clients, from publications to NGOs, as well as regularly editing The Big Issue in the North.

I have a degree in European studies and French from the University of Manchester and did my NCTJ newspaper journalism training at the University of Central Lancashire. In 2011 I completed an MA in photojournalism and documentary photography through the London College of Communication, graduating with distinction.

Independent work: 

* STREETFIGHTERS, my multimedia documentary on the human cost of urban regeneration, received an honourable mention in the 2011 Amnesty International Media Awards. I have been covering this issue since 2006.

* My current project on the UK’s new Roma communities can be followed via a standalone website, ROMA BRITAIN. This work is funded by Arts Council England and Side Gallery in Newcastle, with initial support coming from the Lipman-Miliband Trust and the Big Issue in the North Trust. Elvira and Me, the collaborative book I produced with a young Romanian Roma woman now living in Manchester – and the first chapter of this project – can be viewed over here.

 

Participatory media/education: 

* I helped a class of 10 year olds produce a newspaper during an eight-week Creative Partnerships-funded project in Manchester. See their handiwork here.

* In 2012 I delivered a series of photography workshops for Czech Roma children in a Leeds primary school, using the materials they produced to create photofilms about their lives in the UK. I was commissioned to do this by Roma Source.

* In 2013 I am a visiting lecturer in media (photojournalism) at the University of Chester. I have also delivered lectures and workshops for the  visual anthropology department at the University of Manchester, Manchester College and the University of Falmouth.

* I hold an enhanced CRB check.

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BBC Viewfinder: Coming at photojournalism from a different angle

Up & Coming: Ciara Leeming

Recording of a 2013 talk I did about my work

Full CV available at Linked In