A TEENAGE photographer’s dreams are about to come true as he prepares for his first Newport exhibition.

Ieuan Berry, 17, of Maindee, is a self-taught photographer capturing the ‘unseen’ city through his lens.

The A-level student at St Julian’s School sixth form, currently studying English, geography; ICT and science, hopes to secure a place at Queen Mary University of London, or the London School of Economics to study photography next year.

“I met someone when I was staying at my grandparent’s house in West Wales,” he said of how he got in to photography. “He is called Lloyd Miller and we were just playing together on the beach and stayed in contact ever since.”

Other favourite locations are more daring – as the budding artist favours derelict and abandoned surroundings. Locations include the derelict Maindee Swimming Pool, where Ieuan uses his relationship with the owners to take fantastic shots of the ‘unseen Newport.’

“I try to make the ugly things nice,” he said, “Not everything in Newport in necessarily bad. I am trying to get a new image of Newport and try to break the stereotype of the city.”

He works as a nightclub photographer in Newport’s Bassment club, and preparing for his upcoming Newport Gallery exhibition, ‘High Tides,’ featuring shots of the city during the recent floods.

The Argus delivery boy also plans to set up a market stall at Newport’s new market to display his work and has launched a calendar of his shots from his work at a printer. Ieuan is also involved in a project with the council where he will be supplying them with 100 images of Newport at its best. Newport councillor for Rogerstone Chris Evans has helped Ieuan to secure the exhibition.

He said: ‘I became aware of Ieuan’s work, via Twitter, and, met him at last year’s ‘Shop Local’ event, since then, we’ve kept in touch, I was impressed with his recent ‘High Tides’ series, so, I contacted Debbie Wilcox, to see if we could do anything do help. Deb’s wasted no time in backing the idea of a exhibition, details of which are being finalised at the moment.” Exhibition details will be announced soon. To see his work visit facebook.com/BerryPhotography.uk?