I make my inner world real enough to photograph.
I transform past experiences into three-dimensional digital objects and place them into the real world. I photograph them as if they physically exist. Extended Reality (XR) is the camera. I can see my imagination, shaped by the real environment, light and weather.
In LYKEN, I reconstruct fragments of childhood night terrors and unresolved memories, then step back inside them. I face life-sized figures I once had no control over on my own terms. Capturing and sharing these encounters allows me to take ownership of old nightmares.
Moving between photography, filmmaking, sculpture and installation, I’m interested in extending photography from something we can look at into somewhere we can enter.
BIOGRAPHY
Mike South is a British XR fine art photographer and filmmaker working across photography, sculpture and installation to build worlds.
With a background in documentary filmmaking and conceptual photography, he spent over a decade telling other people’s stories before turning the camera on himself. His practice has since expanded from traditional photography to a more experiential form, incorporating his own music and sound design to extend the work beyond the image.
His work has been recognised by the Tokyo International Foto Awards, with MONUMENTAL receiving a Top 5 Judges’ Pick, while his current project, LYKEN, led to his selection as a finalist for the SEEN Mentor Prize. His experimental approach to photography led to a collaboration with Adobe.
SELECTED AWARDS
SEEN Mentor Prize, Top 10 Finalist | LYKEN, 2026
International Photography Awards, Honorable Mention | LYKEN, 2026
Tokyo International Foto Awards, Jury Top 5 Selection | MONUMENTAL, 2024
Fine Art Photography Awards, Shortlist | MONUMENTAL, 2025
Budapest Foto Awards, Gold | AMYGDALA, 2025
exhibitions
2026 - Budapest Photo Award Winners, Athens, Greece (Group)
2025 - FotoSlovo Award Winners, Limassol, Cyprus, (Group)