When Katie Greenwood first focused the lens on her grandfather's old camera, little did she know she would one day be holding her own exhibition.

During the next seven years she fell in love with the art.

Now Katie, 22, is preparing to put her work of unusual and abstract views of cities on display for the first time.

The exhibition, called Unreal City, opens at the Brighton Media Centre on Friday and although understandably nervous, Katie, of Upper Rock Gardens, Brighton, is excited about her work going public.

She said: "I didn't consciously say I am going to do photography but I enjoy it. I like the fact it is instant.

"You see something and you think it will make a good picture. I like it when people see it and you get an instant reaction."

Katie, who graduated from the University of Brighton in 2001 with a first class degree in visual culture, has taken hundreds of photos in Brighton, Paris, New York and Spain. She tries to look at ordinary subjects in an unusual way.

She rarely uses flash and relies on natural light, street and neon lights, or in the case of Fatboy Slim's Big Beach Boutique she took pictures every time a strobe light beam passed her.

She said: "I never really wanted to work in a studio, I still don't. I like being out and about in the environment.

"Walking around cities I notice things and think they are interesting and I will take a picture.

"I want my work to speak for itself. I don't want to put much on it, I would rather people made up their own minds."

Katie has never had any formal photographic training and her impressive portfolio has been built up purely through trying different techniques and experimenting with her camera.

Her degree was very academic-based and although she did get a chance to incorporate photography it was mainly written work.

Katie hopes to event-ually be able to make a living out of her pictures.

The exhibition runs from Friday to February 27 at the Brighton Media Centre Gallery. For more information, call 01273 201375 or visit www.mediacentre.org