The Newtown High School of the Performing Arts student took an obscure approach to her photography during Higher School Certificate, even if it meant jumping fences to explore abandoned industrial warehouses without "getting into trouble".

However, on one occasion, things got a little close for comfort in Mittagong in the Southern Highlands.

"We were taking photos at the back of the abandoned factory and there were kids playing upstairs who were chucking stuff down," Ms Carey says. "This huge log fell down metres away from us and we had stopped to take photos, so if we didn't stop, we probably would have been hit.

"That was the most traumatic experience of photographing. We just left . . . it was scary."

Ms Carey, 18, will display her artwork, Mankind's Creation, alongside 37 other pieces of student work as part of the ARTEXPRESS exhibition, which opens on Wednesday at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Her work focuses on urban decay. In doing so, she tried to discover ugly parts of the world she saw as beautiful.

Ten black and white photographs were taken at various locations from Paddington to Wollongong, and back to Cockatoo Island.

They are audacious in the sense of location, time constraints and Ms Carey's daily battle with her perfectionism.

"It was a constant worry not having any good shots and having to do it by circumstance," said Ms Carey, who is starting a double degree in arts and fine arts at the University of New South Wales this year. "But I guess I train myself in ways to see what people normally wouldn't see as beautiful."

Up to 60,000 people will view ARTEXPRESS this year with a plethora of ideas, opinions and observations expressed through 12 mediums acknowledged by the HSC curriculum.

ARTEXPRESS curator Leeanne Carr said there was a trend towards photography this year, differing from the popular drawings in 2013 and paintings the previous year.

"Every year I'm always inspired, pleasantly surprised, but I'm not shocked that this is a great show, it always is," Ms Carr said. "People want to see what's going on in the minds of the new generation and this is a great way to see this."

So what stood out about Mia Carey's photographs?

"I loved the emptiness of those works," she said. "She really captured the quality and the textures of that urban environment without using the human form.

"They make you slow down and look at them because they are so empty."