week 34

We had a visit from Jess Crombie who is the photo editor of NGO Water Aid, but has previously been an art buyer and worked at Magnum, the talk was really interesting and Jess went through  the career paths of different photographers and how they have got where they are today as a result, it seems if I do want to be a editorial reportage photographer for an area it is best to jump in  the deep end and move over there and then make the contacts like Olivia Arthur.

Other advice she gave was to enter competitions and enter grants as this could be the way to fund the projects you want to do, and to get art buyers attention she said to send a card with website and then ring a week later as she personally hate to be cold called. and again don't be snobish about doing advertising photography if you consider yourself a fine art photographer and so on as this will lose your work and might mean you don't have the funding that you need for a personal project later on down the line.  

week 33

So the year is winding down, with my CAP project to finish of and placement left to do I have been lining myself up some personal projects to do during the summer term, I am trying to get some samples from CTRL clothing to do a fashion shoot and have lined up 4 models and have found a location in the new forrest and hopefully I will be able to get the samples after easter. 

I have also met with some people who partake in Viking activities during the weekend and they have informed me that their is a big viking battle weekend coming up in Seven weeks so I will go along to this and do a portrait series of these guys dressed up in their viking uniform, these projects are purely to boost my portfolio and I think I will have a good time shooting them. 

week 32

It is the week of our hand in's and I have unfortunately not been able to get enough subjects for my CAP project in time I have spoken to Aaron about this and found out the procedure for getting a referral as I am enjoying the way this project is now turning out, with the extra time I will be able to extend my project further, and find more of the subjects I am looking for rather than just putting up with weaker ones. I am annoyed I haven't been able to complete the work and for next year I will definitely plan to have a back up so if my first idea does fail I will be able to get on with plan b. 

week 31

Digital Darkroom is done, CAP is far from done, I have also been contacting photographers about placement and need to keep on top of this as well. I have been looking at a couple of photographic agents firstly East and Bill Charles and looking at the photographers they have on their books, when I leave my studies i will have to go on and find one that suits my style Bill Charles seems to have some very big names on his books such Larry Fink, Stephen Shore, Oliver Chanarin and Oliver Broomberg. I have been noticing that I have been finding myself more interested in American photographers like William Egglestone and Alec Soth and prefering they way that they photograph.   

Week 30

`My Digital Darkroom project is almost done now, which gives me a bit more free time to get on with my CAP project I have changed my idea and am now photographing priests in their homes, I have been on three shoots this week, the first I have used some fill in flash on, but I am not happy with the results and have decided to use available light, the second one I have used window lighting but I feel that this one looks to obvious and is not really what I am looking for. The third using tungsten lighting I am really happy with, the only problem is the deadline is soon approaching.

Part of the Digital Darkroom project was to do a front cover and a double page spread as if it were for a magazine, I have pitched it to the photo editor of Disorder magazine and he really liked the photos and has asked me to email him back again in a months time as they have already allocated all the fashion spreads till september, I did this as I remember Mark George saying to always complete every part of the brief, and this acted as a good way to gain confidence in talking to photo editors and gaining media for myself.  

Week 29

Their is an exhibition at the moment of Alumni students most notably Wolfgang Tillmans and Nick Knight the exhibition shows some of the photographers current work but also a piece from whilst they were at university here, for some there university work it isn't eve a photograph and is either design work or illustration. I came across the work of Martin Hartley who I really like it seems he is a modern day Scott who is photographing the Artic ocean at the moment. This exhibition is really inspiring to a lot of us here studying photography as it shows those who have made it in the over saturated market that is photography and also increases the credibility of the AIB.

Week 28

I have managed to do my shoot for Digital Darkroom this week I was really happy with how the dresses looked and managed to get a stylist to come in and do the hair and makeup which I was also really happy with, I went along to a two B&B's today but unfortunately they were not really what I was looking for, both were recently refurbished and did not fit the schema I was looking for. It seems I may have to abandon this project for now as the one's that do fit my schema do not want to be photographed. 

I have been looking at Nadav Kander who seems to fit so well into all different aspects of photoraphy whether it be documentary, advertising or portrait and doesn't seem to ashamed of it like other photographers who do not advertise that they do advertising photography as they consider themselves an fine art photographer.  

Week 27

I have found a fashion designer to help with my digital darkroom project and am discussing with her how many pieces I am going to need and I have asked her to do them in a neo-romantic style, I have planned a test shoot with my model to play around with lighting set up, I am a bit worried as my model is off to New York in two weeks and I hope the dresses are made in time. If not I will have to find another model, but this project seems on it's way now. My CAP project is still up in the air, I have been contacting B&B owners to do a portrait series on, I have managed to secure a couple of shoots for next week. 

David Moore

David Moore is a conceptual documentary photographer, whose documentaries a lot of the time seem to involve a governmental/state power theme. David was tauht by the legendary Martin Parr. His work like Parr is more fine art based than commercial as he stated 'Do project and find out where it fit's afterwards' the idea that commercial will follow after. which he said after shooting The Commons porject he recieved three jobs of the back of it because he showed he could use macro and lighting to good effect. 

His first documentary The Velvet Arena in 1995 David attended private views, book launches, business parties taking pictures of the art directors and other attendees, whilst talking about this book David described himself the photographer the person with power and his subject the person without power. Which is true the photographer can manipulate the image however they want for example Don McCullin's shell shocked soldier has been reproduced in different ways firstly where the eyes are visable shows he soldier in it's shell shocked state whereas when the eyes are darkened the picture tells a completely different story where the soldier looks ready to go into battle.  He also described how he feels about hflash stating that useing flash is an assault on the person and that off board flash enchances the drama which it deffinately did in the velvet arena with what could have been potentially boring scenes have now been made interesting with amazing details in the skin and texture of the clothes. 

The second piece of work David talked about was his book the commons again similar to The Velvet Arena with David looking at things in a Macro sense and again using flash but this time without any of the MP's. Whilst talking about this project he firstly let on that the project itself had taken 3 years to gain access to but also when starting a project be very open ended so as not to have an idea until you get there which I guess is true for documentary photography when you do have time to shoot the project as you can go back and assess the pictures you have taken but this is not the case in the fashion world where you only have one chance to photograph the model as you are relying on so many other factors. 

The final project that david talked about was The Last Things a documentary on a Secure military bunker in London, for this project he decided not to use flash as the viewer has never seen this space before he wanted to be more environmental, obviously due to security reasons he had to photoshop certain things out. David decided to publish some of these photographs in the Mail on Sunday over the Guardian as he wanted a larger audience but also because he wanted a audience with less photographic knowledge. David's final piece of advice was that if you are going to photograph institution, community then there are always going to be people who don't like what you are doing or how you are portraying it but you just have to tak it on the chin and keep a clear conscience. 

Andy Earl

Andy Earl has been at the forefront of music photography since he graduated, when his first job was for 80's band Bow Wow Wow which ended him being arrested for showing the lead singer Annabella Lwin aged just fifteen, artistically nude as a parody of Edouard Manet's Le Dejeuner Sur l'Herbe (The Luncheon on The Grass). Andy started his talk of by talking about his time as a student where he developed a flash and a slow colour film to create a blur technique this later on lead him to create a music video for Rolling stones completely out of stills using 2 Nikon cameras. It seemed that this technique and the controversy surrounding the Bow Wow Wow incident were enough to kick start his career and he missed the assistant stage as he was having work thrown at him like Prince, Duran Duran's Rio cover and so on. 

Andy talked about various musicians he had photographed and mentioned stories on how Madonna was a nightmare to photograph and Courtney love turned up waisted, but it was the image that he did for Pink Floyd's the Delicate Sound of Thunder that interested me the most as the band have always had such strong imagery for their album covers, I mean an album cover that contains a man with light bulbs attached to his jacket whilst another is releasing several doves (which were waited so as not to have to take the picture first time) whilst the two men look like they are about to have a dual is always going to look good. 

Andy offered several pieces of advice firstly the History of Art is important like his parody of Manet's work, and this can be seen in many other photographers work especially that of early photography. To take risks but to also take a backup so if the risk doesn't pay off then you have a fall back point. To keep shooting like a pianist keeps practicing as to avoid getting rusty. 

He mentioned that there is more freedom in music photography than advertising and that your ideas are the selling point for the photographer in this industry which is why I think Andy's images do stick out compared to the majority of music photographers he isn't interested in just the band he is interested in making a really good image that as he Say's 'How can I say something?' Maybe this is why he stressing that the history of art is important. 

The final thing I want to mention about Andy is a story he told us about being commissioned by Cosmopolitan Magazine where he shot in the style of Cosmo, when he returned with the photographs they said they had commissioned you because of your style, which says that you should keep shooting in your style even if seems weird or take a back up as I mentioned earlier. 

Week 26

Have just found out that my contact for my squat for CAP project has now left the country for a long period of time this means I am now half way down the line till the hand in and have no project, which I am a little worried about. I am now contacting various different people and organisations to try and get a project up and running again. 

 For my Digital Darkroom I have been doing the job of a stylist and trying to get a hold of some clothes in the style of trashion from various companies but so far to no success. If I do not hear from any of he companies I have been approaching i will commission some one from fashion to help me in my project. 

Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize

The national portrait prize is one of the most prestigious prizes in photography, It showcases 60 photographs ranging from well established one's like Platon and Chris Floyd to student and relatively unknown photographers. There were portraits of every variety of people from celebrities to hookers old to young, some had been for commercial purposes others were very personal of family members. It features portraits of people from all over the world, maybe this was a little bit to politically correct to have done so. The first thing I noticed was how many photographer were alumni from the Art's Institute of Bournemouth which is encouraging being a student here. 

Before I had gone to the exhibition one photograph I had seen in the papers was that of Rupert Murdoch by Tom Stoddart that shows him sad and exhausted and it was such a strong portrait that really gets under the skin of the subject and shows you the emotion they are going through at the time of the shutter.  Once I had arrived at the exhibition I noticed that most of the shots had that feeling of really knowing the subject. The photograph that won was Quints by Lottie Davis which showed a woman with her four recently born babies in the style of a Renaissance painting the picture which was beautifully shot and lit it seemed that this year the prizes were going to those photographs that were similar to those of paintings as second place which went to Hendrik Kerstens's showing a girl wearing a carrier bag in the style of a dutch 17th century hat.  

With the Annie Liebovitz exhibition closed I ventured down to Bethnell Green to Yinka Shonibares Gallery to go see the opening of Snap an exhibition with featured several photographers including Tara Derby, Linda Brownlee as well as others. The exhibition which in a Turner Prize winning artists gallery was far from he glorious National Portrait Gallery but in an old factory, also the photographs didn't seem so politically correct, and didn't feature celebrities it felt a lot more rough and I preferred it this way being less polished. I enjoyed going to the exhibition as I got the chance to meet some of the photographers and talk and gained some advice on how to get work and about exhibitioning. It was also interesting to see these photographers current work. It seems that exhibitions whether it be througha competition or as part of a solo/group show seems a really good way to market your photography and get yourself seen by art buyers/photo editors. 

Sølve Sundsbø

Solve Sundsbo is a fashion photographer who seems to be in every magazine at the moment so being granted a talk with him was a great honor.  He spoke briefly about his time as Nick Knight's assistant but he made it obvious that this talk was going to be full of information that he had wished he had known before he made a move into the commercial world. 

firstly Solve mentioned that before his shoot he gets very nervous and he said that this is where he gets his energy from, I have heard photographers talking about creating this energy when on a shoot and it was interesting to see that even though he is one of the most sought after fashion photographers at the moment he still gets nervous. The main thing that Solve kept referring to on his talk was to break the rules he kept mentioning this throughout the talk perhaps this is why photographers like Rankin who is controversial and Guy Bourdin are so highly accredited. 

During Solve's talk I started to notice that a lot of the guest lecturers stating similar advice; firstly to create as much of the image inside the camera and not in photoshop for me this is good as my photoshop skills are not of the highest quality, but when Solve carried this on that he believes that the trend is actually moving away from this. I am glad for this trend as I have always found straight photography a lot more interesting than that which has been compiled on a computer. 

Another common talking point was to be shooting every week and referring to musicians and their need to keep practicing weekly. Also to take pictures that inspire you, don't just take pictures that you think you should be taking as they aren't going to have the same feel the same compassion as when you do have this interest and going back to the London trip with Adam and Oliver they mentioned that for them it was the researching that they found the interesting part and said that the actual photo taking was the boring part, this is why their photography is of such a high standard and this is why they are so passionate about what they do. But what Solve was talking about is that he takes an interest in not just taking photographs but in the designing of clothes hair, make up everything that goes into his shoots which again is probably why he is in such high demand.  

One of the points that Solve was talking about was branding when on an advertising shoot is important to know the company and how they want to be seen and how the previous adverts have portrayed. Each company will have a kind of style to their adverts whether it be stylish, sexy, fun etc that the company will want to be carried on throughout it's photographs.  

Alex Jenkins

Alex Jenkins is an Art Director who has commissioned photographers Rankin, Mario Godlewski, Ewen Spencer, Richard Lewis as well as others. He worked on the branding of massive bands such as the Prodigy and The streets as well as companies including NTL and O2. 

The talk was interesting in that he gave a different point of view and how to interact with Art Directors who at the end of the day are going to be the people who create work for photographers. Alex mentioned that Mario Godlewski whom he gave a break to, would constantly take his work to the extent that he was almost pestering him, but eventually Alex gave him this chance and now Mario is working as a fashion photographer in New York. When asked what it was he liked about a photographer and why he decided to use them his answer was simply because they were square (Medium format)

Alex talk mentioned changes from when he was working at XL records and producing album covers and how the market has changed due to recession at present and art directors are using stock libraries a lot more due to time limits but most importantly cash restrictions. Stock libraries have different implications for photographers firstly your photographs will be up against loads of different similar images but then you are reaching art directors all around the world which you wouldn't be able to reach without the stock libraries. 

Alex said that he personally prefers to commission photographers as he feels this way you get the original image that the art director had envisioned in their head. he went on to say that the best photographers understand the brief thus keeping the vision of the art director. This is vitally important to do as a photographer the worst thing you could do is to upset those hiring you and thus later on lose work. He expanded what he thought made a good photographer to be consistent at this as well.  

The second half of Alex's talk consisted of him talking about his work since XL Records

and looking at branding which he broke up into seven categories; Logotype, website, Merchandise, Advertising, Direct Mail, Photography, Stationary. Branding is extremely vital to a company and helps customers recognise a company, and quoting Alex 'Photography is the part that brings it to life'.   

Alex also offered some invaluable advice on how to deal with art directors mentioning that business talk is important and to not to be scared about talking about price's for a photograph.  Also when talking with art directors not to be cocky but do be confident, passionate and down to earth when talking and just because they might not offer you any work strait away carry on showing them new work and going in to build up a relationship with the art director because when something does come in that is suited to your style they will offer it to you. 

Eugenio Franchi

Eugenio Franchi can be summed up as being a still life advertising photographer who until recently used film cameras mostly shooting on 10x8 transparency's, and even though this is not the area of photography I am most interested in and see myself getting a career in,  I found his talk to be of great interest. I liked his passion for doing as much work inside the camera and not on photoshop and he kept stressing that photographers shouldn't rely on photoshop to make their pictures better. He was revealing some of his story's about how he produced some really well thought out pictures without digitally manipulation.   

His talk took us through his progression as a photographer starting of with his education and then joining a cruise ship and taking photographs of the passengers on board to becoming an assistant firstly for Adam Toher, Nadav Kander and then for Graham Ford. 

Eugenio mentioned how then he started to enter competitions which and started winning some (Absolute Vodka and the AOP Assistant awards) and how these act as god media he then went on to talk about how he made this transition from assistant to working for himself and how he did this on the back of winning the awards to help boost him. He suggested making a list of all the contacts that you make whilst as an assistant and taking them your portfolio as they are likely to be a lot more receptive and will grant you a meeting. In his first year as a freelance photographer two people gave him jobs out of one hundred contacts he had taken his work to.  The first jobs he said a photographer will receive once going freelance would be low paid and low risk work and that you must gradually build up until you start receiving higher paid higher risk work. 

Eugene also talked a lot about portfolio's and what should be in them he suggested taking a mix of commissions and personal work. He said it was important to keep taking personal work as this can create commercial work later on whether an art director wants the idea applied to a commission or it could be bought in a stock library. 

Eugenio talked about having a signature image for him it is city skylines made out of objects which he has redone time after time with different objects, he mentions how this is important as art directors will want to use the same photographer who shot the image they have seen before as this eliminates a lot of risk. He has shot this signature image for Waterstones, Channel Five, Galaxy which just goes to show how a signature image can go on to create a lot more work.