UT - 6 images
UT Blog – Take/over/6/images
Recently I’d been asked to take part in an Instagram Takeover for 244 Network, a photography network for recent graduates through Northern England have a look here at www.twofortyfour.org
As part of this I was asked to choose 6 images that could go for posts, so thought I would show my journey (so far) in photography starting back in the 90’s…I do have some great images from before then but my archive isn’t what it should be!
The choosing of the 6 Images falls into a wider debate I’d been having about single images that define you (see other blog.) Thought it would be easier to show my work through 6 images, this was probably even tougher than the single image debate, think part of the problem is my fluid practice it’s something that’s been both a boon and a curse, it’s something which has cropped up in my careers a number of times. Was also one of the things I was told when leaving the Met was to specialise: hone your practice in.
Well when I left in 1996 I think, was working in music, nightclubs, portraiture, editorial, street, you name it etc. etc. I can see where they were coming from but I never really had the opportunity to do that, I said yes to any work I was offered and could get albeit in varying different degrees of successes (why is it that you remember the bad jobs rather than the good ones?*) so off I toddled into what was to be a near 25 year career (it’s funny how that C word has two meanings. You’ll have to guess which one I mean here)
It’s only now that I’ve had time to properly reflect on the happenings and goings on that I get a clearer picture and it’s great that I get chances like this of how to put my story into 6 images. I split it up into Rolleston, Stockport, paid editorial work, project work, MA and now. Not sure that completely tells the story but it tells a story, I’ve used a couple of these images in my biogs when introducing myself to a new class or teaching a module so they seem a little familiar to me at the moment but they are good to share and get comments on, conversations about photography becoming a big part of my practice.
The act of choosing an image to represent you is quite a definite and bold move, who was it who said that photographers are their own worst editors? Totally agree with that statement, it’s so difficult defining what you are and what the work says, everyone has heard my Beyoncé story but not sure that image suggests that, which could be another interesting blog*. You really have to step back from the work, dispel any personal memories, any happiness, any judgements, yes even if it took an age to get or that you spent x amount of getting it, it may not be the best or representational etc.
Editing to me has always been a strange process; it’s one that I’ve either spent too long on, 3 months sometimes or one done in the car ‘cause the pictures were absolutely needed in that 5 minutes window.
Now my advice is that editing needs time and thought and often another pair of eyes.. I think it’s one that photographers don’t talk about enough; it’s a lot like showing your contact sheets, a brave and exposing thing to do. Side question of does it matter if the shot took you 256 go’s or 2 to get?*
That’s one thing great about the current new directions in what I do is that I now feel I have more time, a lot more knowledge and direction about what I want to do. I put a lot of this down to doing my MA and the fact that I tech/teach now, this means that I can work to a different time scale and make work in different ways.
The old days were good but the new days will be so much better.
Thanks for reading
*Maybe I should try and answer that in an upcoming blog.