As part of the module, I was required to create a LinkedIn profile as a way of creating connections and networking through the industry. So, this is what I did today; I first signed up on the website and changed a few settings to make me recognisable on the page. My LinkedIn Profile can be found here. After setting up my profile I followed a few steps that would explain more about myself; I profiled myself as a student at the university and added a summary paragraph about where I was in my career and what I wanted to achieve. I then started to add my existing skills onto my profile (which I will expand over time) and finally allowed recruiters to find me for positions I would be hoping to work in.
0 Comments
As part of the THD1446: Applied Critical Languages module; a requirement was to create a website and a blog that would allow me to progress through my career after gaining my degree. When originally building the website, I tried multiple services such as wix.com, squarespace etc. but overall decided that weebly.com was the best for me as it was very simple to use and allowed me to directly include my blog on the website instead of having to use other services and embedding this onto my page. When choosing a template to create my website, I decided that I wanted to go for something quite simple that was easy to navigate. I chose to use 3 images that were linked to separate pages, these were; Still Life, Self Portraiture and Portraiture. I also included 4 links at the top of the page with basic links such as; Home, About, Contact and Blog as these were what I found to be essential when researching into successful photographers websites.
When creating my webpage my initial thought was to use Wix.com but since I experienced issues with it in the past, I decided to search for something different and came across Squarespace.com; I chose to look into this web designer at first as I had seen a lot of creatives create successful portfolios through it and had it recommended to me multiple times. When opening Squarespace, I created an account and chose a template that was similar to the style and layout I wanted for my own page. This is when the problems started and I couldn't figure out how to use it, I managed to get as far as a title before giving up as it was causing me a lot of difficulty due to me not being able to change the images on the template as well as not being able to find out how to get on to each individual page.
I then halted my production of the website production for a while and chose to focus on writing up my blogs in a word document until I could find the website builder that was right for me. The final visitor talk of the year was from Sian Bonnell, as an experienced individual in the creative industry; Sian went through her own work and journey through her time of being a creative practitioner. In the first of the projects that were mentioned in the lecture, Sian spoke about how she took inspiration from renaissance; this is very interesting as it allowed her to get the subjects to pose in more unusual ways while still focusing her work around something she enjoyed in her day to day life. Bonnell, S. (2011). Manners. Sian Bonnell. https://www.sianbonnell.com/manners/giibo58bybm7h4fq8g8r7a8pdl0r67
As part of the THD1445 module, it was required that a virtual interim exhibition was created so that the work created could be showcased and feedback could be given. For my show I followed with the theme of 'Isolation II - Self Discovery' in which I was creating a range of self portraiture images in a surrealistic way to express how the additional lockdowns have affected my own mental health. The exhibition can be seen here Building this virtual exhibition was definitely an experience that would be very helpful in the future as the current pandemic situation makes it very uncertain when exhibitions can fully return. I found building the exhibition quite easy and found that I could guide the consumer through them in the way that I want the images to be viewed.
The talk this week was from Amak Mahmoodian. Amak is an artist who was originally born in Shiraz, Iran and is now based in Bristol, UK; her work is known to body the sense of identity as well as home. In this talk, Amak spoke about her personal projects; in a certain project she explored how photography can be used for multiple levels which are official, personal and social. The way she seems to describe this is that if an image was put into these three separate levels, it would be viewed in three different ways; for example, a family photo from the social level would most likely not be up to standard for a official document photo such as a passport. The talk from Amak was interesting as it is not very often these things are thought about as images are normally created with the artists idea in mind. Mahmoodian, A. (n.d). About. Amak Mahmoodian. https://amakmahmoodian.co.uk/About
Todays guest speaker was Carlotta Cardana who describes herself to be 'an Italian editorial and commercial photographer based in London'. Like many other speakers mentioned in this blog, Carlotta described her own personal experience while working through the industry which she mentioned she struggled with at one time due to just picking up commissions that could have bene restricting her creative freedom. Due to this struggle she decided to move back to Europe and take time to work on her personal projects as this would have given her the creative freedom she wanted. This is very helpful to understand as often as a creative, it can be very difficult to have the motivation to create work that especially when you are not always 100% happy with the work; so it is very nice to know that even individuals who are now successful in the field have felt the same way in past times. Cardana, C. (2020). About. Carlotta Cardana. https://carlottacardana.com/about/
Cardana, C. (2020). Home. Carlotta Cardana. https://carlottacardana.com This weeks talk was given by Francis Augusto who is a London based photographic artist who describes his own work to be 'specialising in capturing humans in honest moments.' In this lecture, Francis spoke about multiple subjects including his own journey and work through the industry, the relationship between the artist and the subject, representation in the creative field etc. At the start of the talk Francis explained that he had not always been a photographer and originally started his career being a youth club volunteer and overall a youth worker; he then went into the research sector and became a researcher just before he started his initial career in photography. Francis described that he didn't want his work to be the most technically advanced as he wanted to use the documentary style to show true feelings and expressions of the subject that he was photographing; this can also relate to the part of the talk about the relationship that is created between the artist and the subject as Francis seemed to portray the idea that letting the subject be comfortable and natural with the photographer was very important. As a way to show representation and diversity in his work, Francis stopped individuals in the street and asked them if they would like to be photographed; this is a very good way of gaining diversity in a photography practice especially for documentary photographers as there is more likely to be a larger range of everyday people on the street, this technique of gaining models can also allow the images to be a lot more natural. Augusto, F. (n.d). Overview. Francis Augusto. https://www.francisaugusto.co.uk/overview
In this second session with Sophie Traynor, she took multiple questions off of students in the call which included questions about essential kit and what was needed post graduation; when answering this question she explained that over expensive and top quality kit wasn't needed straight out of graduation as it would become more of an investment as progression in the field occurred, this was very similar when speaking about renting studio spaces.
Another topic that was brought up was about booking models as a photographer with a smaller presence; when speaking on this topic Sophie gave a good description of what test shoots were and explained how it wasn't very necessary to pay a lot for model bookings at this point in the career unless desperate to work with them. Overall, this second talk with Sophie Traynor was very helpful as she answered a lot of questions in full detail and removed any confusion about becoming a freelance photographer that would have been present before the talk. The next talk received was from Sebah Chaudhry who is one of the co-founders and co-directors of the company 'ReFramed' Which aims to create a network for all people of colour that are interested in creative subjects such as photography; Sebah also describes her job role to be a freelance creative producer. In her talk, sebah spoke about how important connections were in the industry and how creating numerous networks was very helpful when progressing into a successful career in the creative industry. Another piece of advice given in the lecture was that being part of collectives such as 'ReFramed' helped create more opportunities and work as an upcoming photographer; the act of setting up briefs both personal and collective was also discussed as this is a efficient way of keeping on top of work and creating new pieces. ReFramed. (2020). About. ReFramed. https://www.reframed.uk/about
The first talk of the day was given by Simon Weldon, in this talk he spoke about his own personal practice which was conducted as part of a masters degree. The project that was spoke about showed the relationship between Simon and his father through the use of archival imagery; a lot of which was shot to document Simon's personal life at the time.
This talk; like previous mentioned in the blog showed that photography projects can be very personal and sometimes difficult to express to an audience as each consumer will gain a different idea about each image shown so, images that were intended to be seen in a certain way could portray a completely different message to someone else. As a previous speaker of the course, I have always found Rachel Browns work and practice very interesting. She explains her way through her career in this lecture and speaks about experiences she has had while shooting for projects such as 'Simulations' which she constructed between the years 2014-2018 in the areas of Palm Beach during her stay at an artist residency. From her first talk with our course in previous years, Rachel allowed me to discover and gain interest in the idea of residency projects; these types of projects are very interesting as they allow the photographer to gain access into places that may have otherwise been inaccessible. https://www.rachel-brown.com/projects Another thing that I found interesting when researching more into Rachels work was the layout of her website. Similar to these of Silvana and Nicole, she chose to keep a very minimalistic approach when creating the website which is something I have aimed to do with my own; this allowed the images to speak for themselves and was quite easy to follow along with each project as a consumer. Brown, R. (2008-2020). Projects . Rachel Louise Brown. https://www.rachel-brown.com/projects
When creating the final website, I first researched into a few already successful photographers own pages; many of which were part of our guest speaker lectures. These included:
Trevale, S. (2016-2017). Nosotras. Silvana Trevale. http://silvanatrevale.com/nosotras
Jopek, N. (2020). Beauty. Nicole Jopek. http://www.nicolejopek.com/beauty Brown, R. (2014-2018). Projects - Simulations. Rachel Louise Brown. https://www.rachel-brown.com/projects#/simulations/ Augusto, F. (n.d). Portraiture. Francis Augusto. https://www.francisaugusto.co.uk/portraiture Hurley, H. (2021). Beauty. Hazel Hurley. https://www.hazelhurley.co.uk/test Jade, L. (n.d). Beauty. Lara Jade. https://www.larajade.com/beauty A lecture given by Jack Latham who is a UK based photographer, explained how his practice allows him to make many mistakes and express these creatively. In the talk he explains about his times in places such as America in which he spent a month living in his car travelling across multiple states to overall shoot imagery for his photo-book 'A Pink Flamingo'; this project experience from Jack can express that photographers can face difficulties to get the imagery they want. In another part of the lecture, Jack spoke about competitions and funding that could be received when giving proposals for projects; this explained the importance of giving the consumer a good initial idea of what you are wanting to achieve in each photography project, as funding and competitions can be very good for networking purposes. Latham, J. (2020). About. Jack Latham. https://www.jacklatham.com/info/about
Latham, J. (2020). Home. Jack Latham. https://www.jacklatham.com The next talk was given by graphic designer and educator Vicky Carr, as one of the founders of Textbook Studio who describe themselves as being 'A graphic design studio focusing on image-making, visual identity and publication design for arts, culture and education.' in the lecture given by Vicky she chose to speak mainly about what the company do overall as well as how they made progress to get where they are today. One main part of the lecture that stayed with me personally was when Vicky mentioned about networking and discussed how this could grow after graduating if the work was put in; networking can be very helpful when it comes to making contacts and expanding on own personal progress. Textbook Studio. (n.d). Textbook Studio - Designers & Educators. Textbook Studio. https://www.textbook.studio
The first talk of the module that was received was from photographer Sophie Traynor who has become a very successful in the freelance photography career and has worked with many brands such as Adidas, Primark, Remington, etc. The work on her website can be seen to range from styles such as beauty and fashion to food and commercial product photography. https://www.sophietraynor.com In the lecture Sophie went through her own experience and progression while working through the industry since graduating from university in 2013. She explains how although finding smaller jobs came quite quickly; it took a few years and a lot of hard work in making connections and self promotions to get to the stage she is today. Traynor, S. (n.d). Home. Sophie Traynor. https://www.sophietraynor.com
In this talk with Tom, he spoke about his own personal experiences with the subject of photography. He mentioned a lot about his own personal projects are mainly based around his family life and childhood experiences wether this be through shooting images of the home or family members included.
The talk given by Tom expressed that although imagery by photographers is often created for an audience and public eye; it can sometimes have very personal meanings and experiences within the image. I found this section of the talk interesting as it allowed me to relate to my own personal project which is currently based around mental health and allowed me to think how I would portray this to a public consumer. In this lecture with Amanda Tinker who works in the academic skills part of the university; she gave a lot of advice on how to write a successful essay. I have decided to include this talk as part of the blog as the advice given has been helpful in many parts of the course as well as the intended extended essay. One of the main parts I took from the talk was setting up assignment schedule; this was a very helpful segment of information as I have previously struggled with my time management and have usually been in a rush towards the end of my assignments. Another important part of the talk from Amanda was the discussion about paragraph structure; this was again very helpful as I have struggled to keep a consistent structure throughout my work so getting advice on this topic could become very useful in the future.
Another talk that was used for the THD1445 module is the talk from Nicole Jopek who is a Manchester based photographer and retoucher. Nicole can be seen to shoot a lot of her work in a portraiture, editorial based style which is often very minimalistic and simple so the main focus is on the model or product. http://www.nicolejopek.com In a different way to that of Silvana's talk; Nicole spoke more about her personal experiences in the industry and less about how she progressed through to her current role. She spoke a lot of the retouching side of her career and how it was very possible to combine different roles when working for yourself which was overall very helpful. Jopek, N. (n.d). Home. Nicole Jopek. http://www.nicolejopek.com
As a previous student of the university; talks from Silvana have been very helpful and eye opening in the past, this one being no different. This talk from Silvana was originally intended to be used in the 'THD1445 - Advanced Research Strategies' module but I found that it became quite helpful when building my own website as I enjoy the style of Silvana's own webpage. http://silvanatrevale.com In the talk presented by Silvana, she explains and shows her own experiences and work throughout the time that she spent studying at the university. The main projects that Silvana spoke about in the lecture were the ones that she produced on her time visiting her home country of Venezuela which allowed her to express how passionate she was about her projects such as 'Venezuelan Youth and Nosotras'. In this talk Silvana also spoke about her experiences after university and how she developed her career to where it is now; as well as how she has worked differently throughout lockdown. Trevale, S. (n.d). Overview. Silvana Trevale. http://silvanatrevale.com
|
AuthorKatie Wingrove is a small photographer based around the area of South Yorkshire, she is currently conducting her final year of study at the University of Huddersfield. Archives
April 2021
|