Lets Begin

A portrait of myself, and what I consider to be my two best photos to date, or at least, my own two favourites. The portrait was taken in my and my partners studio here in South Wales, by Chris Langley who was on a Studio Lighting Workshop that I was running. It's still one of my favourite photos of me 18 months on, despite looking almost nothing like how I actually look (take away all the hair, then add a goatee and a close shaved moustache and you have an idea of the current iteration of myself).

"I was sat cross legged on the dining room table with an Ikea desk lamp in my left hand and a camera in my right"

The second photo, part of an ongoing series exploring urban spaces, vulnerability, tension and the man altered landscape, is one my favourite photos from my own work, and one of the most successful from that series if only in a matter that both during its time displayed in my studio and at The Workers Gallery it seemed to attract a lot of attention. The final image is a portrait of an old school friend taken for my college photography Btec. I was emulating the fashion photography of the Black Trinity. I took the photo in my mums dining room, the model is squished between an old cabinet and my mums ironing pile. I meanwhile was sat cross legged on the dining room table with an Ikea desk lamp in my left hand and my camera in the right. This image gained me a distinction for that module.

Why do I start with these images? because they appear to me as both a start and end point. Images that have begun my journey as a professional photographer and artist, but also represent my desire to be a success in this journey.

"This course was designed for people like you"

I recently had the pleasure of attending a talk at The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir, where i exhibit alongside other local working artists, and a select few international artists. Dan Wood and Paul Cabuts were to be in conversation about Woods latest Series "Gap in the hedge". A very interesting talk, and one I will cover in a later blog, but just before the talk commenced I was introduced to Paul Cabuts by the Gallery owner who insisted I talk to him about the MA I was about to start. It turns out he helped to devise this course! After explaining my intentions and what I was currently doing with photography Paul told me (I’m paraphrasing here) "This course was designed for people like you". He was referring to photographic professionals like myself, who wanted to move away from the monotony of commercial work, and who wanted to start really communicating with their images.

So here I am just a little more than a week in, beginning to realise, as i start a CRJ that really should have been started a week ago, that while this course was apparently designed for "People like me, That doesnt mean it will be easy. Especially as I am still working full time and this course has started during one of my most busiest wedding periods of all time!

Never mind though, because I am already enjoying talking and discussing work, and getting out to shoot something for myself, as an artist. Lets Begin.