Having gone back through week 3 and this week’s course material and reading resources I feel I have a much better grasp of direction I want to take my practice. The paper “The power of the personal project”¹ was particularly enlightening as I was initially surprised to read how modern commercial photographers need to create personal projects to attract clients. This makes perfect sense, given the image market is saturated with technically good photos, personal projects act as a platform to be seen above all the faceless images. This reminds me of the time spent as a camera club member and reasons for leaving. Almost each week there would be a competition with different theme, looking at the entries it became apparent very few images could be linked to any one photographer due to the lack of personality. Technically these images would be spot on but appear pedestrian or vernacular.

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The city I live in, Bath, has a healthy audience of gallery and museum goers who would be my target audience not only for exhibitions but also running photo walks and workshops (as a way of supplementing my income).I’m now in my last week of paid work so in the process of re-assessing my career aspirations beyond the next few months. My day job, in the (soon to be obsolete) heritage sector, has been a way of supporting my photographic practice. In the short term I am looking for work to support me short term whilst I build my practice.

For me the next five years will be crucial in building up a career in photography. As up until now photography has been my passion outside of work but what the MA has shown me is that there can be a viable way to turn that passion into a working career. I see myself with a mix of creating and curating exhibitions of my personal project and those of fellow photographers, whilst working on commissions. I am one step closer to this having agreed to a really exciting commission (however sworn to secrecy at this stage).

As the high street has been in decline, even before Covid 19, I have been looking a retail units that can be used as exhibition space. Organisations such as local councils, Historic England and the Arts Council are currently looking at ways to save the high street with grants being offered to projects. I am hopeful that I can use this as a platform to start my practice professionally. Despite Bath having a strong base in photography, the RPS was unitil recently based here and Lacock Abbey close by, there lacks a space for photographers to exhibit on a regular basis. My ambition is to create such a space, utilising my 15 years experience of managing museums and cultural venues.

Resources

¹ Scott. G, (2016) [Article] Journalism Practice, Professional Photography: the new global landscape explained, ‘The Power of the Personal Project’, pp. 82-109.