Free Range
The ideal scenario for the grad show is one thing, but reality is another. Time seems to disappear around the flux of deadlines; tutorials; scanning; printing; coffee; travelling. The show you picture in your head is of one standard, but for budget and pragmatic reasons the outcome is something less. I think the restrictions of university can be great in moulding photographers to adhere to deadlines and parameters; working efficiently and thinking on their feet. But I feel at the end of the process, photographers have become more contemplative in their practice, and need a little more thinking time to create outcomes that resemble ones project.
Showing work at Free Range was a rushed experience for me, still in the creative process of my project ‘Black Blood’, but needing to resolve it for the wall. This was more of a mid-way showing of the work, rather than the end piece. A project still in the ether of work-in-progress, but needing to be shown to the London public was challenging. A process however that really made me think about the state of my work, and where the project was going, and where it had gone.
An exhibit and book maquette that received good feedback was one thing, but the time to scrutinise my working process and where my practice was heading, was more valuable than I could have thought.
I think it was Jack Latham that said ‘Never leave university with a resolved project.’
The ideal scenario for the grad show is one thing, but reality is another. Time seems to disappear around the flux of deadlines; tutorials; scanning; printing; coffee; travelling. The show you picture in your head is of one standard, but for budget and pragmatic reasons the outcome is something less. I think the restrictions of university can be great in moulding photographers to adhere to deadlines and parameters; working efficiently and thinking on their feet. But I feel at the end of the process, photographers have become more contemplative in their practice, and need a little more thinking time to create outcomes that resemble ones project.
Showing work at Free Range was a rushed experience for me, still in the creative process of my project ‘Black Blood’, but needing to resolve it for the wall. This was more of a mid-way showing of the work, rather than the end piece. A project still in the ether of work-in-progress, but needing to be shown to the London public was challenging. A process however that really made me think about the state of my work, and where the project was going, and where it had gone.
An exhibit and book maquette that received good feedback was one thing, but the time to scrutinise my working process and where my practice was heading, was more valuable than I could have thought.
I think it was Jack Latham that said ‘Never leave university with a resolved project.’
27/06/18
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