For those of you who already know Redeye, you will know what a great organisation it is and how excited I was to be selected to participate in Lightbox. This is how I have been describing the course when people asked what I was doing: a development opportunity for emerging photographers. And develop we did! Writing this is a great way to gather my thoughts about the whole experience and to let you know what I learnt.
Kristy asks the key question...
Wahey! – what can I say, its only been one week since the course finished and I am still feeling energized from the activities and excited in readiness for stage two, which will be a collaborative project with at least ten other photographers – yep that’s right a great big massive collaborative photo something or other for which we have to all try and get along!
These groups are in the process of being decided and I will hopefully keep in touch along the way so you can keep up to date with my highs and mad moments. Hopefully you can see the product of our activities in May for Look 2011 – the Liverpool photography festival. Our brief is to be “Photography as a call to action”!
The week passed by so very quickly. I met all of the other 40 participating photographers and saw a lot of photographic work, which made me want to go out and create better work for myself – always a result. We were all encouraged to bring along our portfolio as networking was the aim of the game. I now have zero business cards left!
What I found interesting was that some of the photographers I met, felt the same awkwardness as I when asked, “what do you do/take photographs of?” It’s a really challenging question. We all seek to define ourselves and yet it seems are unsure of our creative practice. I need to work on this one and figure out my ‘mission statement’, having been convinced to do so in Lisa Creagh’s talk.
It was great to be in an environment where you could talk to others about your work, get critical feedback and return to the mindset of thinking creatively. I have had a few ideas for projects since being back home – my next stage?
DO THEM!
This is a list of the marvelous people who came to talk with us all, with the lovely Paul Hermann from Redeye as chair of the event:
- Dewi Lewis
- Ceri Hand (Ceri Hand Gallery)
- Christian Payne (Social Technologist)
- Stephen Snoddy (Artistic Director of Look 2011)
- Dr Adrian West, De Bono Foundation (creative and constuctive thinking skills)
- Blank Media Collective
- Lee Taylor (Editor of Flux magazine)
- Lisa Creagh (Marketing – Metro Imaging)
- Chris Hammond (Full Circle Arts)
- John Darwell (Photographer & Artist)
- Frankie Mullen & Julia Brosnan (Dovetail-marketing & project management)
- AJ Wilkinson (Photographer & Lecturer)
As you can see it was a packed week and its great that Redeye got so many talented and enthusiastic people to come and talk to us. We discussed what it is like to collaborate, new media outlets, ways of working, creative thinking techniques, what it actually means to publish a commercial photo book, cuts in arts funding and the general state of things.
Favourite comments from the week:
- Christian: “get on twitter and audioboo and connect with people!”
- Dewi doesn’t know what he wants until he sees it
- Ceri: “if you think your doing enough work, your not-create more! And ‘collaboration is like jazz, you riff off each other”
- De Bono: “decisions come from emotions, examine ideas from different directions and challenge your assumptions; ‘Do you need an audience for an exhibition?’”
- Full Circle Arts: “The New World: Credibilty, Reputation, Merit, Quality and Creativity”
- Blank Media: “If you see something missing, create it yourself”
I imagine you are tired from just reading about what happened, I was super tired from all the brain activity! Redeye Lightbox was, and still is, an amazing opportunity for people like me – determind, creative and photographic – but who need a helping hand. I hope you take away something to muse upon, I did.
