It's been a month of ups and downs. I can't ever deny being more emotional than I probably should be, and so I get hopelessly excited about things before they happen and hopelessly miserable if nothing comes of them. The following chain of events took place over the last few weeks: out of the blue a particularly excellent opportunity came up, which would have involved travel (which is perhaps what I most want from my job at the moment) and work with a large client. There was a lot of back'n'forth and then when I heard nothing for a couple of days, dropped a line to see what the situation was. I got the answer back - oh sorry, been so busy I couldn't email you sooner, they picked someone who is more of a street photographer. Now, way back in the olden days, when I started this blog, I started it with the aim of discovering more about my own photographic practise with the hope of understanding better what sort of a photographer I'd like to be. This missed chance left me seething a little inside about my lack of specificity with me work - I have plenty of good street photography, such as these two shots from a way back.
I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with them, and I imagine that if I concentrated on it now I'd be able to produce much better shots. The issue is, I've never sold myself as any sort of photographer, and so if someone wants a street photographer, or a portrait photographer, or a fashion photographer, they will (naturally) look to folks who do just those sorts of photography.
I started looking at photographers agents, a depressing process. How can I sell myself as a swiss-army-knife sort of photographer when all anyone wants is a specialist? It doesn't even come down to quality - I'd back my technical know-how against most folks on account of four or five years of working with high-end fashion photographers as various levels of assistant. Also, there's a part of me that thinks that there are really only two sorts of photography - the sort where you take pictures of things that are happening anyway, and the sort where you make things happen and take pictures of it. But I can't change how everyone else approaches it all.
You'll notice all of this revolves around commercial issues; a very wise person suggested to me that a spot of just walking around taking pictures of stuff might be in order. I walked through most of central London for four hours on a Saturday night, and although the pictures aren't completely satisfactory, they're not awful, and gave me a bit of a confidence boost - I DO love taking pictures, and that is the most important thing. Here's some of the shots.
Ultimately what I'd like to develop is a style of photography that is all my own, that can be applied to any situation. I'm seriously thinking about going back to study - whether a Fine Art or a Photography MA remains to be seen, as does whether or not I can get into any academy that I'd want to go to. I don't claim to be the best (even though I probably have before) but overwhelmingly I want to be happy with what I'm doing; that's a tough place to get to. So, how about some celebration? Here's some pictures from my dad's birthday party last weekend.
Afterwards I went to watch the World Cup final with my brother at his mate's house. His mate's cat has the biggest nuts I've ever seen on a cat. Here's some pix.
Good kitty! So outside the real world, work has involved taking pictures of the Christmas PR launch for Tesco:
Indulging the wannabe movie director in me in me, here's some stills from a production I got invited along to shoot:
For Le Cool, Paloma Faith and Dave from The Invisible:
Jasmine Alexander:
and Andy Bell, who runs Festibelly:
