Illuminate 2 - presenting my work and thoughts on the other artists

Last night I got to present my work at Illuminate: the Hull based organisation that aims to support local photographers in their work and practice. It was a fantastic evening with some great talent and very different approaches and skills sets from the practitioners showing. I thought I’d write up a blog post with my thoughts from the evening and what I learned and took away from the event, both from presenting my work and listening to others.

First up was Doncaster based photographer Les Monaghan, whose project ‘Aspirations Doncaster’ blew me away. I have to be honest and say that I didn’t engage with the project or images when reading about it in the programme, but seeing the project in its entirety and hearing about it from Les – everything made sense, and the images came to life. Les worked on a funded project, photographing young people and parents/carers, and he asked the child what did they want to be? He also asked the adult what they wanted to be when they were that age: so the image was presented with the aspiration of each underneath. The images when understood within an aspirational context were poignant and touching, and seemed to speak about the northern character and hope versus economic reality; only around 10% of the adults photographed had achieved what they said they wanted to be when they were younger, and when presented in an image with their child’s aspirations, it was rather moving. Les spoke about the nature of portraiture and context, and I appreciated the contextual setting of the photographs: school halls, classrooms and libraries, each reflecting the nature of ‘aspiration’, and made thought provoking links between aspiration and education. Powerful stuff.

We also heard from David Power, a local photographer who travels widely, and is influenced by cinematography and filmic images. I appreciated the cool menace in his everyday scenes, but I really loved his clean black and white images of snowy Poland, eerie airport scenes, and calm Japanese mountains. I commented at the end of his presentation that I loved David’s use of white space: his sense of composition in these black and white images is fantastic, and I think I could learn a lot from not being afraid of white and/or negative space in composition.

Andy Campbell-Jones presented his series ‘Sin City’; a series of highly visual cityscapes in high contrast format with pops of colour. His work, as he states, is heavily manipulated in photoshop, with his aim being immediate and striking visual impact. Andy is clearly an incredibly talented and masterful photographer with a keen eye for composition, and the digital manipulation of the images provided a thoughtful contrast between the dull grime of the cityscapes and the manipulated pops of colour, making the viewer think about the grey of a city and what lies beneath. Very clever stuff. I thought peopled images were less successful – somehow this technique seems to work best within an industrial and alienated landscape, but I enjoyed seeing his work, and he was a great presenter – very funny; fully admitting to being ‘A whore to the ‘Like’ button’.

Street photography is an interest of mine, and is earmarked for a future project of my own, so I was interested to hear from James Cooper, a Hull based street photographer who captures images of Hull and London. James’ black and white images were honest, candid and powerful, and I particularly appreciated the ephemeral quality of the work - that capture of a fleeting moment frozen in time, the sense that this scene won’t be the same a moment later – James did this extremely well. James cites Bruce Gilden and Vivian Myer as his inspirations, and I was glad of his informed presentation as it gave me some starting points to go and do my own research and exploration of other great street photographers.

Will Vine, a Hull born graduate of Newcastle University then presented his work, which was rich and incredibly detailed – with a luxurious yet archaic feel. Inspired by the work of Karl Blossfeldt, Will takes pictures of plants and weeds, and manipulates the images, often quite staged and editorial, the images spoke to me of Victorian melodrama, velvet and surrealism. What I loved about Will’s practice is that his images went beyond the ‘capture’ aspect of photography; Will takes an image of a weed or plant in an abandoned or overgrown industrial setting, manipulates it into beauty, prints the image and then places the image back into its setting, on a wall, provoking thought and discourse about belonging in a location, context, and perception. Will’s Q&A provoked discussion about Hull as a City of Culture, and young people returning to the city, which was great and seemed to be a part of the ‘buzz’ around City of Culture status. Will has returned to his home town after being away, and is in the process of opening a gallery ‘Ground’ on the much beleaguered Beverley Road in the new year – all very exciting stuff for the arts in Hull.

Not so much a contributor as a guest speaker, last up was Rich Wiles, with his incredibly powerful and award winning photographic series ‘Home and Exile’ and ‘Circus behind the Wall’. Rich is a Hull man, who studied at Hull College, and then after being involved with Hull Stop The War movement, lived in Palestine for 11 years. Rich’s documentary photography is mind blowingly excellent and of course, powerful and moving through the images alone, documenting the human reality of life in Palestine. His images of people, amongst their ruined homes, holding a key for a house that was destroyed 70 years ago, and even of simple joys were obviously wonderful, but his talk on his life in Palestine, and his views on war and documentary photography were incredible to listen to and not only thought provoking but view changing. Rich stated that he has been praised for the ‘invisibility of the photographer’ in his images, but talked about how you really have to live the lives of the people to truly capture an image, and spoke about the ethical issues of ‘dipping’ into war torn places, taking pictures from the back of a taxi with an expensive camera. It’s something I’ve often struggled with the ethics of, when wanting to take pictures of people less fortunate than myself, as I have to question of myself – what is the image for? Because it looks good? Or will it do some good? I think this is an ethical question which as photographers we all need to be aware of in our practice. Rich spoke about whether an image can change the world, or whether it can be an agent for social change. Not all photographers have a social context in their work, of course, photography covers a myriad of aesthetic and narrative purposes, but it was a thought provoking presentation and I am full of admiration for his work.

Who have I missed from the evening? Well I spoke of course, and despite nerves, I think I spoke well, and only ran out of time and missed one part – I had intended to speak about my future work and projects but didn’t get round to it. (Ten minutes is always shorter than you think it’s going to be!). My work seemed to be received well, although I did feel like the newest and greenest photographer amongst so much talent. I think this is a self-confidence issue, and it’s difficult to judge or place your own work. However, I was very proud of the work and the portraits that I presented, and of my learning and confidence on this journey. Feedback was that some of my work had a painterly or classical quality – which apart from the image of Laura with her child, I admit I’d missed. I was asked if I’d taken any inspiration from classical art, and I replied that I hadn’t – but life gives us inspiration and influence, and having studied the History of Art at University, I suppose I am attuned in some sense to the classical aesthetic, and with this knowledge it will be interesting to see how my work unfolds and whether this aesthetic can or should be developed. I was also asked if thought I would find the confidence to find my feel and my own direction as a photographer, as I’d stated in my presentation that I was aware I’d not found my own style yet. I answered that I thought this was some way off yet, and I spoke about confidence, anxiety, and self-doubt in a fairly honest and open way. I suppose that what I was getting at was that whilst anxiety and confidence do plague me from time to time, I am also aware that I am a new photographer, and it will take me a while to find my feet, my own sense of style, direction, and aesthetic as an artist – but that will come. The next stage of my journey is about developing technique, but also about researching other artists work and finding out what appeals to me, and why, and what direction I can take my own practice in. As I said in my presentation, I’m at the beginning, but that’s fine – it’s a great place to be.

To conclude Illuminate 2 was a great evening, educational and inspirational. However I do want to make a last point about women in photography. Although run by two incredibly talented women photographers, I found it faintly sad that I was the only female contributor there. I know there are some great female photographers in Hull, so what stops them submitting work for showing and discussion? Is it, like me, a confidence issue? Or a time issue? Without getting too political and feminist, and throwing a lot of facts and figures your way, it is true that women lack confidence as I do, tend to do themselves down, berate their own output and lack time, if dealing with the double burden of work and caring/home life. So here’s a shout out from someone who really should listen to their own advice more. Women: Stand up and be counted. Submit your work, be proud of it, come and show your amazing skills and let’s show everyone that the City of Culture is also the City of Equality.

With thanks to Anna Bean and Verity Harr at Illuminate for a great night.