audience

Art & Commerce

| Phil Hill

I teach digital media at an FE college, so my current practice is focused on this as my full time profession. I have also spent the last number of years working towards teaching qualifications and HEA Fellowship, which has meant the commercial aspects of my practice have taken more of a back seat. Prior to teaching, I was a full time freelance photographer, working on the travel and lifestyle sector mainly for airline publications (Fig: 1). Although this is far removed from the practice that I am aiming to develop on the MA, I do still license images from my archive on a fairly regular basis through a range of different platforms.

Figure 1: Phil Hill (2012) ‘Australia’s Wild West’ spread for Sawasdee Magazine (Thai Airlines).

Throughout this process, I have sought commercial opportunities with the work that I have produced for each of the module in order to raise my profile as an art practitioner over an editorial photographer. I enjoy teaching, so see myself producing longer term projects whilst moving more into higher education teaching in the medium to long term.

During the afternoon 'Children's Procession' at Gillingham Carnival. Part of Wessex Grand Prix: Gillingham Carnival
Figure 2: Phil Hill (October, 2019) Gillingham Carnival
During the afternoon 'Children's Procession' at Gillingham Carnival. Part of: Wessex Grand Prix
Figure 3: Phil Hill (October, 2019) Rory, Gillingham Carnival

During Positions and Practice for example, I created a project around Somerset Carnivals that I grew up with (Fig: 2). As this was the first project that I produced for the MA, I feel that it was more in line with the work that I used to produce. I aimed to share this work through a number of platforms and gained initial interest from the BBC and C41 magazine but unfortunately, owing to the pandemic, priorities changed, and the work no longer fit into what they were publishing. I did get one of the portraits from the series into the KLPA this year and although that has no reward as commerce, it does help to raise profile (Fig: 3).

Figure 4: Phil Hill (July, 2020) Beechfield School marketing banner
Figure 5: Phil Hill (July, 2020) Luis, Beechfield School.

During the last module, I also produced a series of images for a local school, which they used for marketing (Fig: 4) and in return I was able to access and create a number of portraits that contributed towards my project (Fig: 5).

Jumping to this module, my aim is to try and create some projects that would run alongside the development of my WIPP, which also have more commercial possibilities and could translate into funding and/or building of profile. To develop my approach from the first module, I also want to see the possibilities of creating work utilising the research, style and intent developed over the past year. I have been continuing to send work and have gained some interest, which has yet to translate into something tangible but has been quite positive. One of my aims since the beginning of the MA was to also explore the potential for funding, which might be more in line with my intent, so will be creating a community focused grant application to gauge possibilities in Art and Commerce.

Alys Tomlinson – Tomlinson comfortably blends both her commercial practice as well as her long term art projects on her website as there is a clear difference between these two areas. Her client list is very much based on working with institutions and focussed on people, which aligns quite well with her personal work, such as ‘Ex-Voto.’ She has said that she doesn’t see a significant need to separate these two on her site as they all represent her practice and her ability to work in both realms (2020). Tomlinson has also stated however, that even though she is represented by a gallery and she would like to see her work move towards this area, she acknowledges the need for her commercial practice to co-exist with her art practice (2019)

Clementine Schneiderman – What is most interesting about Schneiderman’s approach is how she embeds herself into the communities that she focusses her work on. And by doing so she creates opportunities for both her own practice and also commercial outlets for her images without compromising her intent. ‘It’s Called ffasiwin’ (2019) for example, is an ongoing collaborative project with a community of the Welsh Valley and merges seamlessly with commissioned work that she has completed for Vogue.

Simon Roberts – Roberts has established a practice that also blends his personal projects with his commercial work and seems to have reached a point where he is commissioned to create work related to this personal practice.

Planned Commerce
Grants

I stated in my project proposal for positions and practice that I was keen to go through the process of applying for grants and bursaries, especially during this module where it feels the most relevant. I have applied for others prior to this module, for example a Grain Bursary and the RPS Postgraduate bursary, which have been useful to work through the process of these kinds of application. I am interested to apply for an Arts Council Grant as I feel this too would be useful to explore possibilities and work through the process. My aim is to propose a project that is thematically related to my research project and can be worked on alongside it, if not form part of my wider project. As my research is centered around the idea of community, I feel that it would be a good organisation to work with and I also aim to include the college where I work as it performs an essential service for the community.

Writing

I have been developing my academic writing and during the breaks between modules, I have been aiming to consolidate my research by writing essays in response to ‘calls for papers.’ So far I have not had success at publishing any of these however, one of my essays was well received by the editor who replied with interest in the ideas that I presented but unfortunately it did not fit with what they were currently publishing. I take this as a really positive response to my writing yet my approach still needs to be refined. In that case, I submitted what I had instead of considering what they would be interested in, which is clearly not the right way to approach submitting work. I have now focused attention onto themed calls to create a piece of writing that is still speculative but also thematically expected. For example, I was forwarded an opportunity that called for papers on the theme of ‘Community,’ which aligns with my research project and I will work towards submitting for this. Additionally, this has the added benefit of supporting the research that I am creating for my photography.

Feedback from rejected essays has been a challenge as most organisations are not in a position to provide it. However, I recently entered the Source magazine writing prize and although I did not get my essay selected, the editor was willing to respond to my request for feedback, which I was greatly appreciative and intend to reflect and refine my approach to writing.

Bibliography

Schneiderman, C., 2019. Ffasiwn Magazine. Bristol: Bleak & Fabulous / Martin Parr Foundation.

Tomlinson, A., 2019. The Messy Truth – Alys Tomlinson on Awards [Interview] (11 November 2019).

Tomlinson, A., 2020. A Small Voice: Conversations with Photographers – Episode 123: Alys Tomlinson [Interview] (5 February 2020).

Strategies in Marketing my work

| Phil Hill

Now that I have my zine set up for sale on my website, I am considering a number of options to promote it.

Potentially, I could leave it as is for the duration of the Landings exhibition to see if there is any interest in the publication. This would be reliant on organic sharing of the work, which thus far I have not been successful with. What was the most valuable during the launch if landings was doing the 90 second Instagram Live video with Bekkie, which actually provided me with some great feedback in the comments and I also have since had a few additional followers and messages about the work.

To capitalise on this, I could promote the work through Instagram via a sponsored post that targets an audience interested in such publications. There is a great deal of debate as to whether this is actually worthwhile, some noting that sponsoring a post through Instagram is quite limiting with mixed results (Speer, 2019). Even though, I have only had limited engagement after the Instagram live, this does feel like the most successful way to increase an audience for my work.

That said, I find Instagram useful to share work quickly but it can become more of a time-consuming distraction in the hunt for likes and shares. More and more I am thinking that direct forms of marketing would actually be more effective in putting my work in front of people actually interested in commissioning and licensing images. There is still a lot of value to be had from the platform but other sites, such as Linkedin may actually be a better option as a way of achieving this. However, I am still reliant on a proprietary platform to share and market my work.

Classic mail
Figure 1: Phil Hill (July, 2020) Preparing to mail copies of my zine.

Another option that I am intending to do is use the zine as a marketing tool and send it directly to editors and other potential audiences (Fig: 1). This has the benefit of cutting out the use of social media platforms, which are noisy and is easy to get swallowed up within the sea of images already present. Sending my zine directly has the benefit of placing a tangible photographic object into the hands of someone who is potentially interested in the images. If they spend all day looking at work on a computer screen it also has the added benefit of a changed experience for the viewer.

It is crucial that I research carefully into which publications to send my zine to, in order to match my work with their output. Editor of Huck Magazine, Andrea Kurland notes that it is important to match the work that you produce with the ethos and values of the magazine you are pitching to and to not create generic pitches that target a large number of publications (Kurland & Creativehub, 2020, p. 32). A focussed approach in sending out fewer higher quality pitches is what I should be doing. Therefore, I have identified 15 publications to send my zines. I will mail these and, which will also contain a cover letter and business card and links to the gallery on my website.

Figure 2: Clementine Schniederman & Le Monde (2018) Feature in Le Monde Magazine.

Clementine Schniederman noted during her guest lecture (2018) that French Newspaper ‘Le Monde’ tend to be interested in British themed stories (Fig: 2), so this will be one of the publications that I send my zine. My project from the view of a media publication could be used to illustrate some kind of editorial, or opinion piece on the current situation. As I am looking at community, connection, and identity, these are all things that have been fundamentally affected by the pandemic. Much of the media will be reporting on the human impact and post-analysing of the event, which is where my work would sit together with supporting copy (Fig: 3).

Figure 3: Spencer Murphy & BBC (2020) ‘Coronavirus: Strange Days in East London’ feature on BBC In Pictures website.

Kurland also discusses the importance of considering how the image will work with the broader context of the publication. You might be more valuable to them if you can also write, or at least be able to supply images together with words, whether your own, or in collaboration with a journalist (2020, p. 32). This makes a lot of sense as the images may be fantastic, but there is nothing to contextualise them.

Figure 4: Phil Hill (2013) Words and Pictures feature for Thai Airways inflight magazine.

I have had some experience with feature writing to accompany my images whilst working as a freelancer, albeit for the travel and lifestyle work that I used to do (Fig: 4). Words in support of my current work is quite a significant difference, although I am aiming to develop this through a number of essays that I have written during and between the modules (Fig: 5). I did produce an editorial style experiment earlier in the module (only posting now because the zine took over), which utilises images created for the last module together with a short article I wrote on the impact of covid-19 whilst trying to find a place to live. I have not taken this any further just yet, but it was valuable to think about how my images can work with words and also how they can co-exist on a magazine-style layout (Fig: 6).

Gettier and the Pyramids
Writing as Process
Figure 5: Phil Hill (May – July, 2020) Top and Bottom, two essays written during Surfaces and Strategies.
Editorial spread exploration: ‘Brexit, the virus, and the rental trap’ PDF Download

Figure 6: Phil Hill (June, 2020) Editorial spread exploration using images and text together [click link to download].

Another avenue that I am interested in exploring is sharing my zine with the ‘Self Publish Be Happy’ library, as it states:

“Since issuing an open call in 2010 the library has received over 3,000 self-published books and zines from photographers around the world and become a key resource for academics, researchers and anyone interested in contemporary photography and visual culture. It continues to be open for submissions and anybody can send us their book.”

(2020).

This of course is fairly generic and my zine would get swallowed up into the many others that already exist there, however on a personal level I quite like the idea of sharing my work in this way and it seems much more focussed towards other photographers and artists who are interested in the medium.

Bibliography

Kurland, A. & Creativehub, 2020. How to show your work. 1 ed. London: Printspace Studios LTD.

Schniederman, C., 2018. Guest Lecture, Falmouth Flexible. Falmouth: Falmouth University.

Self Publish Be Happy, 2020. Library. [Online] Available at: http://selfpublishbehappy.com/library/ [Accessed 29 July 2020].

Speer, M., 2019. Promoting Your Instagram Posts: Is It Worth It?. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/@realmikespeer/promoting-your-instagram-posts-is-it-worth-it-e80787f59c31 [Accessed 29 July 2020].

Landings Zine outcome

| Phil Hill

I have received my zine back from The Newspaper club. It has turned out quite well and looks quite good on the newsprint. I think that maybe the images could have had a little more contrast, however feedback from my peers is that this works quite well (Fig: 1).

Figure 1: Phil Hill (July, 2020) I hope this finds you safe and well zine outcome [top and bottom]
Producing: Landings Zine
Figure 2: Phil Hill (July, 2020) Producing my zine for Landings exhibition.

I have discussed the process of creating the zine previously (Fig: 2), however to recap, I decided to create my zine in newsprint to create more of a tangible link to the place that I am focusing my research project this module. Watford has had a significant role in UK printing, including printing all of the colour supplements for Newspapers based here. I feel that this is a great link to pursue as my work can be viewed in a Sunday supplement context.

Workshop Planning

| Phil Hill

To link to my research project, I would be keen to run a workshop about creating work within the community. This could potentially be about how to approach people and places within the community and identify the cultural signifiers that make that place unique and why you are drawn to it – the reason why you want to take the images in the first place.

I am still getting to grips with grounding my project in this area, so I think the workshop would be just as important for me as it would be the participants. Especially. Plus, if the participants were also from the same community that I am making my work it would create valuable insight into how others perceive the same place, which I also live.

My workshop would comprise of peer discussion and Q&A to establish prior knowledge, understanding of socially engaged photography, and provide me with an opportunity to outline any learning outcomes and introductions. The workshop should take a day to complete, including practical time to go out and start to create images with the potential for a later plenary, or online presentation of work once participants have had the opportunity to create imagery.

Workshop Plan
Engaging with the Community: Workshop Plan (PDF Download)