With the aim of developing my professional practice, and after the content from week 7, I have started to consider ways that I can improve the way that I am sending my work out to potential publishers, editors etc.
Key Takeaways from the presentation
Embedding images into email: Makes great deal of sense as editors will receive many emails per day, so reducing the amount of work it takes to get to those images is fundamental to getting my work seen
Portfolio: Having a physical portfolio is important as many people who see digital work all day appreciate the tangible qualities of print. What I personally like about a physical portfolio (a box of prints anyway) is the way that it allows the viewer to arrange and sequence work as they see fit, which allows a much more personal viewing experience. I have a box and sleeves, but have not updated the images within it. Something that I aim to update soon. The only caveat or course is the limit to face-to-face meetings that are happening now however, there is still potential to send portfolios for review if this is preferred.
Treatment: Not something that I have truly considered however, there is much potential to create a ‘treatment’ that highlights my unique visual language when writing proposals, for example.
Language: During the presentation Amy Simmons mentioned how using the language that is in a brief when creating responses and treatments. Something that I feel that I have been aware of but not sure, if I really capitalise on it. Considering this, I think it would be useful apply this tip when grant writing, which would really show consideration for their values. It would also be useful when writing pitches to publishers.
Much of the content within the presentation, I already knew, or at least was reminded of from my former practice as a freelancer. I have not been applying much of the tips to my recent sharing of the work, which linked to the amount of time that I used to do this regularly. The presentation was an important reminder to ensure that I am following some of the more effective ways of getting work in front of potential clients.
Keeping things a secret
Many of the photographer interviews that I listen to refer to certain projects and work, which is under wraps for the time being, or secretive until they are published. During Anna’s live lecture, she also mentioned that publications such as the New York Times would not publish anything that has already appeared on Instagram or personal websites. I have been quite keen to place everything that I have been photographing online, yet this could actually be detrimental to the success if my work – especially as I would also include a link to my website. My audience online is modest however, making the work freely available for public consumption would have an undermining impact on its monetary value, for both publishers and myself; whether or not my copyright is respected. Instead, it would be beneficial to share bodies of work after I have explored other avenues. This would retain its exclusivity and potentially monetary value. Ultimately, the work will end up online; it is just a question of timing.
On this note, I am going to pause the sharing of my work on Instagram and instead present it to potential clients in the first instance. I am also going to archive some of the images that I have shared recently to support the re-packaging and sharing of my carnival work and see how this affects its potential for publication.
Bibliography
Simmons, A., 2017. Week 7: Commercial Commissions with Amy Simmons, Falmouth: Falmouth University.
I have been reflecting on ways to utilise and market my work for publication. This is to extend the reflection that I started when gathering feedback on the previous story posts (Fig: 1 & 2). In doing so, I have come back to the work that I produced for the first module to create some new sequences and consider the different ways the images might be read.
Figure 2: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Additional ‘story’ created to gain peer feedback.
After the previous week’s forum and some of the feedback I received, I also do not want to try and explain away the images and see how they might be forming the narrative themselves (Fig: 3):
Figure 3: Phil Hill (September – November, 2019) Images selected for the Week 7 ‘Tell a Story’ task. [Click to Enlarge]
After my initial discussion on the idea of ‘rurality’ (Beynon, et al., 2016) and how Watford exists as a place between countryside and urban sprawl, I have been considering this as a way to create links between the people I am photographing and the landscape. It was suggested that I also look at the book ‘Edgelands’ by Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley (2011), which I have found to be particularly useful in exploring the boundaries of what makes the countryside and a town.
Figure 1: Roy Stryker (1939) Shooting Script for a small town
I have found that from some of my earlier research on the shooting scripts written for the FSA photographers by Roy Stryker (Fig: 1), as suggested by Todd Hido: “One of the most remarkable documents I’ve ever seen was the shot list Roy Stryker made of the things he wanted FSA photographers to shoot in order to convey the feeling of a common experience” (2014, p. 123). What I found immediately when reading through Edgelands, is the connection and links to the way that Stryker defined the areas that he wanted photographed in how Symmons Roberts and Farley are creating definitions of things and places within the concept of an ‘Edgeland’ informed by the experience of walking through them. What I have also found particularly revelatory, is that I have been photographing such places and objects fairly consistently (Fig: 2) and even more so, many of the areas that they refer to in the book are also places in the locality of Watford, for example the Lea Valley and the Ovaltine building in Kings Langley, not far from here (Fig: 3).
Figure 2: Phil Hill (June, 2020) Den photographed for Surfaces & Strategies WIPP (Unused). Dens are referenced in ‘Edgelands’
Figure 3: Zoopla (2020) Ovaltine Building in Kings langley
Symmons Roberts & Farley note: “Edgelands are part of the gravitational field of all our larger urban areas, a texture we build up speed to escape as we hurry towards the countryside, the distant wilderness” (2011, p. 5). This is a statement that I have particular resonance with as my own connection with the place is born out of this need to escape. Watford is built on its significant transport links; the direct rail into London, which is quicker than if you lived between two zones within the city in some cases. The M25 & M1 motorways cut through the town and multiple junctions service it. Historically, the canal also passes through. All of these transport link serve to bypass, go round, or straight through the town, to speed you in an out of London, or to the countryside (Fig: 4).
Figure 4: Google (2020) Map of Watford and surrounding area.
It is a concept that Marion Shoard also discussed in ‘Remaking the Landscape’ describing them as “vast in area, though hardly noticed” (2002) and in this sense, Watford is essentially an edgeland in the sense that its infrastructure has been designed to take you away from it. Considering Symmons Roberts & Farley’s own definition of what an edgeland is “The trouble is, if we can’t see the edgelands, we can’t imagine them, or allow them any kind of imaginative life. And so they don’t really exist” (p. 5), which is seemingly supported by Lonely Planet’s guide to Britain that makes no mention of Watford, even after making this assertion about Hertfordshire:
“Amid the ever-widening commuter belt surrounding London, the tiny county of Hertfordshire has somehow managed not to lose all of its open farmland to the suburban developer’s bulldozer, which lends the area a charming pastoral quality” – Lonely Planet Guide to Britain
(Else, et al., 2003, p. 250).
Figure 5: Lonely Planet (2003) map showing Hertfordshire without Watford
To be fair, Watford is neither Charming or Pastoral so probably doesn’t warrant a mention, yet Hemel Hempstead, a town a mere 7 miles away, does make the map (Fig: 5) and is mainly famous for the Buncefield Refinery fire of 2005 (Lewis, 2015). Instead Watford blends into the M25/London homogenisation on this map. A YouGov survey also recently concluded that 27% of people thought that Watford was a part of London (Cowen, 2020), suggesting that it’s place in the commuter belt is confused with being another part of the city – it is already on the TFL map after all.
Figure 6: Keith Arnatt (1986-7) From ‘Miss Grace’s Lane’
Using this as a basis for experimentation has a great deal of value as I have found it quite challenging to begin looking at landscape in a different way to how I have been approaching it up to this point. It is also quite a nice development that builds on the idea of the shooting script and how I have been utilising the black and white medium to reference photographic works, such as the FSA. The challenge however, is when hanging my approach completely on the concept of Edgelands it is the shear amount of work that has already been produced around this, whether explicit or implicitly. For example, Keith Arnatt’s notable series ‘Miss Grace’s Lane’ (Fig: 6), also referenced in edgelands, explores the concept quite effectively, albeit attempting to empirically look at the detritus left down country lanes: “this is the work of an artist noticing things in the landscape without recourse to judgement or polemic” (Farley & Symmonds Roberts, 2011, p. 69). Perhaps my own differentiation and take on the subject might place more of a subjective viewpoint on the reason behind pointing a camera at such places, which is based in my own experiences of them.
Images inspired by Edgelands and rurality
Figure 7: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Edgelands inspired shoot
I have started to photograph Watford as a kind if edgeland with the aim of showing the boundaries of the place; The locations and objects that frame the town and also where the rural elements start to creep back in (Fig: 7). From this investigation, I hope to be able to create a visual language that explore the characteristics of place and the impact that this might be having on the people who live here.
Figure 8: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Reflection on the surface of the image
Figure 9: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Throwing focus ‘surface’ experiment
I wanted to explore the idea of a boundary by utilising the qualities inherent in the photographic process to create a visible boundary, which I discussed in a blog post on ‘Flatness’ (Fig: 8). I enjoy the abstraction that these images create (Fig: 9) however, made a decision to re-look at my existing approach informed by edgelands. There might still be potential to include some of these into the wider narrative as that starts to form, perhaps in a similar way to how I aimed to resolve my wipp in Informing contexts, maintaining links to imagery and research there. However, the work may become disparate, which is something I am keen to avoid as I respond to feedback on the links that I make with my images.
Night
Figure 10: Richard Billingham (2004) From ‘Black Country’
Figure 11: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Night experiment inspired by ‘Lights’ chapter in Edgelands.
There was a chapter in edgelands dedicated to the way that artificial light inhabits the land at night, disrupting and penetrating spaces that would naturally be void of it during this time: “What does an edgelands night look like? Looking up, a cloudy night can give back anything from a muddy orange to a bruised magenta, with many nuances of pink and red and brown in between” (Farley & Symmonds Roberts, 2011, p. 233). Richard Billingham photographed such places in his series ‘Black Country’ (Fig: 10), utilising the way that colour film resolves artificial colours to create and interesting mix of flood lit orange and fading blue skies that create a solemn feeling of a nigh time landscape void of people. Not wanting to emulate this but also consider it as a way of showing the boundary, I created an experiment in black and white (Fig: 11) to explore the concept however on reflection feel that it is leaning to far towards an entirely different direction that needs development together with the need to additionally develop the technical execution of the technique. Again, there is potential to include some into the wider narrative once the sequencing of the work starts. I am considering methods of including a more cinematic approach to this, which might be valuable to have some time of day options.
Photography as dialogue
I have referred to this concept but not as yet really sought to develop it. If I am aiming to have a better dialogue with the place that I live through my images, what is it that I am trying to glean from the images that I am making? Is the communication that this suggests clear and concise? Clearly, I have some work to do in this area to better define what I mean by a ‘dialogue.’ Tiffany Fairey & Liz Orton, when referring to Ariella Azoulay et al state:
“They call for a renewed articulation of photography that moves us away from a singular, vertical focus on the work of specific photographers and seeks to understand photography as a ‘certain form of human being-with-others in which the camera or photography are implicated’”
Figure 12: Phil Hill (February, 2020) Discussing Patrick Waterhouse and Martin Parr
Therefore, my own approach will require me to analyse all the ways that I am engaged in conversation and collaboration with both people and place. Fairey and Orton’s discussion around this topic is particularly important to the way that I have been approaching as they make particular reference to the work of Patrick Waterhouse (Fig: 12) who I have discussed and referenced as a good example of collaborative and socially engaged work, yet they note that caution is required “as it is unclear how much control the Aboriginal participants have had over the final published collection of images” (2019, p. 303). I had ultimately not considered this argument when discussing this work.
Figure 13: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Developing a funded project application.
Consideration to the above will play a particular importance to my work putting together a funding application for a socially engaged community project (Fig: 13) and in turn will inform my research project in preparation for the FMP. I must aim not to impose my ideas of an outcome on those I am working with but instead come to a collective agreement, which is only facilitated by me.
What I am still missing and how to develop my approach?
There appears to still be a disconnect between my portraits and the landscape images I am creating now. Much of this is born in the way that I am separating the process of photographing. I specifically go out to photograph one or the other and rarely cross over. This is a clear area of development for me. Key influences for the way that I have produced portraiture are informed through the work of Vanessa Winship and Alys Tomlinson who use a individual approach focussing on the subject together with a shallow depth of field (Fig: 14) however, it is still clear, even subtly, that the portraits are connected to the landscape and detail images. I must make more of an effort to provide subtle hints of place even when solely focussed on the individual. Sequencing and juxtaposition may play a part in this when I come to editing my next WIPP
Robert Frost Desert Places and Roland Barthes Living Together.
An area of research that I intend to return and see if I can inform these connections is Roland Barthes’ lectures on ‘How to Live Together’ (2012) and the links that Stene-Johansen, et al (2013) make to Robert Frost’s poem ‘Desert places’ (Frost, 1936), which may provide a justification to the way that individuals live separately yet in the same spaces, or ‘iddiorythmically’ (2013, p. 16).
Bibliography
Barthes, R., 2012. How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of some Everyday Spaces. Translation ed. New York: Columbia University Press.
Beynon, M., Cawley, A. & Munday, M., 2016. Measuring and Understanding the differences between urban and rural areas, a new approach for planners. Environment and Planning B. Urban Analytics and city Science, 43(6).
Cowen, J., 2020. The number of people who think Watford is in London. [Online] Available at: https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/18819747.number-londoners-think-watford-london/fbclid=IwAR398HcsoJqBRjAmOCmy_QYuFCNDDUKgNkGXky8QD0u_Ic838Fc8ZdsTXxU [Accessed 30 October 2020].
Else, D. et al., 2003. Lonely Planet: Britain. 5 ed. Footscray: Lonely Planet Publications.
Fairey, T. & Orton, L., 2019. Photography as Dialogue. Photography & Culture, 12(3), pp. 299-305.
Farley, P. & Symmonds Roberts, M., 2011. Edgelands – Journeys into England’s true Wilderness. London: Vintage.
Frost, R., 1936. A Further Range. Transcribed eBook ed. s.l.:Proofreaders Canada.
Hido, T., 2014. Todd Hido on Landscapes, Interiors, and the Nude. New York: Aperture.
Lewis, K., 2015. Buncefield explosion: ‘I thought a plane landed on us’. [Online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-34919922 [Accessed 30 October 2020].
Shoard, M., 2002. Edgelands: Remaking the Landscape. London: Profile.
Stene-Johansen, K., Refsum, C. & Schimanski, 2013. Living Together: Roland Barthes, the Individual and the Community. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
This week I met with the Art Development and events officer for Watford Council to discuss my idea for working on a funded project and also ways that I might be able to gain support. This was extremely valuable as I was able to gain a number of insights into the kind of projects that Watford funds and also consider ways to strengthen my own application.
Figure 1: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Initial Idea into a funded project based on community.
With the aim of working on a community themed project, which aligns with my research project goals, my idea is to work with students that attend the college that I work at and work with them to create a picture on the impact that recent current events is having on their generation (Fig: 1). The idea has been well received by people that I have shared it with, artist’s Jennifer Essex and Harry Mann noting that there are opportunities for a range of community engagement with such an idea (Fig: 2). That said, they suggested that I might consider widening my scope to include other institutions and also I should aim to take my time to develop a really strong application to the Arts Council.
Figure 2: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Development and discussion with Artist pair, Jennifer Essex and Harry Mann about my Arts Council application.
The Art Development officer was also very positive about my idea for the project and also made some suggestions to strengthen my approach. Chiefly, my application would need to demonstrate the following:
Education: This is an area that I had in mind for the project as I am keen to apply my teaching experience to create a more socially engaged approach. Potentially, I would include a number of workshops that could initially include photography and talks to work with the young people and give them the tools to create their own stories.
Collaboration: Very much linking to the above. My aim is to work with the people I want to photograph and also give them the opportunity to shape the direction of the work. Their contribution will be incredibly valuable to the process.
Sound Budget: Something that I am currently working on. I think value is at the heart of what I am aiming to achieve here so my budget will need to reflect this. I am keen to create the work on film as it lends a tangibility to the project that the 16 -19 age group may not have experienced so will need to justify this additional cost of production.
Additionally, he also mentioned the following, which would really help support my application and getting the project off the ground:
My idea was inspired by the idea that the demographic of an FE college has one of the worst levels of social mobility, coupled with the ongoing economic impact of current events and the way that FE was essentially forgotten about during the summer exams issues, with some of the student still awaiting outcomes for their exams and qualifications. I am keen to showcase this age group and highlight some of the challenges faced by them. The Arts Officer was keen on this aspect of the idea and although he suggested that this shouldn’t be overtly political, it is something that exists and should be part of the application and project.
Watford was due to be Herts city of culture. Postponed due to Covid. However, there is potential to put something together for this ready for next year when this is planned to go ahead.
There have been relatively few applications to the Arts council from this area and they are keen to see some happening. This is particularly positive as I was concerned that the south east would be an area of high competition and it would be a challenge to cut through. Not to be complacent however, I intent to work on a robust application and ensure that it can be a success.
As a result of this meeting, I will be developing my draft proposal to share with Watford Council and consider the ways in which it can be supported. The Officer mentioned that there are also a number of other funding options available that my idea might suit, which provides additional potential to have my project funded.
