Submitting II

As I move towards the end of the MA, I am considering the amount of submissions that I have made versus the return on many of these. I am considering the important of being able to talk with professionals after the MA is over, especially as I move to get my project published. I have already made an inquiry to Gem Fletcher who is well regraded for her professional mentorship and have suggested that I can arrange an initial meeting in the autumn, ideally before the launch of the Four Corners exhibition to gain insight into how to maximise this opportunity. I have also applied to be a part of the next round of ‘East Meets West’ Masterclasses by Format Festival (Fig: 1), which I feel would be beneficial to continue to develop my practice. I am considering carefully, which opportunities that I apply for as in variably they are pay to play and it will be important to ensure value.

Figure 1: Format Festival (2021) East Meets West Master Class Program

One area that I am keen to continue developing is the way that I write about my work. I feel confident now writing academically, and also as part of the process of my practical work. Where I feel there is areas to improve is the short synopsis that supports my projects acceptance into exhibitions, festivals and other opportunities. For example, I applied for a number of Photo Festivals over the year, with little success. Although, Photo Australia 2022 did take the time to comment that they were impressed with my practice (McCleary, 2021) there is clearly some work to do in order to get my work across the line.

Figure 2: Royal Photographic Society (2021) Joan Wakelin Bursary

Considering my next steps, I also made an application to the Joan Wakelin Bursary and pitched a project idea that encompasses much of the research and practice that I have done over the past two years (Fig: 2). This will be considering the community of where I am from and where my family still live, considering the ways that they are finding it ever more difficult to live there.

As a subscriber to the British Journal of Photography, I have submitted my project to the International Photography Award and will also be able to submit a series of portraits for the Portrait of Britain Awards.

Figure 3: Rake Collective (2021) Open Call

I have also recently applied to the RAKE Community 2021: Practitioners-in-Residence! opportunity (Fig: 3), which is seeking persons to complete a month research activity and engagement online through their social media platforms and also in collaboration with other participants. I feel that this would be a good opportunity to continue my exploration into the cut photograph that started my FMP project.

Bibliography

McCleary, B., 2021. Photo 2022 Open Call. [Email]

Fotospeed and podcast interview.

Earlier in the year I discussed my project and the concepts and research behind it. This was an earlier iteration of the project than it is now but it was really valuable to discuss the work. I always find that these kinds of discussions are really valuable in consolidating my thoughts about the work:

Fotospeed

Figure 1: Fotospeed & Phil Hill (2021) Fotospeed Talk with Phil Hill

Togcast

I was also interviewed for an episode of the ‘Togcast’ talking about my experinece as a mature student doing an MA and how that has shaped my practice and my FMP project: https://thetogcast.podbean.com/e/in-focus-photography-in-higher-education/

Figure 2: The Togcast (2021) Togcast Logo

Output – Exhibtion

During the MA, our cohort German Bight has formed a collective called ‘The Long Exposure,’ which was a response to the first lockdown where we would take turns to share experiences of the pandemic. We have since decided that it would make a good platform to continue collaborating after the MA is finished and have set up a web page in addition to the Instagram profile (Fig: 1).

Figure 1: The Long Exposure (2021) The Long Exposure collective Instagram profile page.

What this means in the short term is we now have a framework to work together and create output for our photographic works.

Landings 2021 – What happened Next?
Figure 2: Phil Hill (July, 2021) What Happened Next? Exhibition logo.

For this year’s Landings exhibition, everyone was asked to form curating teams and create mini exhibitions. TLE came together to create an open call postcard exhibition that would be a way of channeling thoughts, feelings, dreams and actions, journey of the last 15 months into the creation of a new single image that would be submitted and turned into a postcard, which would be printed and shared to create a series of local mini exhibitions.

We were pleased to be selected for Landings and will work on producing the exhibition. I have contributed a logo (Fig: 2) and will continue to support the effort in putting it together.

Four Corners

We also want an opportunity to celebrate our efforts of the last two years and are in the process of creating a group show, which would be held at Four corners gallery in Bethnal Green. As a group we considered a range of locations and have settled on Four Corners because of its position within the London Photography community. Victoria, Tim and I went for a visit over the weekend and were impressed with the space and level of support that they are willing to give us in putting together the exhibition in October.

Although Bethnal Green is slightly outside of an areas that might have a much higher foot fall, because it is a dedicated photographic centre it would have the benefit of being well-known to the photographic community who would be willing to make the journey to the gallery. Additionally, because of its status and also having labyrinth photo lab in the basement means that we would also gain incidental viewing of both the gallery and the lab’s clients visiting during the exhibition.

Figure 3: Phil Hill (July, 2021) Four Corners Gallery, Bethnal Green, London.

The space was large and bright, with plenty of room for everyone involved. It also has the opportunity to showcase multi media presentations and a good window display. Personally, having the opportunity to set up and exhibition as a collective allows me to show work in London to people interested in seeing it and potentially commissioning it. As I do not have a great deal of experience in exhibiting and setting up exhibition, this will provide me the platform to mitigate cost and be part of the process supported by my peers.

At the time of our visit, there was an exhibition by ‘PH: The Photography Research Network,’ who are a collective of PHD students creating work around re-considering the photographic medium in contemporary settings: “How must we – understand the connection between photography and people’s ways of life in today’s post-factual world’ (Pasternak, 2021). It was valuable to see an exhibition by a collective to gain a sense of how this work, which is all quite different, sits together in one space (Fig: 3).

Bibliography

Pasternak, G., 2021. Bridging The Distance – PH: The Photography Research Network [Exhibition]. London: Four Corners Gallery.

Communities and Communication update

Figure 1: Phil Hill (April, 2021) Reflecting on the Conference presentation

Off the back of the Communities and Communication conference that I took part in April (Fig: 1), I was invited to submit my paper for their upcoming publication. I am really please that I am able to submit an academic piece of writing for a university publication as this was one of the goals of the FMP. The paper will be an extension on the presentation that I delivered, with a deadline for submission just after the FMP deadline. I will have my work cut out putting together the writing as I am required to produce a 6000 word paper.

It is giving me the opportunity to revisit in detail a lot of the research that I have been considering throughout the FMP and see new relevance for it for the FMP. In particular, I am forming discussion around the idea of Roland Barthes’ ‘Iddiorrythmy’ (2013) Susan Keller’s Community as an ongoing search between the individual and the community whole (1988), Graham Harmon’s Object Orientated Ontology (2018). I am also able to apply in greater depth the way that I am also looking at photographic memory and nostalgia.

I will be able to apply much of this thought and discussion when I come to write the Critical Review.

Bibliography

Barthes, R., 2013. How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of some Everyday Spaces. Translation ed. New York: Columbia University Press.

Harmon, G., 2018. Object Orientated Ontology – A New Theory of Everything. 1st ed. London: Pelican Books.

Keller, S., 1988. The American Dream of Community: An unfinished Agenda. Sociological Forum, 3(2), pp. 167-183.

Communities and Communication conference reflections

Figure 1: Phil Hill (2021) Conference paper and presentation

I found the experience of delivering a paper on my research to be a really valuable one (Fig: 1). Even though the presentation centered around the photography that I was producing for the last module, the paper that I wrote was written recently and created an opportunity to re-assess some of the research that I have done throughout this MA. It highlighted the areas that remain relevant to my practice and also some of the areas, which I had moved on from but would benefit on a closer re-evaluation for the FMP. For example, Barthes’ concept of the idiorythmic is and area worth applying to my current work – how we have our beliefs but entrench and separate them from each other, even refusing to accept the opinion of others. This is something that I can use for ‘Unreliable Narrator.’ Barthes also spends time discussing the way that a communities sense of self is built on (among other things) what it excludes, but also can choose to keep the expunged close as a way of comparing oneself (2012, p. 81). There are also elements of distance, which Barthes refers to Nietzsche’s ‘Pathos of Distance’ to highlight the way we elevate ourselves above what we wish to expel to create a kind of nobility (p. 132). I made this reference in relation to the way that we distanced ourselves during the pandemic but feel that it could easily refer to the way that we distance ourselves from one another through belief and ideas. I came to this research fairly early in the MA process but quite enjoy the way that its importance changes with the context of the way that I work.

Ross, was also working on delivering a paper at a separate conference, and it was also really valuable to gain peer support in the writing and editing of the presentation.

Figure 2: Phil Hill & Communities & Communication (2021) Online Communities and Communication Conference

Conference takeaways

Keynote speaker, Nichola Twemlow made an interesting observation regarding the young people that she supports through the YMCA. Talking about the value of communities, she noted:

“people can define themselves by the labels they are given”

(2021)

This really resonated with me and the way that I might consider applying class under the project themes. Working at an FE college I can really relate to this statement as the demographic of students that I teach regularly do not believe in themselves and the potential value that they have. For example, the Btec qualification that they study is considered slang for something being second rate – ‘that’s such a Btec xxx.’ It also really resonates with my own personal experiences if growing up within a working class home – the idea that you are not good enough is something that I hear often from my close family and potentially fuel for some of the other beliefs that they hold. Darren Mcgarvey understands this feeling when he discussed the way that the EU referendum argument for remain was based very much in the ‘on average’ benefits that it would have without truly grasping that if you come from a below average (economically) then these are not actually benefits to you (2018).

Twemlow’s statement is a useful method of framing aspects of my project and a way of discussing some of the content that I might include in a final sequence.

Bibliography

Barthes, R., 2012. How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of some Everyday Spaces. Translation ed. New York: Columbia University Press.

McGarvey, D., 2018. Poverty Safari. Main market edition ed. London: Picador.

Twemlow, N., 2021. Communities and Communication Conference 2021: Connections. Staffordshire, Staffordshire University.

Festival entries

Belfast, Helsinki, Copenhagen
Figure 1: Belfast Photo Festival (2021) Open Submission call
Figure 2: Helsinki Photo Festival (2021) ‘Fearless’ themed submission
Figure 3: Copenhagen Photo Festival (2021) ‘The Censored Exhibition’ themed submission.

I made an entry into exhibiting my work at the next Belfast Photo. This was an early stage of the project and I was keen to consider the idea and create a statement of my submission to frame it as a starting point. The work is evolving, as expected, as I work through the archive and also start to react and respond to the images. Since this submission, I have also made submissions to two further photography festivals – Helsinki Photo, and Copenhagen Photo.

All three festivals have a different theme in order to develop each iteration of the work. I did question whether I should be submitting work to these festivals at a stage in the project where I am still experimenting and working through the materials and each of the submissions I have made is a variation and changed project from the last. However, the core of my concept being the unreliable narrator, I quite enjoy the idea of potentially being selected for more than one of these festivals and having the same project in different iterations exhibited at the same time, which really feeds the unreliable nature of the work. Of course, that is quite the long shot but it does create an opportunity to think more about the idea of iteration and how my outcome, if producing more than one, could be different and unique to the others in order to undermine the experience of each person reading it. I imagine, that if it were possible to produce a book that contained a number of wholly unique elements that two persons coming together to talk about the work might bring completely different readings of the work.

Publishing a Book

At the end of the surfaces and strategies module, I pitched my project to Out of Place books who were interested in turning it into a small book. The aims of my project about place fit quite well with the ethos of Out of Place, so it felt like a good place to publish this project. Start to finish, the book took the whole of the next module to put together and publish, partly due to the pandemic. This did provide an opportunity to put together some additional images that also made it into the final book.

Figure 1: Phil Hill (2021) ‘I hope this finds you safe and well’ published by Out of Place books

The resulting book was published as an edition of 60 (Fig: 1) with a risograph printed card cover and an additional print for anyone who bought the Book in the pre-sale. This was a great addition on the part of the publisher and was really well received by those who bought one.

I found it really useful to be involved in the process of producing a book. There have been times where I have questioned the value of photobooks as a sole outlet for a photography project owing to the limited nature of the audience willing to buy into the object. I have shifted my opinion to consider the book as part of a wider range of methods to disseminate work. My book was published as an addition of 60, with a fair few of those being bought by friends and family, so I am in essence preaching to the converted with the book. However, it has created a certain platform that gives a small amount of authority for then work – the publication is an automatic signal to consider my work more seriously. It has also generated conversation and increased audience over social media, which has been useful to raise profile, albeit still in a small way. As a springboard, this has been a fantastic opportunity to get people to look at my work. For example, off the back of the publication, I was interviewed by the online platform Nowhere Diary (Fig: 2), which has also led to an increased following and dialogue with peers. I do still consider the photobook not the end of a project necessarily, but potentially a central focus in which other opportunities might be afforded, such as exhibition, talks and workshops.

Figure 2: Phil Hill & Nowhere Diary (2021) Book feature and interview on Nowhere Diary platform

I am already discussing the project together with my research into my FMP project at the Communities and Communication conference at the end of April. I will also be talking to the photography course at the college where I work about the project and the book making process.

The book was really well received and in a few weeks had sold out, which has completely surprised me. The support for the work was really validating and feels as though I am on to something with my direction of research. Out of Place have also been incredibly supportive in putting the work together and getting it published under the conditions of lockdown. It is worth noting however, that because of the pandemic, I was not able to meet Chris from Out of Place in person, so much of the conversation about putting the work together and decisions over sequence and output medium were done remotely. If I am to do another, I would be really keen to be more immersed in the process of creating the work. Not to take away from the resulting book, which I absolutely love and happy with the result.

Taking the experience into the FMP, I have mooted a book as part of the potential outcomes for the project. I am not sure that at this stage, the imagery that I a m   working with would necessarily fit the type of publications that Out of Place do. However, there is potential to create another publication with them that considers the sense of place and exploration around the area that I grew up, which feed would off the themes that I am exploring. Out of Place are interested in looking at creating another book with some of the images that did not make it into ‘I hope this finds you safe and well,’ and they are encouraging me to continue with the project, which is really positive moving forward.

Communities and Communication

“Community is a part of the proximate, everyday world, more immediate than the far away society yet larger than the family and primary group, that gives meaning and purpose to one’s life and that also diminishes one’s sense of vulnerability and of being adrift  or alone in an anonymous world”

(Keller, 1988: 5).

Community was at the core of my research project. I have since spent time researching the impact of the way that I photograph and now developed an approach into narrative and narrative structure. I started this module reading the work of Ferdinand Tonnies, who defines two key areas of community, that of Gemienschaft and Gesselschaft (Tönnies, 2001). These consider the way that we make our connections through personal, emotional and family (Gemeinschaft), and those formed from the way that we interact and operate within a civil and societal function.

Tonnies Gesselschaft is valuable in linking to the Roland Barthes’ idea of the iddiorryhtmic communities that live together but as an individualistic society (2012). Suzanne Keller uses Tonnies concept to analyse the way that American society has effectively diverged from the personal connections formed in smaller communities:

“the present search for community harks back to the nineteenth century when, in the face of rapid urbanisation, one idea of community was dying and no other had yet emerged to its place. This led human beings to construct an ideal (because lost) past or to design an ideal (because unrealised) future”

(1988: 167)

The idealised community is what interests me the most as there exists a disconnect in the way that we perceive the past, which is usually socially abstract from the realities that they are based on. Both Alec Soth and Eli Durst have used the idea of a perceived community in their work, which also utilises black and white photography as a tool to highlight Keller’s constructed ideal and also the way that photography creates those constructions (Fig: 1&2).

Figure 1: Alec Soth (2015) from ‘Songbook’
Figure 2: Eli Durst (2020) From ‘The Community’
Community Paper Submission

In continuing to develop my research and writing activities and into communityh, I was forwarded an opportunity to submit an abstract to the next ‘Communities and Communication: International Interdisciplinary Conference & Festival’ in April of next year, which would be online via Staffordshire University. I felt that it was a good opportunity to test my research into community and submit an abstract to involve myself in the process of discussing my ideas and work on the topic. Even if this is not successful, I find the process valuable as the act of writing about my project in a concise way really consolidates the way that I have been approaching my project and the research around it.

I will use this to form my contextual statement for my WIPP.

Bibliography

Barthes, R., 2012. How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of some Everyday Spaces. Translation ed. New York: Columbia University Press.

Keller, S., 1988. The American Dream of Community: An unfinished Agenda. Sociological Forum, 3(2), pp. 167-183.

Tönnies, F., 2001. Community and Civil Society. Translation ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Audiences

Who is my work for? At the start of this module, I took a look at some other practitioners to see where they sit on the Art and Commerce spectrum (Fig: 1). It is worth revisiting this now that my WIPP is coming to a conclusion.


Figure 1: Phil Hill (October, 2020) Art and Commerce task.

My work has steadily evolved from the fairly glossy editorial illustration of text to my current practice. Peers have commented on the poetic nature of my images and Colin has also mentioned the romanticism inherent in the images that I am making. The work is moving more towards a more concept based practice of longer form projects. This evolution of my work creates new opportunities to share it however, it also creates a challenge in navigating a world that I am not used to.

Figure 2: Out of Place Books (2020) Publications produced by Out of Place
Figure 3: Phil Hill & Out of Place (2020) Placeholder cover.
Figure 4: Phil Hill & Out of Place (2020) Initial sequence spread.

Have aimed to share my work with established publications interested in narrative based photography. A positive outcome from this was through small book publisher, I will be producing a small book based on my images of Watford over the coming weeks with ‘Out of Place Books’ (Fig: 2,3&4). The values of Out of Place really align and resonate with the goals of my work and the narrative journey that I set out to construct in my exploration of place: ‘Out of Place Books’ specialise in “exploring ideas about place; how we understand and experience our environments and how we define them” (Neophytou, 2020). They produce a number of publications about places throughout the year and promote them to an established based of people interested in photography of spaces and learning about environment. This creates a great opportunity to raise my own profile and showcase my current practice to a targeted audience interested in my work.

Figure 5: BBC (2020) ‘In Pictures’ page showing Taylor Wessing winner Alys Tomlinson.

It also provides a valuable testing bed for future opportunities of ways to promote my work to new audiences through publication. My relationship with the photobook has also evolved during the MA. Initially, I was skeptical of the scope of such books, owing to limited runs and niche demographics willing to consume them. However, I feel that it is important to stop considering the book as an end of itself and more as a means to move on to other ways of disseminating the work. The right photobook creates a platform, a certain gravitas and opportunity use it as a foot in the door to other ways broaden the audience. For example, BBC’s ‘In Pictures’ platform (2020) regularly runs photo images from photographers who have books and exhibitions releasing (Fig: 5). This creates a valuable opportunity to further the reach of a limited audience platform, such as a photobook, by placing in front of a larger media audience online.

Figure 6: Awoiska van der Molen (2020) publication for the work ‘The Living Mountain’
Figure 7: Annet Gelink Gallery (2020) Gallery home page.

Early on in the module, I also discussed the work of Awoiska van der Molen. Her work features regularly in publications and also exhibition (Fig: 6) and is also an area that I could see development towards. Additionally, van der Molen is represented by the Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam (Fig: 7) that provides other avenue for work to be viewed and disseminated. A gallery would also create that kind of gravitas seen from the photobook, to build further audiences and opportunities for maintaining practice. This is an area I would need to investigate further as I am not familiar with the gallery system however, there are clear steps to take before even being considered for such opportunities. My small publication will still be a world away from this kind of profile.

Bibliography

BBC, 2020. In Pictures. [Online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in_pictures
[Accessed 3 December 2020].

Neophytou, C., 2020. Out of Place Books. [Online]Available at: https://www.outofplacebooks.com/ [Accessed 03 December 2020].