Adam Elson's Photography

Overview Evaluation

Before I started this professional practice unit I was not 100% sure on what sort of future I had in mind for after I left the Uni of Chester, I considered putting photography as a hobby I could go back and fourth with while I found a job that economically could sustain and even help with my photography work.

But after going through lectures, listening to the different perspectives of people of different areas of art and design as well as researching into areas like photo networks and exhibitions I think I may need to plan some more and consider the different areas, for instance photo networking could work well for me as I use internet a lot and I tend to communicate better through networks and mix that in with social media to add as a promotion of my work and I could see a good chance to expand my photography brand.

The portfolio interview was a much needed experience for me and detailed where I needed to improve in terms of knowledge and telling a narrative from my photos. The course as a whole has allowed me to delve into areas I would not think to do outside of education, using 2×4 cameras and film, learning the development phase of classic cameras, creating different styles of photo books and developing my skills on software like lightroom and indesign has helped increase my abilities of photography overall.

The only thing I would do now is try to involve more exhibitions into my research as I felt that could give more context in narrative in comparison to looking through the internet.

Overall I think I’ve benefited a lot from these studies and lectures and the experiences I went through on live project and portfolio review has helped increase my understanding of photography as a business and a brand.

Catalogue: Statement and Image

We received word to prepare a statement and image that will be implemented into the catalogue so I focused statement on detailing my personal story of photography and the narrative I’m trying to build with my exhibition show

The Statement:

“My personal intrigue within the realms of photography comes from my journeys I have of the day to day. I tend to focus on documentation within a mix of urban and natural environment and try to observe the ongoing of the landscape as well as look out for hidden details that are often overlooked by the public.
This stems from my personal ability to always be observant even when I’m not doing photography at the time I tend to look around and memorise spots I can use for future works.
The objective of this project was to gather a selection of photos that are based around various cities that will be focused on documenting unique angles and hidden places that are often overlooked. I aim unravel and reveal the hidden perspectives you can find snooping throughout a city all the way from the historical landscapes to the typical street.”

The Image:

I went with this image because it detailed a donuts shop hidden away from the public as it is surrounded by not just the wall but also the nearby shops that cover it away. I felt this image showed a strong visual of what my photos are trying to showcase in terms of hidden place in a tourist hotspot. The photo though seems to suffer some issues that I need to look into so hopefully that will be sorted soon.

Lecture: Jeremy Turner

During the AA2A student lecture, the tutors decided to do their own lecture during this time. Jeremy Turner is a teacher of Chester Uni.

Originally he started by doing foundation degree course in Lincoln and discovered his passion for sculpture work. He did a degree in Manchester and joined some exhibitions and later on went back to do an MA in Manchester and later on got a residency in Charlton. He proceeded to do some part time teaching in Leeds but made sure to keep up with his practice, he later became a full time teacher for the University of Chester.

It was certainly interesting to learn more about Jeremy’s practice and how he came to be a teacher of our University and does show on how to balance your practice with your education in terms of progress. I hope to learn on how to keep this balance correct for me in the future.

Lecture: AA2A Students

For our final lectures of this year we were introduced to multiple students from the AA2A project we were introduced to earlier this year.

The students were James Lockhart a photographer student, Emma Grzonkowski a painter student, Sophie Bullock a fine art student and Claire Owens a textiles student.

James went to West Cheshire College for media studies but made a switch to photography. He went to do fine art in Chester Uni and moved up to do a teaching degree in Wales. He would find a placement in West Cheshire College and during that time would earn a masters degree in Liverpool John Moore’s. He’s using AA2A for the third time currently and is interested at sourcing information from the internet.

Emma studied at the Uni of Chester and wanted to go the commercial route. She signed with the Washington Degree if Fine Art but is now an independent artist who works alongside galleries. She sells her work through collectors direct and currently owns her own art studio. For AA2A she is currently studying photography.

Sophie studied fine art in Birmingham University who got together with other students to create a personal studio and later on her own network. The focus of her first collaboration project was on low tech. She worked in a bar alongside her studio time. She partnered with the Art Council as a means of selling her art, currently her art focuses on the themes of technology and movement. She later studied at Bristol Uni and tried to experiment with games as a means of interaction with city design and politics and tried to use comedy to make the subject matter more accessible. She went to Manchester ME4 to study art in health and social change. Sophie used AA2A to learn about her personal interests in terms of her art.

Claire trained as a art teacher and started work within a secondary school and taught literature. She would retire from this so she could focus on her art. This is when she joined AA2A in order to educate herself in textiles and the print room and is looking to join a post graduate course in Chester Uni. Her art involves community, she created a image for the Chester Unity centre and places her work in West Cheshire community bids.

Each students gave us plenty of pieces of advice for our potential futures, never lose you sense of passion, always plan ahead, try to link with people, believe in yourself, never fear embarrassment if you talk about money, learn to say no, perceive through the rough times and sometimes go against your teachers.

This was a very education session for me as I listened to the differing perspectives of each AA2A student and to listen to how they all came to be members of the AA2A project. It certainly puts things into perspective for how useful the project can be for me if I wish to proceed further in terms of education around photographers or perhaps a chance to look into another art to expand my abilities.

Photo Network: Redeye

One aspect of photography as a career I’ve been meaning to look into is the photo networks that are around in the UK I could potentially join to continue on with my photography career. The benefits I could get from this is accessibility to events such as lectures and competitions. But which network would be good for me to join.

That’s why I decided to have a look at Redeye, a photo network group that is situated in Manchester. The location is accessible to me by train but most of the work events can be shown through the internet which is beneficial to me especially now due to the virus outbreak. There is a fee for joining the group which varies depending on which membership you go with and if you choose to pay monthly or yearly.

I had a look at what their most recent activities have and currently there is an upcoming rethink session featuring Phil Korbel that will be based around the discussion around the long term effects of COVID-19 and how artists can make a positive impact in detailing the new normal. The event is free for anyone even non-members to join which makes it accessible to me to look into and potentially join in. The lecture will be streamed in Zoom and will be taking place at the 26th of May.

Looking into this network, there are plenty of benefits for me joining and the recent lecture sounds interesting and a chance to showcase my skills and potentially expand my personal brand. I’ll hold off on membership until the COVID-19 situation has calmed down but may sign up for the lecture.

Interview Feedback

I was sent my grades and feedback and I had a quick look to discover I got 57%. This took me by surprise considering I didn’t think I did that well.

The feedback pointed out that my work was presented in a well organised manner and that my introduction to Rodchenko was a powerful statement. There were plenty of areas to work on though as I needed to get a better understanding of the work that inspires me and that I needed to dive deep into the explanation of my chosen locations for the final project and why I went to take photos within that desired location. I’ve been recommended a couple of photographer Saul Leiter and Rut Blees Luxembourg to look into to get more of an understanding on what I should focus on during my shoots and what narrative I can create for it.

I will need to take this advise for my big project at the end of the year and push to fur fill the gaps that have been seen in the portfolio as well as the interim as a whole so that way I can create a much more narratively cohesive set of strong photos to showcase at the end of year exhibition.

Lecture: Scott Duffey

For our first lecture back from Easter, we were introduced to Scott Duffey from Toucan Tango.

Toucan Tango is a company that designs gifts and prints that can be implemented into greeting cards, mugs and T-Shirts and have also worked alongside musical festivals. They operate with different companies throughout Europe and sell things online.

Scott told us during the lecture on how he got started, he graduated from the Chester Uni but did not feel prepared for the future, his first job was in a bar but he used his extra time to learn about some new software and managed to land his first design job thanks to his recently learnt skills of coding. He would later collaborate with other web designers to create The Print Social.

Scott gave us a few pieces of advise that may help prove beneficial to my own work, mainly to take breaks from the screen so you can revisit and look through the work again and perhaps have new thoughts about it. The second advise is to always involve your interests within your job.

Live Project: Edits and Contact

I went through my photos I obtained from the shoots to gather a small selection of photos that I could send to the Earl of Manchester group. I had my dad help me out and we discussed potential ideas for certain images, after thorough selection process we came down to 4 photos that would work on a professional level. I imported them into lightroom in order to edit each of them.

Edit 1: Tried to make more historical and pale.

Edit 2: Similar to the first one, cropped down so the focus laid on the pike man.

Edit 3: More colour was added to increase the more positive vibes from the drummers.

Edit 4: Similar to edit 1 and 2, cropped a little to remove background noise.

After the editing was complete I contacted the official Instagram account of Earl of Manchester and informed them about my photos and that I was willing to share them to the group. They responded pretty quickly and I was able to share my photos to them. I follow there account so I will know when my images get uploaded by their account.

Brand Expansion: Social Media

I’ve been making notes so far of the different experiences from the lectures and have decided to put some focus on my own personal brand, I’ve already created numerous social media accounts but I needed to focus on elevating the professional level of them.

Instagram

I already made an account for my photography work under the name of AdamElsonPhotos and have already uploaded some work from the second year, mainly my night time images of Chester and promotion for my second year project. However I needed to start using this profile as a means of not just my photos as a means of contacting other people, so I changed the settings of my profile to identify it as a professional photography account. I discovered that Earls of Manchester have an Instagram account that I can contact to inform and share my final photos with them.

Flickr

I had an old account attached to my email address that featured work way before I began my photography course in Mid Cheshire, I deleted my old images so that they don’t clash with my new uploads and changed the identity to fit my current brand. I can use Flickr as a archive of my photography as well as a means to sell images online which can be helpful for both the money as well as expanding my brand to other people and businesses interested in my photos.

Interview Reflection

I’ve just had my interview with Cian Quayle, Jeremy Turner and Thomas Dukes. When it was my turn to enter I made sure to present myself professionally and shook hands with the interviewer and presented my printbox so I could take out the photos for Thomas and the lecturers to look through.

I focused my chat on how I was inspired by Rodchenko and Bresson in creating images that focused on exploring unique angles and high vantage points to offer unique perspectives in often visited locations. Thomas brought up that there were some things such as the focus point of my work which focused differed a bit much from Rodchenko and Bresson who often people within the environment as there sources.

I started to stutter a bit and Thomas went over my photos, he pointed out a few flaws mainly the lack of activity that brings life to the photos and some felt a bit boring to look at.

After the interview I felt like it could’ve gone better, I struggled to articulate a better narrative of my photo selection and it could do with some extra depth as well as looking into more relevant photographers for my work, it was interesting experience and this will help me with my upcoming big project and what to focus on for my shoots and what my narrative build up to.