Week 10 Independant Reflection – Production

by LEN Coursework

Intense and stretching period. Work in progress is coming together although every new input gets images out, changes the sequence and keeps me looking. I am becoming very clear now that everything is a decision that needs to be made intentionally. Cropping, colour or black and white, tone, intensity and focus all change the effect. Also learning there are no correct answers. It is important to understand what I am seeking to achieve but also to listen to what people say when they look at my work. Then believe in myself.

The exhibition Forlorn is in the process of going up on the walls. Jose the owner of the gallery space is really excited about the work and has asked if I can leave it up for a month after Landings. I am happy to do that. The printer Katie loves the images. Even though called Forlorn she thinks the images are beautiful and would work well as a theme in a local bar or restaurant. She is going to get to work on that and going to try to sell some of the images.

I have produced a youtube video link of the exhibition photos with a voiceover and also a web page for facebook and advertising. Posters are being posted around the local area.

Big effort on the Oral presentation this week. I am putting effort in to learning how to use Adobe Rush to make more professional videos. This is proving quite time consuming but will be worth the effort in the long run. The current draft version of the oral is here

Once the assignments are completed on August 19th I am itching to get on with the next chapter in my project. This phase was about exploring the truth and beauty of me and focussed very much on my body and ways of conveying my inner state. The next chapter continues with the main theme but now concentrates on ‘relationships.’ This will say something about me by producing photographs of everything that is around and related to me. This could be lying on the grass, the food I eat, shops I shop at and most importantly I have no idea of what else. It will be exciting to find where my boundaries are and what I am willing to do to cross them.

Categories: Coursework, Surfaces and Strategies

LEN

I am a Photographer. As well as taking many photographs I am currently studying for an MA in Photography at Falmouth University. I will direct my attention through the lens of my camera for the next couple of years and see what shows up. I see a photograph as a little bit of magic capturing a moment in time. If successful it surprises and engages your emotions. It tells a story about the wonders of being alive or tells us what we need to change to make it a better world to live in. That is enough for me to get going and then like walking a 1000 miles, which I did across the UK in 2010, or walking 200 miles across Cyprus, which I did in November last year, it is one step at a time.

I was a writer. The title of my unpublished book was ‘You Would Have Done The Same.' It is about a successful guy in love with his wife who lets her die when he discovers her in the process of committing suicide. The title gives a clue as to what I think you would have done. The book is 200 pages long. I found it cathartic to write it but after two years of work and reviewing with agents decided it probably needed another 2000 hours to get the whole book up to the standard of some of the pages. Writing is great but it is a lot of sitting down so I decided to get out and walk, play tennis, play bridge, go birding, watch football at Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Valencia and anywhere else if I can, meditate, cook and eat. I was a writer who has so far failed to become an author.
I was a young man who loved Mathematics and thoroughly enjoyed getting a BSc at Liverpool University. While there I went often to Anfield and the Philharmonic Hall. I was all set on doing a PhD until I went for interview practice at BP and got seduced by the excitement of an International business career. BP was a great adventure building trading teams and businesses in London, Antwerp, Cleveland Ohio and Singapore. Fabulous people and some great challenges and also very hard work, constant jet lag and lots of fun along the way. I married Karen, my stunning wife, and had the most amazing time with her and our three boys Alex, Tom and Dan. She has multiple sclerosis and we have taken on many challenges together but somehow keep creating a new normal against the horrors thrown our way. She is the love of my life.

After BP I decided to coach senior executives and quickly realized I had a lot to learn
about what makes people tick. I had a fantastic 18 months on the International Programme of the Cleveland Gestalt Institute. A great faculty and a
wonderful group of people on the programme. We studied and worked in Dingle, Singapore, Holland, Cape Town and
Lisbon. This also got me interested in the way we think and make decisions so I studied for an MSc in Psychology atUniversity College London in 2010. The
Masters was in Cognitive and Decision Sciences and I found it fascinating what
we do know but also how much we don’t know about how we think and make
decisions.

I loved coaching and making a difference. I got a number of people to hear themselves, remove some of their own chains and free up the way they thought about the world. I remain fascinated by how people react to and engage with the world. My Masters thesis was why do two people given the same information make different decisions? Put simply, it is because each of us are unique in the way we are constructed.

Since returning from Singapore I found English winters tough so moved to Spain where I now live. The people are lovely, the scenery amazing, food delicious and the sun shines all the time. Almost.

All of these experiences will feed in to my time now as a Photographer. Three motivations I am lucky to have are enthusiasm, curiosity and a continuous interest in learning. All the time I look forward to meeting old friends and making new friends and experiencing this wonderful life together.