Professional Photography : The New Landscape Explained

by LEN Contextual Research SP

Scott, G. (2014) Professional Photography : The New Landscape Explained. Taylor & Francis Group.

Front Image Motram, J A. Small Town Inertia – David at Home early 2013.

Insight

Professional photography is alive and kicking with abundant opportunity. The move to digital image capture has killed traditional commissioning and capture processes but proliferated an infinite number of other ways of getting to market. The image itself is now established as the international story telling language that can be understood by anyone with eyes to see. Photography has an important role to play documenting what is happening in the world and as an intervention where change for good is necessary.

For me personally it raises the question what is the intent of my own photography? What is my footprint and how to I want to develop it? Am I an enthusiast getting satisfaction from a hobby or do I want to have an impact in some way?

Quotes

ability to create narrative through a series of images and within a single image……the art of consistency, the ability to deliver the image or images to the client time and time again. (6)

despite….technological advancement photography has remained a storytelling medium in which little has changed. (7)

we are now in an age in which the capturing of images is defined by digital code, and the only difference between the still and the moving image is the structure of that code. (9)

‘image makers’ rather than ‘photographers’ or ‘film makers’ (10)

influential leaders Andy Adams, Vincent Laforat, Conscientious Photo Magazine, Duckrabbit blog and Alec Soth Little Brown Publishing Company. (14/15)

photographers must also be publishers, marketers, journalists, social media communicators, bloggers, speakers, post production artists, type setters, designers, web builders, distributors, curators, gallerists, promoters and entrepreneurs. (20)

professional photographers are essentially visual problems solvers (26)

you are only as strong as your weakest image. (60)

QUESTIONS FOR ME – WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MY WEBSITE? WHAT IS THE INTENT OF MY PHOTOGRAPHY?

Picasso ‘every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.’ (83)

the only difference between one photographer and another is the individual life experiences and the way in which they see the world. (83) WORLDVIEW.

projects split in to emotional and intellectual. (86)

EMOTIONAL PROJECTS – Jim Motram, Small Town Inertia. Steve Pyke, Jack and Duncan. Alicia Bruce, Menie: Trumped, Before Trump International Golf Links…and A portrait of a North East Community in Conflict. Peter Dench – Drink UK. England Uncensored. Marcus Bleasdale, One Hundred Years of Darkness. The Rape of a Nation.

INTELLECTUAL PROJECTS – Mark Power, The Shipping Forecast. Niall Mc Diarmids, Crossing Paths. Jake Chessum, The Daily Chessum and Rubbish.

More images were created in 2012 alone than the total taken in all of the years since the invention of photography nearly two centuries ago. (111)

the power of the image has never been greater. (111)

the power of the image as a universal language. (111)

a digital image is …..code, nothing more and nothing less.

who am I and what do I know? (158)

photography without a client is a hobby. (160)

we actually live mythically and integrally – but we continue to think in the old, fragmented space and the time patterns of the pre electric age. from Marshall McLuhan – Understanding media: the extension of man. (180)

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Categories: Contextual Research SP, Coursework SP, Sustainable Prospects

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.