Decision on Surface

by LEN Final Major Project

In my meeting with Cemre Yesil we discussed the possible formats for presentation of my project. The choices are a ten minute film as a voiceover and other media around my images, a website or a dummy photobook.

Film

The film option is my preferred option and the one I have committed myself to. In this option I propose a ten minute film with voiceover and video material overlaying my images. Alec Soth’s Magnum in Motion Niagara is the model.

The strength of this option is it allows me to include candid personal input with voice and video. It is easily distributable to a market. For example it would easy to distribute to the Multiple Sclerosis Society with their interest in the suffering of the partners of people with the disease. Equally I have a large network of professional practitioners around the world who I can use to get the work out there. Cost is also an advantage as it is a lower cost option than book or website.

I currently lack the skills to produce something to a professional standard. I intend to cover this by improving my own skills through learning. However, I will focus on content and structure and ensure I have the option of recruiting professional film skills if that is required to hit the timing deadlines.

I will explore the possibility of film festivals with short film (1-39 minute) classifications like the Nottingham Film Festival and being included in Art21. Art21 is a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring a more creative world through the works and words of contemporary artists.

I will check with Wendy McMurdo that this option works well with a PDF of images used and evidence of professional distribution of the work for the MA submission.

I considered the other two options and give my reasons for not choosing them.

Website

A website is a powerful way of getting photographic work to a big audience quickly. In a post Covid world there are many attractions. The model for a website surface would be Nick Knight’s website for his photographic and film work. This is too ambitious for the MA project as it would require a number of projects to introduce an audience. If an audience likes a website it expects more material. A one project website for the MA might be acceptable but is likely to fail the professional market test.

A Dummy Photobook

This is every photographer’s dream to put a solid, physical version their work in to the market. It is attractive to me also. However, it is costly and distribution in the post Covid world is likely to be tricky. The missing for me is it fails to allow me to add other media such as voiceover or video to my work.

Categories: Final Major Project, Project Development FMP

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.