Statement of Intent

I want to keep an open mind about what I do when I leave, this is mainly due to not being sure exactly what to do, or what all of the possibilities are. Because of this, I want to use this module as a chance to get to know what opportunities there are in the industry, and how I can relate that closely to my other interests. I’ve always thought of using photography as a tool to express a story, rather than in practical terms, like you would commercially, for example. I know this because earlier on in the year, I worked with The Apartment Company in Bath, with a photographer and graphic designer, creating images for their brand revamp. It was a really interesting experience as I got to witness how two people, with separate ideas on how the image should look, worked together to create the final outcome. It was the most staged photography can get, which is fine if you need intentions to be clear and have the time to perfectly construct the shot, but I’m more interested in documenting things which can then be interpreted freely by the viewer and have more than one meaning or purpose.

I have a strong interest in sociology, which is usually reflected in my photography. More specifically, I’m interested in the differences between people, what makes them the way they are, why they have the opinions that they do and how this creates social issues/events/communities etc. For example, for my moving image rotation last year, I chose to explore the issues around agricultural farming and how it impacts global warming.

Because of these broader interests, I want to focus on gaining experience in editorial photography, as I feel this is the closest way to being able to explore these interests (or similar context) through photography, and therefore, hopefully be more successful. For this module, I intend to look in more detail at the work of different editorial photographers, I’ll then contact the editorial photographers I think are best suited and inquire to become their assistant, in order to see if this is the right area to work in.