Those of you who regularly follow my Blogs will know that I stress the importance of having your own personal projects as a way of constantly developing your own creative style. In fact a few of you commented that the number of person projects I had listed at the start of last year seemed somewhat excessive,nevertheless I completed a good 75% of them and the rest are still ongoing projects for the next couple of years. By listing and making these projects public it encouraged me to keep going with them at times when it would have been very easy to have give up on some, if not all of them. I therefore encourage you to share your planned projects with your photographic peers, and even clients, that way you will have the motivation to carry them through.
When it comes to such personal work some people do this well in isolation, but I think without encouragement it is sometimes very difficult to keep motivated or to judge your own progress. So I don't really advocate flying totally solo in respect of your photography, I think that it is good to work with other like minded people. A lot of my projects simply would not have been possible without other contributors for instance the four models (Sophie,Dominique,Samii and Mierious) I used in my clown project were exceptional and brought their own ideas to the shoots as did the brilliant make up artist for these (Karen). Another model the very talented Raphaella severed as my "muse" for for a good 6 months while we shot the Blackpool project.
Then there was all the photographers (to name just a few; Mark,John,Andrew,Warren,Karen,Colin, Dan and Rob ) I have worked with directly with our day trips to various locations and I am sure like me some of them wouldn't have got their cameras out if they hadn't got great company and slight competition of fellow photographers. In fact these "grand days out" did much to shape my work over the last couple do years and I am sure will do so this year as well. There was also much indirect encouragement from photographers from around the world, the internet has certainly reduced the distance between the photographic community and it always surprises me that if you ask another photographer a question about how they approach their work they are more than happy to share it. This is because most realise they aren't actually giving a away any secrets the technical information is not the image only how it was achieved, the "eye" is always that of the individual photographer and each will put their own slant on things.
One good photographer friend who doesn't join the us for too many "grand days out" is Iain who has an incredible knowledge of photography and has done so much to encourage me to look at the blend of old techniques into my work, and now does all my fine art printing for me. So my printed images certainly wouldn't look as good without his expertise in this area for sure.
The result of having a large number of personal project is that I am now in a position to do my first major solo exhibition which I am very excited about, I have slanted this to the public in respect including a good number of images that I expect to have appeal as limited print purchases, but I will also be testing the market with some of my other work. A press release and further information for this exhibition will follow but anyone wanting to make a note, it will run from 12th March - 30th April 2011 in the Millennium Gallery at Nantwich Museum, Cheshire UK.
Labels: marc byram photography tips for better picture taking photo first solo exhibition its better to work with others
