Summer

Summer

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my Ravensbourne blog. I’ve been taking a bit of time to take in the grades I got for Location Photography and Lavazza. I’ve also spent the summer engaging with photography. Here is a summary of what I’ve been doing.

Positives:

First World War

A couple of weeks ago, I took time to think about my photo-book submission, A World Beyond The War. I was very happy with the story that I decided to portray. I was very happy with the execution of not only the images, but the flow of the book. I was having many thoughts about how I could take this further, I wanted to turn this into my full-time personal project. I then thought, this could be taken further if I actually recreated some of the most famous images of WW1, maybe I could recreate Lt. Ernest Brooks “Anonymous Heroes” silhouettes. Another motivation for me to carry this further was the Imperial War Museum. I went back to see their First World War exhibition to get some inspiration. When prowling through the book-shop I found a book a brilliant book called The Great War: A Photographic Narrative. This is the perfect book for me to carry out my goal of re-creating famous WW1 imagery. It hold around 500 images. British documentary photographer said this about the book:

“This book is going to dumbfound people. They are finally gonna see the true scale of the sacrifice. It is not so much a book as it is a massive piece fo shameful history”

Another motivation was that the Imperial War Museum lets people submit ideas for exhibitions. Once I’ve got more imagery I’m gonna do that. Not much chance of a response but nothing to lose and everything to gain. It was then, something happened where I thought I had to continue this project. I got an A+ for my photo-book.

Secondary School

I’ve been back to Thomas Tallis to help my old Photography teacher cover a few events. These two shoots included the Yr.13 Leavers Ceremony and two drama performances of Bugsy Malone [where I feel one of the performers looked like a splitting images of good class-mate] Neither of these we’re paid [I got paid in vouchers] however my teacher has asked if I would like to come in September and shoot the schools Prospectus. To which [after asking one of my tutors for advice] I’m really under-selling myself, but if it wasn’t for Tallis I wouldn’t be into photography, so I wouldn’t of got the job.

Negatives:

Work Experience

One thing I do regret from this summer is that I wasn’t able to secure work experience. We spoke to my Mums friend Malcom Smith [the chief photographer at Sothebys] however it seems he couldn’t get his boss to approve it. Sothebys stopped doing work experience a few years ago.

My eyes we’re set on getting work experience with a Picture Editor at a reputable newspaper. My eyes we’re set on the Guardian. To which I didn’t get a placement, but I did get a response from the Picture Editor Mee-Lai Stone. She said that she had passed my CV onto the Sports Picture Edtior, Jim Powell and the Diary Editor Hugh Muir. After a month of not getting a reply I sent a follow up email but never heard back. This however shows that Miss Stone did read my CV, she saw that I was an aspiring sport photographer, she might of looked at my website.

Maybe I should’ve devoted more time to contacting more publications like The Telegraph or the The Times.

Missed Opportunity

Over the last season at Charlton. I’ve been standing in for the hospitality Tony Mitchell. Which he’s been doing for the last 20 years to which he had been at the club for 30 years. If your a football fan, you have probably heard whats been going on at Charlton, cuts being made everywhere, it would seem that this has also led to Tony Mitchell no longer doing the hospitality images.

Even though I had to improve my quality of images, I felt that I had a decent chance of taking over for Tony in the future when he did decide to move on. I was familiar with the routine and the type of images that hospitality wants. Ever since I’ve returned to Charlton I haven’t seen single member of hospitality come down for pre-match photographs and I hadn’t heard anything from Tony or the club about me standing in.

The only image that was on his brief that I still see being shot is the mascots with the referee and captains. However it seems this has been put on the brief that a photographer from Press Association receives.

I don’t want to speculate on whether Mr. Mitchell was pushed or pulled, but it’s a shame to see a fellow professional service seemingly come to an end, a professional who not only loved the club but also the work that he created.