Meeting with Julian Jackson

Meeting with Julian Jackson

For our elective project, we got to having a meeting with the Founder and Director of Vision-bridge.

This meeting was very important for us because it was a chance for us to work out how we can benefit and add value to Vision-bridge.

 

• How he went blind:

He started by telling us about the journey he has been through. In 2010 he lost his eye-sight to an inherited retinal disease. He had prior knowledge, he and his family knew that at some point his eye-sight will be gone. Julian and his twin brother use to walk around with their eyes closed so they could prepare for the day where they had to stop using their sight.

Even after he went blind, Julian was in denial about it. There was one time where he was getting off a plane and in between the plane door and stairs he fell and didn’t hit the tarmac because of his backpack.

Now that he’s blind he reflects on how he will never be able to see his wife or his daughter. He ended it with “you can prepare as much as you want, but you will still be surprised when it happens”

• What he stands for

Julian said that he is an advocate and campaigner for eye research. He also said he is probably viewed as a pain in the backside by people in the volunteer sector

• What are charities doing

He believes that charities are failing their supporters and beneficiaries by going to the same people every year

• Facts

He presented us with many of the hard-hitting facts about blindness. 300 million people have problems with their eyes, 40 million of which are completely blind. Every 24 hours 100 people will lose their sight. Half of people affected by blindness have got no cure. All this results in £32 billion lost each year in lost taxes and benefits that have to be paid.

20 million people can’t remember the last time they had an eye test. One final fact we were told is that when asked which sense people fear losing the most, 83% say sight.

• His personality

Julian being an advocate goes to many talks and there was one where a lady came up to him after the talk and asked if he was actually blind. He said yes I am and wondered why the question was asked. The lady said that he seemed too happy to be blind. We definitely got this impression of Julian during our meeting. But this shows that he is a man who has accepted what’s happened, he knows there is no cure at the moment but if he keeps raising the profile, maybe just maybe research might find a cure for not just him but millions of people.

• How money is spent

With most charities that raise money for research into eye problems. Very little of the money actually goes into research, most of it goes into support. Which is really good but support isn’t gonna bring peoples sight back.

• Big Blind Walk

It was great to hear about the Big Blind Walk that he did from Lands End to Jon O Groats. He had so much support which ranged from people walking for a few minutes to people walking many miles with him. He mentioned about a couple of Royal Marines who joined him. When he reached the end one of the Marines ripped his Royal Marine shoulder patch off, which he had worn in Afghanistan and he gave them to Julian saying “you f*cking deserve them”

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis

After we considered our ideas and our groups for elective we we’re tasked with doing a SWOT analysis. Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats.

• Strengths:

Our group has a large skill set, we have skills that stretch all the way through pre, practical and post-production.

We’re all very approachable

Some of us do have experience with moving image/video, these skills can be transferred as well

We’re very ambitious

Big team

Good communication skills

• Weaknesses

We will probably have to adapt to a different subjects needs, some blind people will be ok with flash, some won’t

We’ve never shot a charity campaign, some of us do have experiences shooting for a charity, covering events. But none of us have done work on this scale.

Some of us will have to careful on how we approach blind people

Probably can’t have everyone in the studio, imagine how the subject will feel with loads of voices around themselves

• Opportunities

This is a chance to associate our names with a great cause

Chance to build up contacts

This means we could get a chance to work with NERC/Vision-Bridge or another charity post-Ravensbourne, maybe for 3rd year work.

This will be a new experience

• Threats

Of course there is a chance the client won’t like our idea. So we must have a Plan B. Really we should go in with three of four ideas. Maybe two ideas could merge into one.

Team members could very well be effected by illness

These could be competition against other deadlines

Big Project Lesson Two: NERC/Vision-Bridge

Big Project Lesson Two: NERC/Vision-Bridge

Yesterday was my second lesson for the Big Project. This time we we’re put into our groups for our chosen charity. We we’re also given a bigger insight into our chosen organisation.

• NERC/Vision-Bridge

Yesterday we found out that one of our deliverables wasn’t technically for the NERC, instead we we’re shooting for the Social Enterprise Vision-Bridge. They are the fundraising arm of the National Eye Research Centre. NERC is the charity and Vision-Bridge is the Non-profit organisation.

• Julian Jackson

We learnt more about Julian Jackson. He is a very inspirational man. In 2010 he suddenly lost his eye-sight to a condition he inherited, the image on the left was taken when he completed his walk from Lands End to John O’Groats. He set off on April 28th and completed it on the 22nd of June. That’s 55 days, very phenomenal considering the circumstances. Julian will be coming to Ravensbourne next week to hear our ideas.

• Our Potential Deliverables

We spent yesterday discussing the 3 deliverables that we’re on the table, we could deliver one, we could deliver all 3, we could merge 2 of them together. They we’re:

• Focus on the main fundraising activities of Vision Bridge as a NFP arm of NERC. This may be a reportage approach that could be utilised for online promotional materials
• Interpret as a seeing person how nature becomes a key sensory grounding for a blind or newly blind person. This could be an online presentation of stills, sound and moving image
• Work with Vision bridge and NERC to document their work to gain a better understanding of initiatives and technology surrounding the blind and visually impaired. This could be online promotional material

We we’re instantly interested in the 2nd option, this was a very abstract and it was the one that had the most creative freedom.

• Biggest idea

The idea we think we’re gonna go with is about the other senses. We felt it would be good to document how when someone loses their sights. A greater emphasis is placed on their other senses. So touch, taste, hear was what we decided to focus on. Smell is another sense but we feel that would be a very tough one to photograph.

Big Project Lesson One: Introduction

Big Project Lesson One: Introduction

Monday was my first lesson back at Ravensbourne for the 2nd year of Digital Photography. My first lesson was in my chosen elective. I decided to choose the Big Project for my Elective. This is all about working for a charity organisation, also known as a non-profit.

“Before you can become a poet you need to be a citizen”- Vladimir Mayakovsky

• 10-20-30 Rule

Geraint opened the talk by introducing Guy Kawaski’s 10-20-30 rule. This is a formula that makes a good presentation.

10 Slides

20 Minutes [This is to do with our attention spans, apparently our’s is our age + 5. So my attention span is 25 minutes]

30-point font [Nothing smaller]

Also if you’re nervous about presenting, your presentation should be on a black background, this will darken the audience, whereas if you feel confident, a white background will light up the audience

• How it’s made

Nearly every advertising agency have a non-profit organisation on their books, for example AMVBBDO have both Alzheimer’s Research & Cancer Research UK, they have both national and local charities, in all honest because it makes them look good.  There is a feeling of working towards a common goal, on the creation of a campaign, it’s viewed as a skills exchange.

The team from photographers to stylists tend to be young and up-and-coming creatives who are looking for their “big-break”. This is also because they are a non-profit company, so there will most likely be no money to be spent on the team, or very little at least. So by working for them, shows that your keen to work towards a great cause which could be very helpful in the future.

• Skills Needed

There are many skills that are needed to be a photographer who works for a non-profit company, there are split into Soft-skills & Professional skills

• Soft [personal attributes that enable us to interact effectively with someone else]

Diplomacy, Patience, Respect, A Moral Compass, Understanding, Seeing the Bigger Picture, Working to a Contingency, A Sense of Social Justice & Empathy

• Professional [career attributes that are specific to a job]

Ability to Communicate an Idea Clearly, Ability to Understand an Idea Clearly, Need to Know When The Job is Done, Awareness of Correct Literature, Team Player, Work Towards a Common Outcome.

• Convenient Details [Phase One of the Unit]

Clients of this nature might tend to leave out certain details, they may be thrilled or intrigued by the proposition of working with a professional but they will still expect you to pitch a response to their desires and develop a set of ‘deliverables’.

In reality, they don’t really know what they want, that’s why they come to us. Us photographers are problem-solvers.

• At our disposal [Phase Two of the Unit]

Clients offer us photographers access to both their infrastructure and their stakeholders. They will brief you on their mission statement and allow you to help develop this

• End Product [Phase Three of the Unit]

We will be expected to ‘Publish’ the work that we create so the client will be able to gain some value from our work. This can be on a website or on a social media feed. Maybe it might be a pop-up exhibition.

• Modus Operandi

Research: What do the clients want, in what form, when will it be over?

Practice: Who or what needs to be photographed, what are my credentials, what paperwork do I need to produce?

Publish: Can I meet the clients expectations?

• First Thoughts

After the introduction, we we’re told about the charities that we have the option to shoot for. We had a choice of three different charities.

• Millwall Rugby Club [A charity that offered sports opportunities to the local community through Rugby]
• The Ishami Foundation [Draws on the experiences of a Genocide survivor that help us connect with common humanity]
• National Eye Research Centre [Leading charity that funds research into the course and treatments for eye conditions ranging from disease, sight loss & blindness]

I was initially all over the Rugby shoot. I’m a very active sports photographers who would like to shoot more rugby and this would’ve been a great chance to interact and collaborate with a rugby club. However after giving it some thought and after a very convincing opinion from my friend Molly, I decided to choose the National Eye Research Centre. I felt this would be a very good challenge for me, considering that “our client will never ‘see’ our images“.