Still waiting

Still waiting for Sian Bonnell to get back to me with her interview and i still have to enter a competition arrrgggghhhhhh!!!!

Eva Schreiber Interview

What artists or movements were your early influences as a photographer?

I started photographing really when I was 12, I was given an SLR by my Uncle, and so at that stage I didn’t think too much about it.  Then when I was 18 I was, like most people, inspired by Cartier-Bresson a lot and Ansel Adams.  What really impressed me at the time were formal compositional qualities, I think at that age I didn’t think that much about content or the message that was put across.  I was influenced by photo-journalism a lot and was really impressed by Magnum Photos and the whole idea of war photography although I think that had a lot to do with my age at the time because when I went to study I lost that very quickly.  In general I don’t think I’m a person who says that this person is really crucial to my photographic development I think I am quite organic and am more influenced by pictures rather than actual photographers.  Another crucial thing to me is painting, I grew up with a family that loved painting and so I got in touch with it at an early age.  I love painting a lot and I think it has a lot of influence on especially in my use of colour in my photography.

Do you work with film or digital and which camera do you use?

When I was in Uni digital wasn’t prevalent yet and I still use film although I do scan it so my post-production is digital.  I use a Mamiya 7 which is one of my favourite cameras because I travel a lot and it is very light but it’s a medium format camera so I get better quality.  I have a Hasselblad as well and at the moment these are the only 2 cameras I am using with a standard lens.  Over the years I have become more of a purist, I don’t like wide angles anymore and I don’t like tele lenses really.  I like to photograph just what I see.  Digital, I think, is something that absolutely cannot be avoided.  I think it is completely ridiculous if people try to hang onto film for nostalgia because it’s just the way it goes.  Techniques are always advancing; the only thing is I would like to be able to afford a medium format digital camera just because I have always liked to work with that medium.  I do however have a digital camera and if I do a commercial shoot I will always because it does not make sense to use film.  When I work artistically I use film still and scan it because colour is so important to me and how colour is rendered with digital, once it’s printed it still does not do my images justice in terms of the shades and tones.

You take a wide variety of images, which is your favourite?

It depends on how you develop over the years when you first get into photography, I came from this photojournalistic idea and I did a documentary photography course but I think I have changed more into conceptual approaches now.  So I started out with being more interested in classic documentary style photographing people and now I have got away from that.  At this stage I am a lot more interested in landscape which does not mean I am not talking about human nature but I like the idea of looking at landscapes and maybe looking at imprints made by human intervention on them.  So my favourite is difficult to choose but I am deeply in love with barren landscapes.  That’s not to say that that will not change in the future as I don’t know where I am going!

Do you consider it important to travel as a photographer or do you think it is possible to base yourself in one area?

I think it really depends on who you are, your personality and where you are coming from with your photography, the reasoning behind it and why you are passionate about it.  I am more of an adventurous person and I love going to places but that does not have to be for everybody.  In general I think it is important to just go out of your comfort zone as this is a great way of pushing yourself and developing, not just in your artistic practise but personality wise as well.  So I think it’s beneficial but on the other hand other people have done amazing works in very small areas, look at Jem Southam who photographs around his home county of Cornwall and its can be just as deep, just as meaningful and inspiring as the people who go far away and maybe take less meaningful pictures.

What made you decide to settle in the UK, and do you feel there are as many opportunities here as in mainland Europe?

For me it has a lot to do with personality again, I feel very comfortable here and for some reason in Germany it just doesn’t work for me. I came here because I like the culture and how the people are, I think the more comfortable you are somewhere the easier time you will have being successful in your practise.  In terms of opportunities to be honest at the moment we are in difficult times economically and I’m not sure if there are more opportunities over there at the moment.  Right at this moment I think the UK is struggling more but you never know what is a few months down the line and in general I think opportunities are what you make of them.  I think it comes down to your own initiative and if your heart is really in something, you really want it, I think you can make an opportunity wherever you are.  You need to be very focussed and very convinced that you want to do this as there is such high competition everywhere in photography.

What made you decide that you wanted to become a lecturer?  And how do you think it will fit in to your private practise?

I think I decided I wanted to go into education after trying many different routes following my photographic degree.  I tried the media business, being a picture editor, a picture researcher, and found out that it wasn’t really for me.  I also tried assisting and more people focussed photography, celebrity photography and that wasn’t for me either.  So I looked into many areas before I came to the point where I realised actually because I’m so passionate about photography I would like to pass that on.  I always thought I would be a full on practioner but I’m not.  I think my strength is to pass on this passion and I just immensely enjoy it but it’s not just that.  I find it really satisfying being in an academic environment again, you learn everyday from your students, and have constant input from your colleagues and the institution.  You are in touch with current research into photography and I’ve always liked looking at things theoretically and contextually not purely practise based.  Hence my own work has turned more artistic or more conceptual.  I only really started teaching 6 months ago and I’ve been amazed just how much I enjoy it and its been the first time in my life that I am in a job that I can imagine myself for the rest of my life. You learn so much from your students so you benefit a lot from it and that’s what I find very exciting.

 My private practise can feed off of my academic role very nicely because you don’t have to lecture or teach full time so you can research projects on the side and a lot of academic institutions encourage that because they want people to be in the field.  It’s a nice way of combining your private practise with something that you can earn steady money at, its pragmatic but we all have to live on something and I do not want to have to rely on my practice and have to compromise with something I am not convinced of like commercial work.

Do you think it is necessary to have an MA in order to be a good lecturer?

Absolutely not.  I think we are talking about 2 different things.  You are talking on one hand about being a good practioner and possibly good researcher and on the other hand you are a teacher.  If you can combine them successfully I think you are the best teacher possible.  I think that someone who has a lot of practical expertise but didn’t do all the theory can be just as good a teacher because they have more hands on experience and that’s the whole point of an institution isn’t it.  You have people coming from all areas, so I think you can be a fantastic teacher without having an MA or a lot of deep long term theoretical experience.  It is important however to still develop yourself and be interested but again it’s a personality thing.  The only thing is that if you want to teach in higher education most of them want to see that you have an MA, and there is so much competition for jobs now you might not even get invited for an interview if a lot of other people who apply do have an MA.

What is it about teaching that inspires you? And what would you like to achieve though this career?

I have answered that partly already, this enthusiasm to pass on knowledge and you learn yourself as a teacher constantly from your students.  I think some teachers are really insecure about teaching, they think they have to stand there and they have to know it all otherwise they look weak or the students won’t respect them.  I don’t believe in that, I think its fair to say if you learn something from your students because it boost the confidence of the students.  It’s ok to admit that you don’t know everything.  You learn through other photographers, you can’t know every photographer so a student might come along and tell you something about a photographer or something that you didn’t know and you find it truly inspiring for your own work.  I think if you just practise you get into a routine and you are not challenged so much, teaching does that to you, you constantly have to challenge yourself and your students will help you do that. 

I really want to combine keeping up my private practise and feed that back into my work as a lecturer.  Maybe at some stage I will do a PhD, but that’s just because I really like doing my research!

Going through the PGCE course at the moment there are a lot of elements where they try to teach you how to be a teacher.  This might sound very alterative but I believe either you have the talent or the nature to be a teacher or you don’t.  I don’t think it is something you can learn, I think you can learn techniques and methods but the inherent talent of how to communicate things and be interested in your students, you either have that or you don’t.  We have all had the experience of being in school and having a teacher that was truly uninspiring and you realise that they just don’t enjoy it.  They might enjoy the subject but they don’t enjoy passing it on and so don’t excite students to learn about it.

If there was only one piece of advice that you could give an up and coming photographer what would it be?

I’m still very young so it’s a bit difficult for me to give advice because I am still developing and I think you do that for the rest of your life but things how things have developed for me has made me believe that you should always trust your intuition.  That sometimes goes against what you think might be right but in my experience every time I made decisions against my better judgement, it wasn’t a good decision.  I don’t regret any decisions, I think that is really destructive to live your life like that but I always felt ‘ugh I probably should have done the other thing because it felt more right’.  In a weird way, how life works at some stage you usually come to that point anyway but in a roundabout way.  You go in zigzag roads and you will end up where it feels right so trust your feelings.  If you do something you truly believe in and that satisfies you then money will come at some stage, success will come too.

My get up and go....

got up and flippin went :(.  List of things still to do.....

1) Interviews
2) PGCE research
3) Differences between Stock libraries
4) Re-write Contextual Essay
5) Get Contextual sketchbook up to date
6) Start writing up ideas in Book cover sketchbook

Oh and work this weekend, guess i'll be flippin busy on monday then!

YAY me!!!!

I am so pleased got amazing feedback and a mark of 63% for my Formal Intervention project not bad for a first effort at degree level :D I am very pleased.  It seems that quite a few of us got good grades to Yay us!!!!
WBL tutorial tomorrow and I've finally put everything in a folder!  Hoping it is all ok and I can sort out my presentation for next month then it is all up together, I just have to enter a photography competition so I am looking at FuijiFilm student awards and the Second Edition of The Julia Margaret Cameron Awardwhich is only open to women :).
Have tweaked my first contextual essay tonight and am going to have a go at my next one tomorrow night.  
So all up to date i think :) 

Update........

OK update, have booked to interview Eva Schreiber on Wed 25th October and have emailed the interview to Sian Bonnell.
I am helping the Extended Degree students on friday afternoon this week the for a full day on 11th Feb :).
The Art Birthday Exhibition should be going ahead in the next 2 weeks in a shop!  Watch this space for further details :)
No reply yet from the community college about work experience.
Tomorrow i get my feedback for my formal intervention project.........fingers crossed !!!!

Eva Schreiber Interview Questions

Interview Questions for Eva Schreiber

By Emma Hirst FD1 Photography

1.       What artists or movements were your early influences as a photographer?

2.       Do you work with film or digital and which camera do you use?

3.       You take a wide variety of images, which is your favourite?

4.       Do you consider it important to travel as a photographer or do you think it is possible to base yourself in one area?

5.       What made you decide to settle in the UK, and do you feel there are as many opportunities here as in mainland Europe?

6.       What made you decide that you wanted to become a lecturer?  And how do you think it will fit in to your private practise?

7.       Do you think it is necessary to have an MA in order to be a good lecturer?

8.       What is it about teaching that inspires you? And what would you like to achieve though this career?

9.       How do you see your private practise developing in the future?

10.   If there was only one piece of advice that you could give an up and coming photographer what would it be?

Work Experience

Sent off my CV and a covering letter to the local community college to ask for work experience with the a-level art students today......watch this space!

Sian Bonnell Interview Questions

Wrote this interview for Sian Bonnell to answer via email....

Interview Questions for Sian Bonnell

By Emma Hirst FD1 Photography PCA

1.       You trained as a sculptor but was there a decisive moment when photography changes from a way of recording your sculptures to a primary outlet for your art?

2.       Where did your early influences come from?

3.       I read in one of the essays on your website that your installations are making a statement about the environment.  I’ve always seen your photographs as making a statement about women’s roles in society; did you ever contemplate this message when making them?

4.       Could you tell me a little more about TRACE?  And is there a direct link between your personal practise and literature?

5.       How have you found balancing family life and your career as an artist?  And are there any sacrifices you have had to make in order to continue your career?

6.       Which is the most important to you, the actual process of making the art or the message that you try to convey?

7.       Do you have any new plans in the pipeline, a new direction for your art?

8.       Do you feel that teaching is an important part of your development as an artist?

9.       I am hoping to do a PGCE after my BA what is is that you find most rewarding about teaching?

10.   If you could only pass on only one tip for an up and coming photographer what would it be?

Thankyou very much for your help and encouragement in answering these questions, I appreciate it very much!   I shall be following your practise even closer in the future and look forward to seeing more of your art.

Regards

Emma Hirst

Ehirst1@plymouthart.ac.uk

www.art-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder.com

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

I am well hacked off, was supposed to be exhibiting our formal intervention pictures today as part of the Art's Birthday Exhibition, but they cocked it up and put up the wrong tents!  So much work and stress went into getting it done in time only for it to *%$& up at the end, plus the fact that i got out of bed at 6.45 for it!!!!
On a more positive note, Tim Gundry has asked me to assist in the darkroom with the Extended degree students.  SO my work experience starts now!
Also I have handed in my large portraits from last years exhibition to be hung in the student hub :D so i had quite a successful WBL week.
And Still Life is over so I can relax a little bit :)

A quiet day!

Yeah right, that'll happen in my house!!  Decided to have a stay at home day tho and have managed to write 1253 words of contextuals essay today!  Not sure I have done the right thing so will have to send it off for a read through by my tutor to get some feedback i think!

So I think I am ready for next week completely now, still life completed, contextual draft written, book cover project started and WBL getting there, I just need to re print everything and put it in a folder.  SORTED!

So I think i have earned a day off tomorrow :D

Roll on next week

I have well missed college over the christmas break and I can't wait to get back to work properly, I am well excited about our new projects especially the Book cover one, I have about 6 different ideas already and am looking forward to getting on with experimenting :)

Oh my Dog!

It's been ages since I have posted!!! Must try harder!!!  However I have now finished my CV (at last), and I have sent it off to the local community college for a work experience request.  One more tick off the WBL list of things to do, ponly about 50 still to do.........................must try harder!!!

On the plus side my Still life has now been printed and I am completely ready for hand-in next week, I have a good lot of research already done for my book cover project, and most of the research done for my next contextual essay so I think I am winning?

Oh and I have done a pic for the Christmas project, it's not very good but at least I will hand something over!