Welcome to episode 4 of creative conversations.
http://creativedialog.wordpress.com/
This week I visit Weymouth seafront, where I meet local photographer Paul Russell. He talks about the difference between a documentary photographer and a street photographer. A definition of street photography is; “the ability to see the unusual in the everyday and to capture the moment.”
Paul mentions a couple of his themes and how they need to be broad enough to allow him to take a range of photos, but tight to hold the pictures together. His Country Show theme was featured on the BBC website and had over 220,000 hits. We hear about how the internet helps him reach a global audience and about the strength of having a good website. How over promotion can be counter-productive and though he uses social networking sites like flickr he does not link to these from his website.
Paul is a member of in-public, which is made up of twenty photographers and whose aim is to promote Street Photography and to continue to explore its possibilities.His membership of the group has helped him gain exposure and to being invited into contributing work for exhibitions.
We hear about the ranges of exhibitions he has been in lately and about his work being included in the “‘must-have book for anyone remotely interested in the genre” Thames and Hudson book “Street Photography Now“. This book presents 46 contemporary image-makers noted for their candid depictions of everyday life in our streets.
We hear how even though successful his photography does not really earn him any where near a decent wage. And how it has become more and more difficult for documentary photographers to make a living. The opportunities to earn money from his art is fairly limited and the traditional source of commissions from magazines has disappeared in the last few years.
We then end up and briefly talk about the “smarting up” of Weymouth seafront, and about the Olympic legacy and how he feels that a small gallery can drastically change the nature of small seaside towns. That though transient events are good the investment in a permanent gallery space would create a creative focus to the town and be a meeting point for artists in the area. He thinks that the seafront has improved recently with the new style huts, that the general toning down of the beach huts make it look nicer.
As a counterpoint to these podcasts of people talking about the artistic situation in West Dorset, I’m also working on some field recordings of my landscape. These soundscapes are being issued at http://51degreesnorth.bandcamp.com and my aim is to release one per month.
Within this restricted territory I expect to find inspiration in the most diverse corners and objects. Moreover to reflect on the changing landscape and weather patterns as we shift through the year. In this part of the world, West Dorset, tourism is a vital economy and the influx of people into the landscape and the extra events, businesses, etc that go on, fundamentally changes this place. I’m also surrounding with agriculture business with their ever-changing routines.
My latest soundscape – windy autumn day – is now available to hear at:
http://51degreesnorth.bandcamp.com/album/windy-aut…
Recorded in West Dorset on 5th September 2011.
creative conversations episode 3 goes live
I conclude the conversation I had with Julie Penfold at PVA mediaLab. We briefly discuss the shock of PVA losing their Arts Council funding and that they are fundamental to future developments that involve PVA after their Arts Council funding finishes in March 2012.
I ask what motivates Julie to keep surviving after all these years. We talk about the lack of capabilities in gallery spaces to show new digital artworks, even down to simply moving image work. And also the difficulty of showing community engaged processes in a gallery space, in a different space, of how to adapt, re-make work in a way to suit a different audience, a different space. Julie illustrates her answers with highlighting some of PVAs previous work and touches on a few of the archival works that sit in PVA library.
We briefly talk about community engagement and how important the role that an an equal relationship exists between all partners and has some sustainability built in. How in her experience the best initiatives have been when artists have self-started these, they are not coming with any organisation behind them (a lot like this project I might hasten to add). But how do they pay the bills is, as always, the crucial question!
http://creativedialog.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/cre…
getting some great responses to the idea of fostering a public debate & distributing them via podcasts. Looking into the issues of artistic practice in dorset, funding, culture, the Olympics and its legacy to the area.
& having some brilliant discussions with, mainly artists, on how they see the future trajectories of culture in the area, about creative practice and surviving as an artist. The local arts officer, or to give him his new job title, the ‘Cultural Coordinator as part of the Weymouth and Portland 2012 Operations Team’, agreed to take part, which made a fascinating discussion (you have to wait to hear this in a future episode).
on the downside, it is taking much more time then I’d planned for. Partly my fault in that the recorded discussions always take longer, as I ramble on … and they tend to jump around, like conversations do. This has meant they take longer to edit. Also has made it difficult to stick to the 30min per episode – not sure if I should stick to 30min per episode concept & move to 50, or 60min, or make each conversation two, 30min programs? Feel that 30min of two people talking is enough for people to sit through.
The first proper episode is now online at:
http://creativedialog.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/epi…
it’s gone over my target of 30min so nxt wks show will be less.
I feel its a bit rambling and I think needs greater coherence. But what do you think?
Still early days and I’d welcome your feedback.
