Magnum & BJP Professional Practice Series: Personal Projects
Last weekend I attended my first weekend of Magnum & BJP workshops, exciting times. Before we jump into the first workshop I wanted to share how Magnum has shaped me as a photographer. The first photographer I saw talk was Jonas Bendiksen. The first photobook which inspired me was a battered copy of a Don McCullin book (which I may have “forgotten” to return to the school bookshelf, apologises.), the list goes on.
I’ve also been fortunate to have been a winner of Magnum’s 30 under 30 Prize in 2015, (which led to my photobook Lingering Ghosts being published.), and I was one of ten to receive Magnum’s Graduate Photographer Award, 2017. In short, whilst I can probably only name a tenth of Magnum photographers, it’s influenced me since I was 16 years old. And so, onto the workshops…
Day 1- Talks
Damn trains. The train I meant to catch is cancelled but it’s ok, girlfriend is on hand to give me a lift to another station. After getting off a tube stop too early and catching a bus in the wrong direction, I arrive slightly late at the Magnum office. A fairly unassuming, white building but with the Magnum Photos sign outside I realise I’m in the right place.
The room is bustling with photographers chatting, with a real mix of ages, genders and nationalities. Magnum Education Manager Sonia Jeunet, formerly of Panos Pictures, introduces us to the day of industry speakers, first up Harry Hardie of Here Press, a renowned contemporary photobook publisher.
Harry talked about his particular focus on idea based work and marrying the concepts of the work with book design. He shared anecdotes about photographers he’s worked with, and the process behind some of his book designs. I particularly enjoyed his explanation of Edmund Clarke’s work Control Order House and Ben Robert’s Occupied Spaces.
Some of his tips:
- Gallery Owners, Publishers, Photo Editors etc. are all looking for “A Unique Voice.”.
- Lots of photographers get their ideas by “Reading crappy newspapers.”.
- Be friendly, be someone who is happy to solve problems.
Onto the next talk, controversial photographer Antoine D’Agata. His work is split into two categories, his day work, and his night work. His night work is his most well known, often featuring sex workers, drug addicts and gang members.
In this Vice Interview (trust me to open this link as a four year old sits next to me) he states, “I don’t see art as competition or a spectacle but as a privileged space to give a radical form to one’s perspective on the world.”. His talk reveals that he seems himself as a participant, doing and being in the world, rather than as a photojournalist-type spectator.
His presentation leaves me with more questions than answers but his honesty and focus on real life situations strikes me. I’m still not sure what to think of his work or what he aims to achieve with it though, perhaps just to merely document a unique viewpoint. From an ethical standpoint I am confused, there’s a part of me that feels voyeuristic for looking at his pictures, are the subjects ok with this? Does that matter? But it’s clear the world his work explores is a complicated one with no easy answers. He visited one of his past subjects recently, “I went with an armed body guard with a big gun, just to visit her.”.
In short, from Anton’s talk I learnt to be honest with your work and be part of the world, don’t just record it.
After lunch Fiona Rogers, Business Development for Magnum and founder of Firecracker Grant – applications open now! She was great at breaking down how Magnum, and photographers in general, have had to change their model for generating income in recent years. She discussed photographers such as recent Sony World Photography Award Winner Alys Tomlinson have to balance their personal work with another job or source of income. In Tomlinson’s case, Wedding Photography. In other words, “Get a job!”.
The most interesting part for me was a question from the audience who said she was comfortable with the photography side of her practice but felt her writing was letting her down – I think in particular when applying for grants and other opportunities.
Rogers asked, “Do you collaborate with writers?” “No” “Do you have writer Friends?” “Yes”. So there you go, solution right in front of you. Collaborate with those around you. Seems so obvious but I think often we photographers think of ourselves as lone wolfs, when actually there’s a lot of value and opportunity to collaborate with others.
Last talk of the day is Nicola Shipley Director of Grain Projects. Now full disclosure, I may be biased here as I’m working with Nicola on a project in Stoke-on-Trent, which has been an amazing experience.
She began her talk by sharing an observation, when flicking through some books Harry Hardie had bought in she noticed that the Arts Council logo often (Or always?) appeared in the front of them. Projects need some resources to exist.
In her talk she covered the, often missed in my opinion, practical aspect of funding a body of work aka. Getting the money to actually make your exhibition/book/project a reality. Focussing primarily on Arts Council grant applications she covered the new grants available, applying for the most appropriate with general tips and things to consider. I think the audience really appreciated hearing about this angle, it’s amazing how many relevant grants are out there we know nothing about. I recently received a Arts Council grant and could not have done it without Nicola’s help, too many tips to note them all.
Here’s a few though:
- “It’s how you phrase it.”. You have to make it clear why you’re asking for every penny. Who are you engaging with it? How will it work?
- Plan everything you possibly can.
- The new Developing your Creative Practice Grants are great.
Day 2-Portfolio Reviews
Don’t worry, this Day isn’t going to be quite so much reading. The portfolio reviews are split into groups of around 10 into each industry professional. Each person getting 15 minutes of review with two industry professionals.
Antonie D’Agata was my first reviewer. He was excellent at getting people to think about what the core theme or narrative of their project was, and then gave feedback about whether this was reflected in their pictures or how to reflect this better. He was keen for people edit down to images that gave their project(s) a sense of mystery and were more open to translation – rather than a photojournalistic, descriptive type image.
He thought Lingering Ghosts did this well but advised me to keep focussed on building a body of work. Whilst workshops and community engagement are important, don’t let this distract from your main practice. He’s right that I need to keep on building up my own work.
Second reviewer, last part of the workshop, with Fiona Rogers. Her review was much more open to discussion as a group, with people giving and receiving feedback from most people in the group. Hers was more general feedback on bodies of work and what people thought of it.
Lingering Ghosts has a good response, always motivating. When sharing the progress of the Settling project it was helpful to have feedback from a variety of people. Everyone on the course was at a different point in their carer and different stage of their life. Some fed up of their commercial work and wanting to understand how to get back to creating personal work they had made at University. Others had only recently started and wanted to get a better feel for the industry. This variety of people meant lots of different perspectives.
Overall
With any of these workshop, networking type events the best part was meeting other creatives and photographers and sharing your experiences and projects. It reminded me that the work we create should be a reflection of ourselves, about what we enjoy, believe or stand for. If it’s not, there’s usually no point in making it.
