Completing my MA Photography
It’s been a very busy time since I held my exhibition of The Last Harvest back in July. All my time in month after the exhibition was spent putting together my final portfolio (see here ) and writing up a critical self review of the project. I am very pleased to say that I passed with a very good mark which makes all of the soul searching that accompanied my studies worthwhile.
Since then I took a little time out when I spent some time in Cornwall and we went to Greece.
I was invited to give a talk to the Photography Group of the St Neots U3A group, which I enjoyed very much and led to a couple of print sales. I have also invested in a professional level printer so I can produce prints to my own specification. Other graduates have talked about falling over a cliff when the MA finishes, and I must admit I have been a little at a loss as to what I could be doing as I no longer have a clear structure of lectures, seminars, and deadlines.
This past weekend I went to an exhibition of Jesse Alexander’s work in Somerset. Jesse treated us to a tour of the projects included in the exhibition and some of the locations where the work was made. Jesse has been somewhat of a mentor to me during my MA and I greatly enjoyed learning more about his process. I also spent a couple of days at Bristol On Photography photobook fair where I met up with a few mates and met heroes including Jem Southam and Mark Power, and listened to a few talks where the stand out talk was by Dennis Morris as he talked about working with Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols, some communities around where he grew up. There was also a particularly “hot under the collar” story about working with Marianne Faithful.
The end of the MA has felt a bit like falling off a cliff. With no lectures, seminars to attend, no reading to undertake, and no deadlines to meet, it is now down to me to take myself onto my next photographic adventure. For me, in the short term, this means submitting work to exhibitions, and working up a book dummy of my Last Harvest project. I have started working on a new project idea about the voluntary sector - the picture below is a of a lady who volunteers at the Cape Cornwall National Coastwatch Institute. Also the past couple of weeks has seen the water company start some ground workings at Brook Farm. I intend to continue working at the farm until there is some resolution of the current situation - be that new house building, or the farm remaining as a working farm.
