“If you have nothing to say, say nothing”
Mark Twain
Communication is key, I cannot classify my work unless I have a voice and it’s my voice that’s going to get me these opportunities. What’s my definition and why is it different from someone else, it’s a dog-eat-dog world and everyone is my competition. This week’s tutorial was reflecting on writing about oneself and went into detail about cover letters, artist statements, artist biography, and Curriculum Vitae.
Then in groups we made an artist statement about Martin Seeds this helped because writing about yourself is less easy so having this to reference was practical although it isn’t finished it gives me confidence when writing my own.
Martin seeds artist statement: Martin Seeds is a visual artist whose work centres around his northern Irish identity and heritage, producing art from a political perspective. His work aims to educate on the political landscape of Northern Ireland. He experiments with Alternative processes merging analogue technology with contemporary methods. Through his visual communication, his work challenges themes that are reflected in his striking aesthetics.
Feedback:
- Can include his religion
- Include photography
- Dates of work – come to prominence at the end of the troubles
- Is there an element of autobiography within his work
From this lecture, I started to think about how I need to add more substantial things to my cv as well as build my confidence in Photography. I emailed Conall Gleeson and asked if any opportunities are coming up where I can talk to the first years about my work and give academic advice. So, on Monday 17th October I did a 20-minute presentation, I have never spoken publicly about my work, so I felt like this was a good place to start. I started to produce a PowerPoint where I introduced my project conceal and reveal which is a project where I explore the power of portraits and how adding or taking away certain aspects of an image can change this sense of power. Passport-styled Photographs can let you do so much, for example, our passport photos will allow us to travel to a different country and our id will allow us to do that little bit more. just from that little photo, we have so much freedom. Because we are so used to seeing that snippet of an image, we think it represents the whole truth. Shooting on 35 mm black-and-white film and manipulating my images through the experimentation of the developer Challenge these existing narrative and boundaries. I also included personal experience as a student at the University of Brighton.
This photo was taken during my artist talk.
“When it comes to researching you don’t have to just go to the library and take out a million and one books. Use magazines, podcasts, exhibitions, blogs, and YouTube the list is endless. I have linked a load here for you I also have a pdf of a lot more so anyone who does want that can come up to me at the end and I can email it to you. Use the facilities as you have as much as possible, So the basement, studios, darkroom, library, and first floor are all great places where you and other students can go and do work if you are getting sick of your halls. I was in phoenix halls and I think adjusting to sleeping, studying, showering and whatever else I was doing in there was hard and you do need a change of environment too. Study with people and all help each other. You will spend three years with these people and you all have at least one thing in common – photography. Talk to your coursemates about what work you are doing and get used to talking about your work. When you go to your tutorials engage with them, and ask questions – even if it sounds silly there is no judgment in these spaces, you are all here to learn. Be open-minded about the feedback you are getting. When adjusting to a level of uni the level of feedback you get is so crucial in how we grow and learn as photographers. Be open-minded to the feedback you get, tutors aren’t being mean they are just being honest as they want you to how you can get better even students – had a few students say I don’t like the method I’ve worked why don’t I try this.” Frost E. 2022. Conceal and reveal artist talk. 17th October, 309 Edward Street. I gained confidence throughout the presentation; I received good feedback from Conall Gleeson and the first years were asking lots of questions and were engaging in my PowerPoint, I thoroughly enjoyed doing this and feel confident doing this in a professional environment. It was a good stepping stone into the professional world.