guest speaker | Ella Frost Professional Practice

We had guest speaker Lindsey Smith come in and talk to us about working with galleries and the process she went through whilst studying and how she got to be an established artist. She has worked in collaboration with a range of organisations to design, deliver and evaluate learning and engagement initiatives. Her main peace of advice was to keep networking as well as have the confidence to reach out to people to see if they want to produce collaborative work or to see if you can get exhibited in a gallery. Having a strong portfolio is something I need to consider as I do want to be exhibited into galleries. Now that we are planning our grad show this will be a great opportunity to network and put myself out there!

I have selected some images and started to build my portfolio up as well as begin to do my CV and artist bio.

Artist bio:

Ella Frost is a British visual artist currently in attendance of The University of Brighton for BA(Hons) Photography, of which she is in her third year. Frost’s work re-imagines our relationship with the photographic image: documentation of truth, memory, and existence are explored through the use of portraiture. Working with alternative processes and merging analogue & digital technology with contemporary methods, Frost explores the power of portraits to challenge existing narratives and boundaries. By reflecting on the history of the portrait and engaging with current views of the portrait, she creates abstract work reflecting on these ideas within photography by editing and manipulating her images to reimagine their possibilities.

Through her studies at the University of Brighton Frost has established strong concepts and creative interests within her visual practice. Through the exploration of 35mm film as well as studio shoots, frosts works visualises the truth within photography as she bushed the boundaries between reality and fictionality. Her wider visual concepts incorporate these ideas by using mixed medias to aesthetically convey her concepts as well as researching into the historical and critical analysis of photography. Her work guides the viewer to the depict world. During 2022 my project ‘Conceal & Reveal, which was made by splashing developer onto my prints in the darkroom, was shown in ‘Indagation’. The exhibition was displayed at Edward Street by the university of Brighton. This series as well as ‘conceal & reveal continued’ is also soon to be displayed at the Free Range in London as well as another exhibition held by the university of Brighton.

CV:

“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.

Tag: guest speaker

Stepping into a professional environment