While I was studying an intermediate photography course at Market Photo WorkShop, some of my friends urged me to apply for a mentorship programme available to students. I applied, and was fortunate enough to get funding for an upcoming solo exhibition.I’m now slowly pulling near the final stages of its production and I keep getting inconsistent feedback from people that I show my work to. The initial idea clashes with the traditional narrative method of how stories are told, when working within a photographic medium.
The thing is, that I’m very young and still have a lot to explore in the world of photography, and for now I’m finding it quite difficult to adapt to the various ways other photographers work, and the impact photographic traditions and conventions bear on contemporary photography. When I got this funding, I saw it as an opportunity to find myself as a photographer, discover my weak and strong points, and explore with ways of working that best suit me.
My background is like this: photography has always been my thing, though I had never really explored a camera until mid- 2006, before doing my short course - It was magazine madness, music and scrap-booking all the way! I hardly read about the nitty-gritty of photography and its histories; I cared less. I went with the works that fascinated me, and fastened a knot with my gut feel.
This is the kind of attitude I instilled in my work, up to a certain point, but fortunately this project has allowed me to twist my ways a little when it comes to reading and researching about photographers and works that appeal to me. This has becomes one of the major highlights for me during the production of alternative-kidz.
Raw, is what John Fleetwood (the head of Market Photo Workshop) titled this process, when I explained to him my intensions and steps I took & opt to take during the last process of building up this project.
My one and only concern, is that I’ll end-up with work that is not appealing to me, if I following a certain trend just to fit in with what is mainstream. At the same time, I’m anxious of killing my project if I go too explorative with it.
Later…
When your times on the door,
And it drips to the floor,
And you feel you can touch,
All the noise is too much,
And the seeds that are sown,
Are no longer your own - Joy Division
