In June I was approached by the organiser of PhotoLondonShow to exhibit at their next show in October at the Bargehouse an exhibition space that is part of the Oxo Tower complex on the South Bank of the Thames. The show is a group exhibition where my work would be show next to work by other photographers. The Bargehouse is a large building with multiple rooms that can be used to exhibit work. I have been allocated a dedicated room for my work a windowless space 9m x 4m so in some ways it will be like hosting a solo show where I can use the room as a frame for the works and not be worried about how other work in line of sight of my work might influence the reading of the space. I have decided that I will create a completely new set of work for this show rather than use it as a retrospective of the different bodies of work created “City Canyons”, “Childhood Memories”, “Last person to leave turn of the tap” and “Points of Departure Tilbury to Harwich”.
Anyway I digress from the purpose of this journal entry “Moving on Up” the title of an M People song was to record life after the MA. Andrew Mason the organiser of the PhotoLondonShow approached me to explore if I would be happy to do an interview that would be shared as part of the overall show. We agreed to meet on the 21st August in Borough Market for the interview. I was expecting the interview to last about 30 minutes cover a number of generic questions that typically get asked in photographic interviews. I was very wrong the interview lasted well over an hour in the end.
It covered all things photography things that have influenced my photographic practice since my first ever picture on a Kodak camera in my pre-teenage years. I discussed the transformation from being a technical photographer to being an art photographer where visual storytelling is the main reason why I pick a device for image capture. The conversation covered sources of ideas which for me are very diverse, typically I have an idea that will triggered by a new article or an observed aspect in my life. That idea gets recorded as a sentence in my book of project ideas (these days I use my iPhone) and over time I review those entries, add extra details that I think might make the project interesting and eventually the idea will be sufficiently formed to initiate the project.
We discussed my aspirations for the practice and the desire to attract patrons who would support the practice financially and contribute to the projects. The project for the show at the Bargehouse is a light hearted project that is comment on social media after that project is delivered the plan is to embark on more serious long term project that explores 20th century history of industry in Chelmsford.
Bargehouse-all-floors-floor-plans
Reference
- M People, 1993, Moving on Up, London
