Evaluation

Evaluation – Areas of Photographic Practice B

Laura Parkinson

This brief shocked me in terms of content and work flow, I have never looked into photojournalism before so having to attend exhibitions based on war and journalism was different and took some getting used to. I am predominately based as a fashion photographer, so to me, journalism is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Thinking of ideas was no issue to me at all. I firstly contacted the Salford Choir who have travelled all over the country, but received no reply. It was only until the 5^th of January the chairman got back to me to say she was okay to let me cover the story. I will probably undertake this as a personal side project, but obviously it was too late for this module. I then moved on to looking at Islington Mill when a friend mentioned she had recently attended a concert there. I contacted the press and marketing manager and had a meeting, and the gig was mine!

I met up with 3 artists during my time at Islington Mill; Andrew Brooks of Andrew Brooks Photography, Paul Hallows of himHallows and the guys from One69A Screen-printing. Meeting new people was something that I was not used to and having to call and email to arrange times to attend was all new to me. I managed to get all the photographs I thought I needed for the assignment in time for the deadline for Quays News.

I do not think I quite got the hang of photojournalism from the off, as an arts and fashion based photographer at heart, I went out with the intention of taking interesting and lovely looking photographs that I thought people would like. I never really thought about the content and if the viewer would be able to understand. After a meeting with Les, the module leader, he told me that my photographs would be more suitable for a gallery wall rather than a newspaper. I then researched into photojournalism for papers rather than solely looking at the work of artists like Sean Smith and Steve McCurry. I wish I had conducted this research earlier, as I would have taken the right photographs from the offset. However, everyone learns from their mistakes, I certainly have from mine.

Overall, I found this a challenging but rewarding module. I feel like I have grown as both a photographer as well as a person, as I now know that I can speak to people I have never met before and direct them as to what photographs that I want. I have learnt that less is more when it comes to photojournalism, images need to be as simple as possible without confusing the viewer into believing something else.