Ex Student Talks...

Last week we had a talk from Ex Students who talked to us about what they did at Uni and what they did straight after Uni and what they are doing now. We had five ex students come in, all who had achieved alot since leaving. I took in everything they said as its always so interesting to here about other photographers work and especially people that were once in your exact same position. So I took notes from every photographers talk and have put them in order in this blog...

Tim Bowditch

First of all we had Tim Bowditch. He explained how he was from Guernsey and after University he couldn't stand being back in Guernsey and moved to London shortly after. He talked about how he runs the Roof Unit, which also consists of other photographs. I was really fascinated how he seemed to just push himself into photography within London and has succeeded so well.

He went on to show us his website http://timbowditch.com/ . I found his style of Photography very basic but beautifully shot, every detail thought about. I particularly liked his work Leaf Peeper as it told a story and had a sense of humour about it.

Vicky Chiswell

Vicky had gone down a very different approach to all of the other photographs we had a talk from. Vicky explained how she enjoyed taking photographs of museums and galleries and used photography to get closer to these places. She said she had always been interested in these places and always knew she wanted to work in one after Uni. Vicky had done her work experience at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth and photographed childrens workshops. After University she became deeply involved within childrens workshops and Aspex Gallery hired her full time.

Vicky was very inspiring as she had a way about her that could teach people how to be within the art industry, calm and caring. I thought it was brilliant how rewarding her job is as she is helping children of all abilities to explore art in different ways.

Chris Butler

Chris gave a very interesting and detailed talk first about what his main interest at Uni was. He explained that he used to photograph aeroplanes, going up to the London airports and photographing the Concord (The year it was stopped). His photographs of the aeroplanes were extraordinary and pieces of artwork in themselves. He was amazed by the movement of plains and used blur alot within his photography to show this.

It was then interesting that he then said he went on to do Portrait photography after University, something completely different from photographing planes! He explained he worked for Venture, then The Hayward Studio and then went on to open his own studio 'The Photography Lounge'. I felt he gave some very good advice during the speech, explaining how he took a large format camera to a wedding, put it at the side and didn't even use it, he just took it to look professional!

He also explained that the bad thing about working for a studio and himself was that it was alot of hours, some days you'd be working all day and some days you'd have no work. He also said that it is 25 % Photographs and 75% Marketing, if your 'brand' isn't profession, people won't think you are professional. But overall, he loved his job as he gets to meet new people and personalities everyday.

Here is his website, http://www.thephotographylounge.co.uk/

 Georgie Gillard

Georgie also gave a really good speech about her work and seemed like a really 'get up and go' person. She talked about how she always wanted to be a press photographer and did projects at University that she knew would be good for her portfolio. Whilst she was at Uni, she did work experience at The Times and got a few good shots for her portfolio from it. After Uni she went onto apply from a job at The Daily Mail as a press photographer and she got the job.

She showed us some of her work and had a really good sense of humour when telling us her stories about the job working at The Daily Mail. Her most amazing work I found was how she photographed all the members of the 2012 British Olympic Team, the photographers that would of killed for that job!

Nicholas Adams

In my first year, Nick came in and gave us a talk and I found him very truthful and honest about photography. He talked about how difficult it was and that you'd wait ages to get emails and replies from people. Two years later, he still talked about the difficulties in photography but he explained more about his successes. Nicks work intrigues me as I am very interested in Architecture and Interiors myself, and Nick is a very successful Architectural and Interior Photographer.

Nicks work is very clean and he likes his lines to be straight and precise within the images. This style is shown throughout all of his work. I was very impressed with his work on the Old Leather Works Factory, I found it beautiful and eery, it was just my cup of tea!

Overall, I was very impressed by the achievements of the ex students as they really had pushed themselves within their careers to achieve the best they can. It made me think alot about after University and how I was going to go about in the Photography world but they gave us the very best of advice; To be yourself, to be Patient and to work extremely hard because you need to grab every opportunity, they won't just turn up on your doorstep.