14) Guest Speaker, Simon Roberts - 19/10/17

On Wednesday we had guest speaker Simon Roberts come and visit the uni. My notes from the talk are scanned in below.

The first thing Simon said which I thought was really inspiring and interesting was that he didn't even do a Photography degree, but instead Geography (which subsequently really influenced his work positively).

Another thing he mentioned was the fact that he would go to newspapers and other publishing places with his own ideas for shoots which they would then pay for and get on board with. It's a great way of doing work which you find more personal interest in while also getting paid for it. This is something I'd like to try out for myself in the future.

The project he showed which I loved most was 'Motherland', taken in Russia using the Mamiya 7 camera. Seeing his images couldn't have come at a better time, because it shows me more examples of the images the Mamiya takes just after I'd had the workshop - inspiring me further to try out the camera for some of my own work. Below are some examples of my favourite images of his. The images look so beautiful and I love how they're all taken from an elevated standpoint - for instance in the second photograph. I just feel like the Mamiya gives images a whole new engaging feeling to them, as if the viewer is being brought into the environment like you're really there. I really love the colours in his work, for instance how well the red and blue colours compliment each other in the third image, even down to the woman's hair and outfit. I also love how in his portraits it feels like you're really understanding the individuals, for instance being able to see the strong bond of love between the two sisters in the first image.

Simon also mentioned that in his book which contains these images, there's text that accompanies them to allow you to visualise his journey through Russia. This made me think back to something I read in 'The Ambiguity of the Photograph' by John Berger where he states "It requires a caption for us to understand the significance of the event" Although I don't think this is true for all photography these days due to things being more abstract, I thought it fit in really well with Simon's work because if not it could be weak in intentionality.

Another interesting point I took away from the talk was when Simon was talking about the timeframe of his projects, saying he'd spend a year shooting, a year producing and then a year advertising the work. I've never really thought about the timeframe of such projects because I've always done quite short lasting briefs, however timing is definitely something I need to start thinking more about. I also like how he allocates the same amount of time to each process within the project, because for example making the work is as important as advertising it, because if no one knows about it, it'll all be for nothing.

To sum up, I thoroughly enjoyed this guest speaker and not only did I really like his work, but he also offered some great practical advice on working on projects, as well as inspiring me to take out the Mamiya for myself!

#guestspeaker #obsessions