Search

41) Developing Practice in Photography, Angus Fraser - 1/12/17

Alice Lock
Dec 2, 2017
2 min read

Yesterday morning we had a lecture with Angus all about some of his past projects and some tips and thoughts about photography. My notes from the session can be seen below.

Angus started off the lecture with lots of helpful thoughts and tips for when we're out in the photography world after uni. For instance, not being too reflective on your work when it's for client, diversification - thinking about what other jobs you can do within photography and being able to multi-task doing these, and also thinking about why you're doing certain projects.

Later on in the lecture Angus went on to speak about his project 'Santa Muerte'. His passion for this project stemmed from a personal loss, and he also wanted to change the negative view of Mexico. Angus talking us through this project and the steps he had to take for it to be a finished piece of work was really interesting and also insightful for my own career. For instance him saying that big projects take a lot of research and planning, and you need to get to know people in the area you're photographing.

Another point of interest from him talking about his project was that the religion of Santa Muerte spread rapidly online from the use of social media and online platforms. For instance shrines, prayers and artwork online that people could use to pray to or send to loved ones. This reminded me of Jason Evans' essay 'Online Photographic Thinking' and the point he makes that he reached the biggest audience of his life from his online project 'The Daily Nice'. He also highlights that its an "entirely affordable process" and I just think it's really interesting to see how even religion is adapting and changing with the presence of the internet.

The lecture ended on a positive note, with Angus saying we should keep pushing with photography and the work we're doing, highlighting we need to keep applying to competitions and getting work out there. He put this work ethic in perspective by saying he spent 4 years on this Santa Muerte project, with around 6 trips to Mexico.

Overall I really enjoyed this lecture because I'd never heard Angus talk about his personal work before and it was really engaging to listen to. I also feel like he has a lot of wisdom to share considering all the different photography ventures he's made and I can learn a lot from him.