Employability week

This year I took advantage of the employability week that Plymouth College of Art had arranged for us. As I have a Diploma in Business I only went to the talks that I needed. One talk I went to was about pricing our work and our time depending on what we were producing and whether it was a individual piece of work we were selling or services. To find out these prices we needed to work out the ideal hourly wage that we needed to make. From that we would work out how long each piece of work took to make. That would form the basis of the pricing of our work. I worked out that my hourly wage should be around £25 which would cover my expenses and provide me with a little bit of profit. From this figure I should be pricing individual pieces of work depending on how long I was out shooting, editing time and printing costs. Another thing to consider is how many copies I intend on making which would impact price as well.

The next talk was on cash flow planning. This is important for anyone wanting to be self-employed. In order to manage a businesses cash flow there are a few things to be concerned with. Making sure that the Taxes are done correctly it is advised to have a book keeper who will manage the financial information giving the business owner security that they are filling in the Tax forms correctly and only paying what they are due to. Having contracts with customers is important as it ensures that all parties know what is expected of them and what money is being transferred between them. Having these contracts also creates a needed paper trail which makes it easier for the book keeper as well.

Invoices can also aid the business owner when getting finance from the bank as it shows that you expect to have money coming in. Be prepared to negotiate rates/deals from the bank as they might not give you the best deal for you.There are options out there to support self-employment such as the FSB, Factory Finance and Invoice Insurance.

The next talk was things to keep in mind when starting out.
1) Tax Accounting - use a person or programme/software
2) Clear Communication of expectations from customer - have this written down to avoid problems. Have clear deadlines and subdeadlines written down as well to prevent issues with customers.
3) Manage cash flow properly - Work out how much will be needed to startup the business and keep it running short term. There are organisations available to provide support and financial assistance should I need it - SWIG, Fredericks Foundation, Access Pathway to name a few.

Fundraising was another talk that I went to as I had limited knowledge in this area, especially as a photographer. Being able to fund raise successfully is a massive life skills as it covers a wide range of sources from public crowdfunding to grants from organisations and charities. In order to fund raise successfully there are a few things to consider depending on where you are going to raise the money from. If applying for money from an organisation or charity then you need to word your proposal carefully to cover a few points:
1) What your project is about
2) Who it is aimed towards
3) How the money will be used
4) The timeline of the project

Another talk that I attended was about pitching ideas. This is important as while we are working as artists we will be promoting ourselves and our work to a wide variety of people from customers to potential financiers. To pitch an idea you need to be confident when approaching and talking to people. Be consistent in the manner of talking and remember that YOU are in charge of the talk. Be aware of how you are coming across in your body language (may be difficult for me due to my autism). There are tricks to keep you calm and grounded, having something in your hand gives you an excuse to keep your hands occupied. Have a spot which you can call a home base, a place for you to return to after stepping out to talk and gesture to something. When having a face to face small meeting, focusing on the nose or eyebrows will make it look like you are looking in their eyes without the pressure of actually doing so. Sometimes you may only have a short time to pitch an idea so assume you are in an elevator and only have 20 to 30 seconds to communicate your idea. Making the pitch short but interesting enough to draw interest almost immediately is ideal. You need to explain the uniqueness of your idea and persuade the person to provide help and/or financial support.

The last talk that I went to was about becoming self-employed. It went through twelve steps to making a creative business.
1) Ask yourself why? - Sit down and think about what Pros and Cons there are for being your own boss.
2) How can you improve? - List areas where you need to improve e.g. financial management. Be prepared to take yourself out of your comfort zone.
3) What is your idea? - Think about creative skills and list how they can become a business.
4) Research your market - Profile your ideal customer, business and individuals then contact them.
5) Your business structure - Research into different legal structures and understand what is best for you.
6) Choose a name - Consider the benefits of having a business name or your own name.
7) Creating a brand, then promoting - Develop a ten step plan to promote your brand.
8) Lock down the legals - Contact PATLIB Plymouth to discuss any potential IP issues.
9) Get your numbers right - speak to someone about creating a cashflow forecast.
10) Get used to juggling - Think about time management skills and how they can improve.
11) Be inspired by fellow creatives - Find a creative network to join and identify people and/or businesses you want to learn from.
12) No room for being shy, get out there and do it - Contact 10 people a week you want to work with, sell to and partner with.

Online Content

In order to develop my professional practice I had to develop an online presence that I can use to promote myself. I had to look at what social media I would be able to use and developed a Facebook page for my photography which I can use to keep interested people updated with projects that I am doing and if I will be putting on any exhibitions in the near future. Facebook is a great all rounder but there are other social media that I can use to promote myself and my work such as Twitter and Instagram. Although I have started on these other social media I am not confident or competent in using them.

I have started developing a website where I hope to be able to sell prints of my work and have a digital portfolio of all my projects. It has been slow going and will be a constant work in progress as I continue developing it. I have also developed a LinkedIn profile and have been connecting with a multitude of people who are relevant to my practice. I have already had interest from someone who works for an online photographic company and she had an interest in writing an article about my work if I could sign up to the website. I haven't yet as I am still looking into it and making sure that I feel comfortable using it.

Having an online presence is really important in this day and age as more people use the internet to connect with people and search for things. As having internet access on a cheaper and easier basis especially with smartphones constantly improving, having an online presence means that people can find you almost instantly after they become interested in you. If they can't find you within a few minutes they would probably lose interest and forget you.

Gallery Visits

Over the year I have been to a few galleries to see the exhibitions that were being shown. In January I was able to go to London and visit a few exhibitions that were on. I was able to go to the Tate Modern and see The Clock by Christian Marclay which was an unusual but compelling piece of work.

Fig 1: Marclay, C, (2019). The Clock. Video. Tate Modern.

I also saw some artwork that was also showing at the Tate Modern. The next day I was able to go to the Photography Exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was very interesting to see the development in the technology used to create the photographs and to see how the techniques were used to create interesting pieces of work. It was interesting to see that there were 3D images made before digital photography. These images were displayed in a machine which would change the image at the press of a button.

Fig 2: Jeffries, L., (2019). Anna Atkins: Festuca Ovina. Photograph. Photographer's own collection.

After visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum I went to the National History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. This was an exhibition that I was very interested in going to see as it is relevant to my photographic practice. After paying for my entry I was able to go around the exhibition and see all the category winners and the runners up. I was able to see images that inspired me to practice my photography and develop my own skills. After viewing all the images I then went to the shop to get postcard prints of the images I liked the most, my favourite is The Vision which is a monochrome image in high detail. This image combines intense blacks with a grey smoke background which makes the focus of the image stand out even more. Whilst I was there I spoke to a member of staff and showed her a couple of my images, she encouraged me to enter my work in competitions there as she considered my work to be of similar standard to images being shown there already.

Fig 3: Jeffries, L., (2019). Jan Van Der Greef: The Vision. Photograph. Postcard in own collection

Back in Plymouth we have access to the gallery based at Plymouth University and I went to the Jem Southam exhibition. I liked the series Birds, Rocks, Rivers and Islands as it is the type of photography that I like. I enjoyed going around the gallery and taking my time looking at his work. There were quite a few images that I liked as they seemed to carry a wistfulness that is conveyed to the viewer. Jem Southam has achieved this effect with the muted colours within the images. It is this effect that I want my images to convey to the audience of my work.

Fig 8: Jeffries, L., (2019) Jem Southam: Full Moon Rising Above The North Island Motueka River. Photograph. Photographer's own collection

Competitions

Over the year I have entered a few competitions, mainly from Outdoor Photography which is a magazine I have a monthly subscription to. They have regular competitions for landscape and wildlife photography. I have also entered the Source Magazine Graduate Photography competition which we were told about in class and we were all encouraged to take part in. For the Source competition I submitted several of my Dartmoor images as I felt that they would be better understood than my abstracts. I used landscapes and wildlife photographs that I had taken and that I considered my better images. I have not had the results of the competition yet but I am hoping for some recognition.

For any of the Outdoor Photography Magazine competitions that I have entered I could only use my Dartmoor images as they are the only ones suitable for the theme of the competitions, I had to look at the requirements for the competition and then look through my images and see if any fit the brief. I then had to select the most appropriate one and write a small paragraph describing the shoot of the chosen image. I haven't won any competition yet but as the Outdoor Photography ones are free I can keep entering them.

After a conversation that I had with a member of staff at the National History Museum I have been thinking about entering competitions there as they said that my work is as good as some of the work that they have on display. This conversation has inspired me to look at bigger competitions that I could enter when I have a larger body of work and when I have more confidence in my work.

Client Awareness

Over the course of the year I have been developing an awareness of my potential client base. I don't want to work on briefs proposed by people, I want to shoot the things I like. However even those bodies of work can have people interested in them. My recent work falls into two categories; Abstract and Nature. My Abstract work is based around my autism and how my stress and anxiety play into my interactions with a busy environment such as Plymouth City Centre. The majority of these images may not be for the uninformed public, but would be for those who are interested in autism and the professionals who work with autistic people and their families. Some of my abstracts look like watercolour paintings and would be popular to sell to a wider audience.

My Nature photography can be divided into three main categories; Documentary, Emotive and Experimental. My Documentary photography which are detailed images would be popular for individuals and organisations. My Emotive work is designed to evoke feelings in the audience. They also tend to be in detail, although that is not necessary, they would be well liked by the majority of the public and would sell well. My Experimental work are images which aren't always successful and would have a limited number of people interested in them anyway.

Overall my potential clients are diverse and it all depends on which style of work I am promoting. By knowing my limitations in terms of interacting with clients I will be able to focus on where I want my career to go.

Portfolio Reviews

Since the start of the academic year, we have had a multitude of photographers and industry professionals in to talk about their careers. This gave me invaluable insight into the industry I will be entering. After the talks about their journey to where they are now and what they have been working on, we had the opportunity to sit down with them and have them review our work. For the majority of of these sit downs, I only had my Dartmoor work and not my abstracts. I generally had positive feedback as well as a suggestion from Dr Alison Nordstrom to focus on my emotive work as it got the audience to feel which was my intention.

During the week at Free Range we had two industry professionals come and review our work. I had four of my abstracts showing and they did give the audience a feeling of confusion which is what I wanted. I did have to explain my work to them but they agreed that the images I had shown met the goal of educating the public. As I was being innovative they couldn't offer me too much advice beyond suggestions for funding such as getting funding from the National Arts Council and getting in touch with organisations about autism for their support.

Portfolio reviews have been important to the development of my photographic practice. By listening to their advice I have developed a better understanding of my work and where I should take it to improve the quality of my images and where I should go for support both financial and for development of future projects.

Fig 1: Jeffries, L., (2019). Visiting Lecturers. Photograph. Photographer's own collection.

Collaborations and Networking

This year I have collaborated with not just my classmates for the Print Auction, Summer Show and Free Range, but I have also been in contact with a local photographer Richard Walker who has been taking me up to Dartmoor as I can't drive and the bus services don't go to the locations that I want to shoot. I had spoken to Richard Walker before and I arranged to go up to Dartmoor when he did as he knows Dartmoor better than I do. Richard Walker is a very good contact for me as he is a local and knows the lower half of Dartmoor very well. On the excursions we went on, he took me to parts of Dartmoor that I had never been and had no idea what they were. Richard Walker has developed his own network of photographers who he goes on shoots with as well as people who have links to Dartmoor based organisations such as the Dartmoor Magazine. Through Richard Walker I could develop contacts with these people and organisations that could further my photographic career.


Fig 1: Walker, R., ((2019). Richard Walker. Photograph. Photographer's own collection.

I was unable to go to the Photography Show this year which is an invaluable resource for networking with not just other photographers but with businesses such as Nikon and Canon to name a couple. This is an event that I intend to visit every year so that I can develop my own network and hopefully start collaborations with other photographers and other photography related businesses for future projects.

Three to Five Year Plan

In one year I plan to have graduated from Plymouth College of Art and I will have signed up for the Alumni Association. Following advice that I have received at Free Range I plan on approaching autism organisations such as The National Autistic Society and the Asperger's Association to look for support as well as potential funding. I will also be contacting small galleries to see if they are interested in showing my work. I intend on entering as many competitions as I can. On a personal level I will learn to drive and start training as a proof-reader so I can support myself financially.

In two years I will be self promoting my work which will be ongoing for both my nature photography and my autism abstracts and I intend to be planning an exhibition. I will have developed a network of contacts within Plymouth and Dartmoor reaching out to the rest of the Country. I will have entered at least one major photography competition. In my personal life I will have passed my driving tests and have a car, establishing my independence and allowing me to shoot more on Dartmoor. I will be working part time as a proof-reader to financially support myself.

Within three years I will have expanded my photo shoot locations to across the country. I will have developed a wider network across the UK and maybe abroad. I will approach The Photographers Gallery about an exhibition about an exhibition celebrating autistic photographers. Personally I will have applied for my passport so I can go abroad to shoot photographs and network.

In four years I will have started selling my work, possibly printed on items such as tea towels or cups. I will start giving talks about my photographic work and my autism. I will start travelling abroad to shoot photography both my abstracts and my nature photography. I will carry on entering competitions.

In five years I will have an established career of talks and of my photographic work. I will start developing books to sell of both my abstracts and my nature photography. I will have more exhibitions and I will keep entering competitions.

Career Development

As an emerging artist I need to consider where I want my career to go and what I want to do with my work. I have considered my limitations and my strengths and I want to become a self employed photographer. In order to become a self employed photographer I need certain skills and knowledge before I start that journey. I need to have basic accounting knowledge as well as knowing how to promote myself and my work in order to get funding for the work that I am producing. In order to support my photography I would need to know where to look for funding and which would be the best sources of funding for the project that I would be working on.

I will also need to be able to promote myself to potential contacts and sponsorship so I will need to be confident about the work that I will be producing. Before I declare myself as self employed I will need to have certain things in place to prevent any issues from occurring as I develop my business. I would need to have the legal side of the business locked down as well as the financial side. By this I mean having prepared a cash flow and documents needed for the sale of goods and contracts for any work being shown in exhibitions.

If I need any help in any area I must be willing to reach out to the people and organisations that would be able to help me such as The National Autistic Society. Confidence is key when becoming self employed as it would help open any doors that you need to get your name out there and get opportunities. It would be good for me to become part of a creative network, such as The Royal Photographic Society, as it would give me invaluable contacts that could help me in the future.