Week 4: Collaboration
As part of our process to self evaluate and see how we can improve or diversify our work, we have been collaborating with our peers in DOVER cohort.
As photographers we can become isolated and siloed in our approach, and although we may comment on other practitioners and how we interpret their work, it is only by working alongside them that we can truly understand their motives, their source of creativity, and how they perceive our own work in return.
Personally I find it very hard to collaborate on a project unless there is a group specific objective, although I fully appreciate this can restrict and somewhat limit my exposure to new techniques and ideas. To be open minded is to be educated and to educate others. The sharing of knowledge seems somewhat unexpected and perhaps unwelcome, unless in the context of academic or professional training. I have not collaborated on any project before, although I have been part of a ‘team’ of photographers working on an event. However, this tends to be more of a competitive exercise with an agreed and predetermined objective and outcome. Rarely have I seen cooperation and consideration in this context.
Of course photographers don’t always just collaborate with kin. Knowing how to work well alongside publishers, galleries, artists etc. is vital to ensure the success of your work. When producing a piece of work for public consumption, the composite product will include elements from many other specialisms and creatives. It also fair to say that collaboration with your subject matter constitutes a critical process if the image is to work as you hope it will. By example I was photographing a lady who was painting on the beach during the week, and having approached her for permission I immediately engaged into a collaborative process by which both parties were constituent to the outcome of the photo. In conversation I also discovered she was an ex-student of Falmouth Uni and had studied the very same course as I a few years ago. This unexpected connection and mutual appreciation helped the situation become much calmer and productive.
Figure 1: TIPPING, 2020, Judy: Artist on Beer Beach, Devon
One of our assignments this week was to collaborate with other cohort students on a project. Although the concept of this seems quite daunting, the process was relatively painless. We posted images on the forum and looked to feedback to establish a common association with each other, the aim being to form a grouping of no more than 4 students. Whilst signposting an image with the intention of attracting similar critique and appreciation, it transpired I found my group through a very different channel. Linking up with Steve, Antonia and Simon we realised we had a mutual interest in Music, with in fact three of us being in the music business as photographers. Although on the surface this had the potential for conflict and nepotism we actually found our normally competitive practices allowed us to focus very quickly on our objective and get results.
The theme was decided to be redundant musical instruments in the home, and Steve was universally accepted as the lead on coordination and representation. We held meetings in Canvas and enjoyed each others company and ideas. The whole plan came together very quickly and democratically which I think surprised us all as we were essentially strangers before the process. Within a day we had produced images and agreed on a format of presentation which again Steve took upon himself to produce and advertise via the Canvas forum. Our completed piece can be seen below.
Figure 2: TIPPING, RABONE, DENIS, RABONE, CHICK, 2020, The Band
Click The Band to see the Webinar presentation presented to our cohort.
I really enjoyed working with my colleagues, and hope we can team up again during the course, or at least turn to each other for appraisal and advice about our photographs. It was also good to see so many other students producing fascinating work in their respective teams. The quality and originality of the images really struck me, and although I am not left questioning my own technique, I am certainly becoming more open to expanding my theory to less conformative styles of expression. Hopefully experimentation will be something I can embrace and share with the rest of the cohort in the coming modules.
Also during the week we had a guest lecture by HANNA-KATRINA JEDROSZ whose recent photography essay ‘The Green Ribbon’ was an epic journey along the former Iron Curtain. Her thoughts and practices around collaboration were interesting, although ironically the afformentioned project which started out as a joint partnership ended as a solo one. However there were other examples where Hanna has enjoyed collaborative processes with other creatives, sometimes the subjects themselves like the Royal Shakespeare Company, or indeed artists working with her to complete commissioned work, such as the album covers for Johnny Flynn, or the output coordinated by ‘Photo Scratch’ for the photographic community. I find these lectures one of the weeks highlights as we are seeing photographers demonstrate their work and explain their motives and inspirations. This not only opens up ideas for us to explore, but also offers hope that the work we desire to produce does have a potential audience, and that others out there are available for support and exposure.
Figures 3-5: JEDROSZ, 2017, The Green Ribbon