Back Track

We’ve already missed over a month of potential Blogsphering so I’ll try and fill-in a few of the gaps and give a little context to me being here writing this to you – the World. It must be around two years now since I decided I wanted to be on this course. I wanted to come to London and I wanted to study Photojournalism. A stepping stone to the land of my dreams. The only other MA in London offering such a course requested that applicants must have made at least a little money out of photography. The LCC didn’t mention this and it sounded perfect. So I applied and got the interview Summer 06. Nerve-racking times. I wasn’t sure whether to dress smart or casual. Should I buy one of those jackets that all the photographers seem to wear? A guy at the BT Callcentre I part-timed at advised a shirt and dress-pants and I guess Kickers. Fortunately I didn’t have any and even better nobody gave a damn. Luckily for me they seemed to like what I had to say and I got in.

That was 18 months ago and its been a long tough struggle. Money is money and in London you need a lot to scrape-by. I needed enough to live for a year without work. At a rough guess that was £15,000. More than my parents mortgaged for their house and it took them over 20 years to pay that back. I was prepared to do anything for cash but a year turned out to be a long time doing something you hate. I don’t understand how people can spend their lives in an office block chasing lager, Friday night and a fortnights holiday. At least it gave me the means to get here so I can’t complain.

So here I am.

The first five weeks have gone reasonably well. The other course-mates are great and what I was hoping for, the lecturers seem pleasant, humorous and rammed with knowledge and ideas. One of the most exciting things is to be surrounded by people with so much enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment towards photography and journalism. My own good health however hangs by the knife edge of my photography. Each day has its ups and downs not only because of what I produce but also the battle to arrange to shoot what I want to shoot. I believe Patrick when he says we’ll develop thick skins but I feel mine must have started off quite thin, or at least its thickness fluctuates day on day or even hour by hour. In any case here are a couple of images from the first 4 weeks of work, give me your critique WWW:

24 hour Burger Van Clapham Common

Palace Bingo, Elephant and Castle.

Coal Yard, Redhill

Barber Shop, Brixton.

Young’s Brewery Chiswick.

Rosa e Mamma ‘now you are the mother’

Rosa gave up her professional career in IT five years ago to care for her mother on a full-time basis. Her mother is now 92, suffers from Alzheimer’s and is almost blind due to cancer in one eye.

A big jump.

Like many – I think – I’m a little bit daunted about this first post. Exposing my thoughts and feelings to the world alongside my shaky English does not feel like fun. I’ve been putting off the inevitable trying to get the aesthetics of the whole thing to look cool, modern and meaningful but I just haven’t got enough class to pull it off. I think the best bet is to keep it simple. Words and pictures are all we need, so here goes…