THE VALUE IN NURTURING PERSONAL PROJECTS

When I first took the leap into launching a business, I had the mislead belief that I needed to focus on the types of images that clients want in order to drive more work. While this practice can be incredibly important in ensuring you can deliver what a client wants on jobs, it doesn’t necessarily feed a creative soul by itself and it certainly won’t stave off a fast approaching burn out if continued over a long period of time.

I have recently gone through the arduous task of refining and curating my portfolio. Over the past few months I have spent a great deal of time studying, analyzing and scrutinizing the images I have created over the past few years. It has been an invaluable experience for more reasons than I can list, and one thing stands out to me now more than ever. Now that I am in the final stages of assembling this vast portfolio, I can see a personal style has emerged and I accredit this to consistently committing time to nurturing each of my personal photography projects.

‘Bush Kid Anecdotes’ ~ 2020

So, over the past few years I have been busily conjuring up all sorts of crazy images in my head. I keep my notebook fairly close at hand for any light bulb moments at strange times. Some of these ideas have been inspired by friends and conversations, some by films and story books and all influenced by my children and my own childhood. With the help of my extremely patient and supportive family (and yes, I mean an emboldened extremely!), so many of these images have now come to life.

‘Summers on Film’ - ongoing

“The practice of having an ongoing personal project (sometimes multi ongoing personal projects!!) means not only I get to grow as an artist and feed the creativity in me, but I can begin to see a resounding personal style emerge, and for that gift alone, I am very grateful.”

‘Mortem Florum’ - ongoing

Remind yourself of your uniqueness. There is no-one else in the world that sees the way you do. Explore what that means to you. What catches your eye? What moves YOU in an image? Create all the ideas, even the bad ones! The more you practice creating, the more consistent your work will become and the more evolved your own personal style will be.

‘Into the saltwater we dive’ - 2020- 2021