Developing a Project #WAIN

Over the last two years I have been working freelance and my working world has become entirely a project driven world. Creative learning projects with the Arts Council Wales, Mindful Photography Courses with the Brain Injury Service and my own photography projects. Each one has followed a similar pattern and I love it.

The advantage of project work as I see it, is that you have an idea which you develop (sometimes collaborating with others). This becomes a plan and includes a broad timescale, resource needs, tasks and activities to be done by myself and others, and a final outcome.

Of course I most love the bits I am good at! The ideas come easily. If I had a pound for every project idea I have had, I could stop work now. Many never see the light of day, but they are often signposts towards other work that arrives when the world is ready.

Some projects arrive unexpectedly, but most arrive from an idea or seed sown a little while before. For example, my 2019 Photography Project: ‘Who Am I Now?’, arose as an idea from my Mindful Photography Courses. In those courses I explore notions of self with people who have experienced a significant health event. I teach them how to create photos that illustrate how they feel and they then create photos that illuminate their world.

The project was a natural development, an opportunity to work more closely with individuals who have experienced a significant health event, to create two photos – one that represents who they were before the event and one that represents who they are now. I had to develop the project as a plan in order to apply for Arts Council funding. The funding and support of the ABMU Arts in Health Team and the Elysium Gallery, Swansea will enable the final diptych photos to be exhibited at Morriston Hospital, Swansea.

I am currently at the first stage: I am contacting and meeting up with volunteer subjects. We are then sharing a hot beverage or two whilst I hear their story and then we consider how we can illustrate their experiences as two photos. The photo shoots start next month. However, I thought that I had better do they same thing myself. After all I have had a similar experience and the best learning is by doing.

The Before Photo

The first photo is the one before my health event. This occured in January 2006 and many of the key parts of my world. Creating a photo that represents who I was 13 years ago is a challenge, but this is how I did it.

I had the idea for this photo a month or so ago, when I was stuck in traffic drving to my girlfriend’s house. As I sat there in the queue, I noticed a large wood of youngish oak trees off to my right. They were the type of oaks with twisted trunks and branches. An ideal venue I thought.

The photo with this post is my pre 2006 self. Rather than explain my thinking I thought I would leave you to draw your own conclusions. However, to help bring some clarity I will say that my position in the photo is of course deliberate and the place, its feel, the light, my placement and look all contribute to the story I am telling.

I would love to know what you think and would welcome your thoughts and comments here. Thanks!

PS the #WAIN is for the project ‘Who Am I Now?’