I've struggled with enthusiasm in this course. It has not been through lack of trying, I have pprobably spent more hours on this course than any other. Therein lies the problem. All these hours and my work is not great. I've had to stand back and ask myself why?
I've tried to anaylise the why.
At the beginning of this course I told my tutor I wanted to continue with my street people project. He rightly told me it did not fit into the brief and so if that is what I wanted to do, do so in another forum.
As I struggle to make good work in a commercial sense as this course requires, I have had to take a step back and try and anaylise why my work is just not that good. I know I can take good pictures. Yet on this course my images are struggling to make average. Why?
Today was the ephiphany I was looking for. Three different places came to me looking to do collaborative work. I now realise my passion and skill is as a documentary photographer.
One of the hostels, that offers the first step for those who have been sleeping rough for many years, told me that they wanted to work with me because my images weren't patronising. That I had an ability to capture the essence of the person. They are embarking on a new program that overseas has been successful in changing attitudes of the wider public and more importantly being successful in changing the lives of the vunerable.
I have been invited to do a collaborative work with them.
This is what I want to do. This is not a one off. Three of my ideas have had similar responses.
I still must learn the skills of the other genres. However I feel I can stop beating myself up about not making great images in every genre. I will continue to do the best I can. There are some fields of this profession that will not work for me. Understanding that is very liberating.
