Talk led by Zoe Sinclair, one half of The Girls; a collaboration which explores identity and character using photography as the medium. Zoe spoke about their rigorous working methods, processes and commissions as well as advice about the 'real world'. It was refreshing to hear about the lows as well as the highs while working within the creative sector; the stresses and struggles of working closely with others which can become intense and sometimes testing, as too, completing university and facing the ‘real’ world for the first time is equally testing. Her talk reinforced my worry of third year approaching and thrusted me into realisation that I should be using my recourses as a ‘student’ wisely, while I can.
Zoe told us five things she felt were necessary to go out into the world with: some kind of web presence, confidence to self publicise, self initiation, the tool of borrowing and the importance of 'chance possibilities' (to go out, find out, probe and see what comes of it - you have nothing to lose) Their work explores themes such as feminism, death, characterisation and juxtaposition. Viewing the work allowed me to appreciate what power and impact a photograph can possess; whereas I mainly use it as a tool for documentation I felt the intense urge to get playing with the idea of the ‘portrait’.
Zoe told us five things she felt were necessary to go out into the world with: some kind of web presence, confidence to self publicise, self initiation, the tool of borrowing and the importance of 'chance possibilities' (to go out, find out, probe and see what comes of it - you have nothing to lose) Their work explores themes such as feminism, death, characterisation and juxtaposition. Viewing the work allowed me to appreciate what power and impact a photograph can possess; whereas I mainly use it as a tool for documentation I felt the intense urge to get playing with the idea of the ‘portrait’.
The day continued with a workshop. We were asked in groups to produce a photographic portrait that represented us as a group. Our group was formed by Abi, Gemma, Laura and myself ; we connect well together through being friends originally and now we wanted to allow this to channel into our work. We thought about our qualities as a group – we know each other pretty well. The idea of our sense of humour, playfulness and ‘boyish’ ways were key and had to be at the core of our concept – placing ourselves at the very extreme of all our characters and becoming men for our portrait was appealing. We thought about props, make-up, stance, gesture and location as well as looking closer at artists such as Sarah Lucas and Cindy Sherman. Although our idea initially sounded comical, we realised that it was definitely making a big statement that we would like to develop further.
