Michael Stacey

I contacted Mike Stacey for the great interest I developed in his work.

Like the majority of the work I've done for Work Based Learning, this post relates to that of my future plans (BA Honours).

Next year for my BA Honours, I will be looking into some concepts covered by a film called The Tree Of Life. Various concepts such as "contemplation into the greater aspects of the world around us" are covered by Mike Stacey.  The reason I'd also prosper from using his work for my BA Honours project would be by the way in which he 'contemplates' similar theories to what I, myself, do in my latest essay and plan to do for my BA (May be of help to look at the essay for the theories discussed - found on my blog;http://classification-of-presence.tumblr.com/)

30 years, 30 voices

College mate Jay Bing and I worked on a project with The Barbican Theatre.

There were many fantastic elements to working on the ‘30 years, 30 voices’ projects with Jay Bing.  I, again, got to spend time on curating an exhibition, however this time felt I more perfected it than that of the exhibition I put together with my fellow students for the National Diploma Summer Show two years ago. With this exhibition, what was important was that it was just Jay and myself with no supervision or help from the outside. We had to learn from and get past any/all mistakes/barriers during the course of the curation and planning, to the set up and set down. From little factors like making sure the boards were touched up; we didn’t think about this prior to the collection of the boards, so when it came to putting them up, I had to go off and buy paint to touch the boards up with. To that of larger barriers; transportation of the boards, to and from. I had to arrange one different person with a van for each way we took the boards. It teaches one that time management is not only the key, but also the better you manage the time you have, the smoother absolutely everything will go. I also learnt that it pays to know a range of people; people I didn’t think would come in handy in such a situation turned out to be of use, which then paid for themselves for being of use.

After the successful launch night and now that the books are for sale on Amazon.co.uk as well as in Waterstones book shop, I’d say that the biggest benefit for this is that our photographs and names get seen by a lot more people, and by quite the range of audience too. Not only that, but we’ve got a book as a physical copy, as proof of hard work over a project we spent months planning, making and executing. This will be of major use when it comes to interviews or examples of successful projects.

Portfolio

Three books I have had made in the past as part of my portfolio.  They're somewhat dated now but still apply to my professional development and show a range of my capabilities from over the years.
I am soon to be having a new book printed, documenting my recent journey to my old hometown in Italy, similar to the context and overall composition of Simon Roberts' 'Motherland' book.

Google Photography Prize

Google Photography Prize has submissions from over 20,000 students across over 146 countries.
There are ten categories in the competition ranging from travel to fashion etc.
I was pleased to see some interesting work but also a lot of work which didn't interest or impress me.
There is no cost to enter/win, however it seems I came across the competition a little late - the last entry date was January 31st 2012.
Although I missed the date, it seems that this competition is, like the Taylor Wessing prize, a very good opportunity for the future. It offers the recognition and publicity so to speak. (Along with a couple of other prizes, such as having your piece in the Saatchi Gallery, London).

Fujifilm Merit Winner

I can't remember whether I mentioned it in last year's WBL project due to the fact that it is a while ago and that the entry was towards the end of the project, but I entered the Fujifilm Student Awards and was surprised to hear that I was a Merit Winner.  The theme was 'senses' and I feel I wasn't too far off the mark.  I was sent a Fujifilm Merit Award certificate and ten rolls of colour negative 120mm film.

- Very happy.

About a month ago, it occurred to me that I should enter this year's competition, however when it came to it, I was disappointed to find that I was too late to enter and should have been a bit more on the ball for this.  Also, I'm not sure about what the rules are on re-entering the time after coming close to winning the previous competition.

Simon Roberts did not get back to me.

After sitting a very helpful lecture on Simon Roberts, amongst others, I was incredibly inspired by his way of working. I learnt about how he shot his 'Motherland' project all on medium format colour film, which I liked because I shoot everything on film now. I also learnt of how for this project he went through an enjoyably large execution process in which he narrowed down hundreds of frames and contact sheets to find contentment in a stronger selective amount. So through liking the way he worked and also enjoying the actual results of his work, I thought I'd email him to see whether he'd be able to give me five/ten minutes of his time for a short interview so I could learn more about the above.
Unfortunately he didn't get back to me the first time, which is of course understandable with him being successfully busy. I'll have to see about emailing him again, without wanting to hassle him.

Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize

Last year I photographed a man called Kevin, local to the area in which I live.
He's known to most around as 'The owl man' fro the way that he's a keeper of quite a few owls and from how he walks around the local town on a daily basis with around three owls on his shoulders.
He's been doing this for most of his life and I thought that this would be a fantastic thing to look into documenting/portraying for The National Portrait Prize.
The Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize is a competition for photographers to enter, under the concept of producing a portrait depicting ones' identity to it's fullest.
It's all about portraying a person with emphasis on their identity.

I took these around May time last year and hoped to enter.
I had sorted the rough £70.00 needed to enter three portraits, only to find out at the time of entry that I was not old enough. Not too young at the time of entry, but the rules stated that I had to have been eighteen years of age the previous January and I wasn't going to be eighteen until the May. Very strange, but four months too young in hind sight.
I'm very keen on this competition, not just for the cash prize, but in fact mainly for the title of being able to say you've won such a prestigious competition and also the fact that the winner get's their portrait in the National Portrait Gallery and gets offered a large commission like that of the Elle commission given to last year's winner.
I will be entering some of the above three and look to be photographing some more this year to possible enter the limit of six photographs.