Documentary Photography Talk
James Allen
2 min readMar 3, 2017
Advice & Notes:
- Graduated in Photography in 2012 from Falmouth University
- Works as freelancer photographer
- Produces personal projects
- Suggests looking at internships that are paid to gain true experience
- Interact with people to ensure that you have a strong project
- Don’t be frightened to talk to people
- Your personal work has to stand out; make it relavent. This would include current projects such as Brexit, Trump and other political issues
- Make the work seem timeless but also important for the era
- Be empathetic towards people and always be humble
- Appreciate where you are and where you can go as a photographer
- Employers remember you for being polite and outgoing
- Be an expert on the subject that you’re studying. Don’t get caught out on not knowing what your own project is about
- Don’t give up on projects or being a photographer in a creative industry; you have to stay positive
- Make sure as a graduate in photography that you do not produce work for ‘exposure’. Ensure that you get paid, people are willing to avoid paying photographers or other creatives
- It is important to have a constantly updated website and easy accessed site to expose work
- With internships, make sure they’re also paid and ensure that it is relevant in the area you want to go into eventually — Look at internships for The Guardian and The Telegraph
- Keep networking with people
- It is important to show your work to new people and make sure that work is constantly updated on sites
- Instagram is a key site to use publicly
- Have business cards to hand out to people who are interested in in your work and ensure they’re suitable to hand out
- Learn business and be good at it!