I first got to know of redeye over 2 years ago from Lawrence George Giles, the programme leader on my photography course at Salford University. He said that he was once on the board committee and he told us what sort of things that the organisation does.
Redeye is a photography network, a non-profit organisation to help and assist up and coming photographs and almost every level/ profession of photographer. It helps its members to see how things are moving photographically, in terms of what is happening through seminars, talks and other activities. The information and help is extremely useful and is hard to be found elsewhere. "Alongside this it works to bring photographic and other organisations together, to encourage ethical and best practice, and to build a voice for photography."- Red Eye Website. In other words, it is letting other people know about the world of professional photography. Below are some screenshots of the website, I particularly like the portfolio section of the website where each member of Red Eye get to showcase their series of work and each practitioner gets a brief bio and profile. This would be a great way for people in the industry to see my work, I intend to get a membership and attend more events that they organise, they do student discount too!! I signed up the the mailing list 2 years ago and receive occasional emails telling me about what is happening.
The director of Redeye, Paul Herrmann, held a lecture for our university course where he talked about our future and how best to find work after university as well as showing us the different possible routes to becoming a photographer. His talk was mostly aimed at freelance photography, something that I am interested in! This talk was a great way to learn about certain aspects within the industry which were unclear to me before. There had been the question of what I was going to do after university hanging over my head for many months, this talk put me some what at ease.
The first thing Paul spoke about was Red Eye, not only to promote it but to give us an essential guideline in the photographic world, a helping hand. He told us that the organisation regularly set up networking events where one is able to converse and talk to other photographers on the same level. At these events he said it was possible to gain contacts, share ideas and get feedback from other professionals.
He then mentioned a event run by Red Eye called Hot House, "a day of photography and a showcase of creative talent."- Red Eye Website. This is a day where photographers can book a slot and come and present their work to the audience, gaining feedback and reviews of their project/ body of work. This would be a great event for myself to attend next year, I will have to keep the next dates in my diary. I think that I would benefit from presenting to other people than my peer group, the other visual artists there would be able to help me progress I imagine. At the hot house event there is also a table where you are able to leave your portfolio for others to look, a great idea!!!
Another thing that he mentioned during his talk was how important it is for us as students to carry on meeting up after university, he said it is a great way to share ideas with people that really know your work and style. This was a great point, he really put across some good ideas, I will hopefully be able to work on his advice and make a regular meet up after I finish uni with my peers.
He then mentioned lightbox another interesting event which... "Redeye’s Lightbox aims to launch the careers of some of the UK’s most promising photographers through workshops, networking, participation and presentation."
He was also telling us about relevant and important financial matters when setting up as a freelance photographer, he warned us about certain possible problems we may face and how to overcome them. He mentioned things about licensing and copyright.
He also mentioned a handful of photographers such as Ed Clarke and John Blackmore, I will research these two and the other that he talked about.
He mentioned some really useful websites such as Pinterest and Linked-In, social projection sights for the creatives. I will be setting up new Flickr Pinterest and Linked-In profiles when I have some spare time.
One of the last things that he mentioned was again about the business side of freelancing, he told us to look at Roger Ballen and Simon Roberts, who both have interesting business models which are worth a look at.
Red Eye is a great way for me to really fulfil my goal set out in my PDP, the one which says that I need to develop my networking skills and techniques. I will continue to follow Red Eyes posts and tweet on twitter and will get a membership when I can spare the money.
No comments:
Post a Comment