With a very sporadic posting calendar so far this year things are starting to feel a little stale and worn around the blog. With a re-routing of efforts into s i t t e r s and finishing college this year there is a little inertia lingering about writing at the moment. To top it all off i am sitting on a mountain of imagery, photographs and footage from the last year and, while i like to look to the latest and greatest, there is a lot to be revisited over the next while. To level the playing field of where my skill and craft has taken us, but also to return to some of the more important moments in the last few months of my life. I have a little wall to climb to get back into regular posting so i’ll start small if thats ok.
The big question for any graduate is “whats now?” but since i fielded that quiz 3 years ago , “i’ll just have more of the same please.” But i’m not without a schedule. I am over the moon (and secretly perplexed) to be the official photographer of the Edinburgh International Festival this August in Edinburgh. So whatever for now, i know that i can look forward to a tremendous month of doing what i love. This is a luxury to have for most people in my position, in and out of photography.
But i haven’t forgotten since day one, a qualification doesn’t make you qualified, and the only grade you should trust is your own. You better believe, your papers will be nowhere to be seen when you are pushed to the edge of your work. All you will have is your own time and your own tools. And if you look after both, no establishment can improve on that.
It has arrived. Newness.
Great eh? Its really good to be able to close and engage the toilet door for a while and get back to writing for the main blog. The last few weeks finalising s i t t e r s has been such a radical high, that i almost feel emotionally burnt out now that all is revealed, stamped and handed over. I cannot remember ever receiving as much praise for something as i have in the last week or so. Never in my life. Which means
For the last two years i have been a registered, full-time student moon lighting as a photographer (or the other way round sometimes). I have enjoyed the buzz and prestige as well as the sheer guidance of the photography department at Edinburgh’s Stevenson College. So sound an education I received that I was allowed to get away with thinking it was all down to me, cruising my path and carving out my own way unmonitored (but with a student discount.) It wasn’t however, and there is as much to be said for giving instruction as there is for withholding it. So much so that not only have i been very strictly encouraged to develop my professional tools and skillset, but i have been galvanised with finding my own way of doing things. Phrased very succinctly, one of my lecturers said of a stdents work, with a shrug “Well, I hate it. But if I tell that I could stop someone doing what they love.” And with unsung thanks to our teachers, and their unimposing (though not always subtle) direction, there is an army of qualified image makers released to the corners of the world, all with their own story to tell. And in their own unique voice
Now, i well know i have a propensity for over-proportional drama and dubious way of beating around a point without actually making one. But here again I am at the door of something brand new. I am constantly, though rarely acknowledge it, in the throes of completely new, completely unrepeatable situations. Everyday different. People, locations, ideas, props, light, vibes, different. Today i finished my college education and thus completed a MEGA step of the journey ever. It is, with all literality, a brand new day. In one improbable swoop, this course has symbolised the effect that solid hard work can have on approaching something without any crumb of knowledge and given the old pessimist in me a good whats what. I am now unbearably adamant that nothing is out of bounds to anybody who wants it. Like an overzealous self helper. Before college, there was no photography, nothing. Today i received my grades for s i t t e r s. Did i get an A? I got more than that. I got some of the best marks in our entire class. Has that ever happened to me before, in any of my 18 years of education? There is always room for the brand new.
The path to professional photography, i have learned with a thrill, is paved with the new and the inimitable. And to be slowly ambling my way up this path and joining a small, select throng is (sorry parents) very fucking exciting. Can it get much better than that?
Yes. I have over 30 contemporaries and colleagues all out there, all on that same path. If excitement is anything to be enjoyed, it is only best done shared.
Very pleased to announce that one of my s i t t e r s images was nominated for the award in the Portrait category of the Scottish BIPP last Sunday. I was recently told that the success of the image is all down to Cosmo the cat. But I as a photographer know the truth…
This is it. All the cards are up and s i t t e r s has come to an end. I am absolutely floored to be able to finally reveal the bounteous fruits of all the hard work. To look back at the very first post on this blog and gauge my confidence that i would be writing these words, now furnished by such accomplished images from such accomplished people. Once upon a time there was nothing, now there are twenty two creations that i am absolutely delighted with.
The obvious thanks go to those hardened souls who braved the camera. Every one of you who sat for me held open the door of confidence to shoot the next. You absolute dancers. Thanks to everyone i asked, hinted at and chased. All those who dusted off perfect locations and anecdotes when inspiration was needed. Everyone who has kept the raft buoyed with encouragement. And to everyone who has followed me, in and out of this blog, thank you so much for being part.
But while the photos are up, there is still much more going on. Please drop in on the blog for news on awards, exhibitions and the s i t t e r s photobook that is currently well in the pipeline. There is still quite a trove of whimsy and craic from the project’s development that needs to be shared so while the hard work is finished, the fun isn’t over.
Thank you especially to Sola, who has allowed a salvaged toilet to live out of our front room for the last 4 months and who has been my rock, paper and scissors through the entire project.
All the action is over at the s i t t e r s blog at the mo!
The Video preview has been released and all the final images will be up on the blog on Friday.
Only 2 more days! How will you cope??
Sitters from eoin carey on Vimeo.
Sitters from eoin carey on Vimeo.
Only 2 days to wait! Keep your eyes peeled on the blog on Friday to see the final images from s i t t e r s.
Stay tuned in over the next two weeks for enough s i t t e r s excitement to fill up a cistern (after the number 2 button!)
Documentary chat 101. The reason i am in Paris at all is on a work experience project funded by a European educational foundation. The nature of bringing us here is to allow us two glorious things. To explore a foreign city and plunge right in to its cultural tide, but to also expose and document what we see as we see it. We are, if nothing else, given a small voice. It is also engineered to encourage us to represent through photography, Paris through the medium of documentary. We are granted licence to investigate something foreign, visually. We are allowed to be our own masters, to try new techniques or approaches, to push ourselves out of our comfort zone or refine our workflow with a time limit and a dead line.
In order for us to carry this out we have a few nifty treats at our disposal. The first and second are free flights and free accomodation directly in the heart of Paris. The third and in the same vein, is a little cushion of cash to allow us transport, access and the all important cuisine. So we are, if nothing else, given a small voice and a lot of money. But once the struggle of finances is taken care of, we have little excuse but to get right to it, and since the word is documentary, its about time that we get out our dictionaries.
For the documentary photographer, there is clash of identity especially when landed in the centre of the biggest tourist hothouse in Europe. When everyone carries a camera and every subject is aware, jaded and unwelcoming to the turn of the lens, there is a hard and difficult moment where you need to stop being a tourist. For me over the last few days the shutter has been snapping less, the gaze has trained in and my pace has slowed down. The barrage of beutiful and compelling shapes, colours and textures is ebbing away and now i can feel a story out on the streets that needs to be told. At the moment, this is what i think is the call of the documentary. I am not really taking pictures, i am now looking for images. And a cheap pint.
The search continues, stay tooned
Like a film unfolding, everything is spooling along smoothly and nicely at the moment. Here is a round-up of some of the schemes and scenarios that have kept us all busy over the last few weeks. The schedule it must be said, has steam coming out of it! Still more to go though, so stay tuned
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