APPRAISAL

At the beginning of this year I felt excited to finally go to university to pursue my photography career. I hoped to work in a creative hub, away from home, and to seize new opportunities to improve myself as an individual and a photographer.

I enjoyed that the creative challenges have improved my lateral thinking and I have been challenged by the big change of living on my own and motivating myself to continue my work efforts.

I have achieved making work I am proud of, developing my technical skills and establishing my own visual style. I have started to become more confident in myself and my work. I’ve become more willing to participate in group criticisms and to receive and to offer feedback to others. 

As a photographer I have begun to focus more on the ideas that motivate taking a photograph, not just a visually appealing outcome. As an individual I have become more self-sufficient and open-minded.

My highlights of the year were the trip to Budapest, something I found culturally enriching and something ticked off my personal bucket list. I’ve liked the mini challenges and competitions offered and highlighted by the PPP1 module as it has allowed me to expand my practice into areas, I wasn’t sure I could be able to. I’ve found it most challenging to collaborate with others in group projects as I’m torn between being a mediator but also wanting to drive the project forward. 

I am most proud of my work from the Queer Identity Exhibition and my EIZO entry. I feel they have interesting concepts behind them, and they are visually good. It was nice to have feedback on these pieces and see it actually resonated with people.

I can take the achievements of exhibiting and submitting work into next year which will encourage me to keep doing so and making connections with all sorts of creative organisations. 

I would still like to improve my communication skills and the consistency of them, as it is something I’ve always struggled with personally but I feel my passion for photography will be the thing that will help me overcome that for the most part.