Personal Branding • Wedding Work and Business Plan

Me and my friend Kelly have set up our own online photography venture called KL Wedding Photography. We have photographed one wedding together so far, as well as a studio session with a bridal wear company. However, this summer we will be working apart. I go teaching in America whilst Kelly will be photographing weddings alone. I hope this venture can become a reasonable income in the future, as working with one of my closest friends seems like an amazing job!

Update: Personal Development Plan

I have so far managed to get a public exhibition at my local library, as well as build my website at www.laurajaneparkinson.com.

I have also shot a magazine article that should be published in the next month or two.

Personal Development • Asian Bridal Shoot

I shot for Poshaak, which is an asian bridal wear shop in my home town of Blackburn with my friend Kelly. It was such a good experience, working with people from different cultures and learning about their style and way they photograph their clothing. It was also an amazing experience to be able to see asian bridal dresses, as I have always been intrigued!

I then had my work published in Sleek Asian Bridal magazine, which was a massive success and I was then able to tick off "getting my work published" on my PDP. I managed to get a copy of the magazine, which I am going to add to my collection of published work, which I can hopefully build on in the future.

Assignment • Creative CV

Laura Parkinson

07508 191 662

Previous Job History

Cornerhouse Manchester – Digital Reporter

I took part in a 8 month internship for the alternative art gallery Cornerhouse, whereby I learnt how to record interviews using both audio and video, photographed events and people who attended art exhibitions, conducted interviews with artists and actors and learnt how to social network successfully for companies and my own social base.

Camp Modin – Photography Specialist

I have secured a placement to teach children aged 8-16 photography at a summer camp in America. I will be teaching them all aspects of photography, from digital to darkroom, as well as basic editing skills in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

SportsFive Advertisements – Photographer

I was commissioned to produce live action photographs of players from Premier League football with the digital advertisements that the company produced for their online portfolio. This was an incredibly demanding job, as I had to capture live action football, as well as make sure all the advertisements were accounted for.

Selected Commissions

Fentonography, Retrograde Clothing, Poshaak Bridal Wear, University of Exeter, ETO Jeans, Cornerhouse Manchester, Castlefield Gallery Manchester, Cheadle Hulme School, Sam Shaw Appeal, Audrey Clark and “It’s OK” campaign, 16 Braunton Jewellery, Me vs Hero, Darwen Live.

Qualifications

GCSEs – Darwen Aldridge Community Academy

3 A’s, 5 B’s, 2 C’s including Maths and English

A Levels – Saint Mary’s College, Blackburn

Photography A, Law B, Modern History C

Bachelors – University of Salford

BA (Hons) Photography

References on request.

Personal Branding • Business Cards and Facebook Page

I have created a Facebook page called "Through Laura's Lens" which is a place where I post all my photography work for my friends and family to see, as well as connect with models and make up artists to build my portfolio and get potential business. After listening to the lecture given by Rosie about personal branding, I decided to push my Facebook page and gained a couple of hundred likes in a month or two. It was an amazing leap and got me noticed within the photographic industry on Facebook. There are a number of photographers whom I follow and admire on Facebook, and was a real compliment when they commented on my work and my progress since I began University.

Review • Maurice Heesen Critical Evaluation

For my last project, I was required to create a festival and look at an artist that inspired us. For our festival idea, we have chosen “Realms of the Unknown”, which explores alternative portraiture photography, focussing on magical and “weird” side of capturing people. Maurice Heesen likes to tell stories through his photography, developing a narrative that we can follow, no matter how dark or disturbing it may be.

Although you could class Maurice Heesen as a known practioner, in my own personal work I have never seen nor heard of him. From his biography on his website, it doesn’t seem like he has exhibited in any exhibitions, which is why I chose him as I thought using this work as a solo exhibition would be impactful and get his name out there more as an arts based photographer rather than commercial. I, personally, prefer this work that focussed on the surreal and bizarre, rather than his commercial work. He has worked with numerous clients, such as Nike, Vodafone and McDonalds.

The set of photographs I have decided to base my research on for my own development and photographic imagery for this festival is “Muerto Feliz”. The tagline for this piece is “We only fear death because we don’t know what is there. It’s better to keep laughing in life until we meet death.” His piece concentrating on people laughing and smiling until the very end, grinning at the camera whilst they lie in a pool of their own blood with the world seemingly carrying on. My favourite image from the set of 5 images is the image showing the man at the table with the gun in his hand, with what I believe is his wife or partner washing up in the background. This give me the idea that Heesen wants to show that when we die, the world carries on and we will just end there. Quite a depressing thought, but very well executed through this series. Maurice Heesen is the standard of photograph I aspire to be if I ever decided to take the freelance, arts based, commercial route of photography.

I decided to choose Maurice Heesen for this festival because of the nature of his photographs. I have never seen some execute gore and blood in their work so professionally as Maurice Heesen has, hence why I am so intrigued and impressed by his work. If we was planning the logistic of the festival, his and my work would have to be exhibited in an age restricted room because of the nature of the imagery. Subjecting young children to these images would be wrong. I plan to develop a set of photographs looking at high fashion models, with the hair and make up, but with a twist of blood and gore. I plan to use dark lighting and shadows to manipulate the viewer and make the imagery seem dark and confusing.

CV and Cover Letter Research

We had a talk today with Fiona Christie from the careers advice service at Salford University about creating CV's and cover letters for jobs within the creative industry.

Fiona has said that there are certain qualities that we have after studying photography at a degree level, such as teamwork, being independent, being self motivated and having an extensive knowledge of IT and creative software. I never thought about including these qualities in my CV and cover letter, but I shall be doing in the future.

She also discussed the basics of different CV structures, such as chronological and skills based CVs. I usually order my CV in a chronological fashion, so it was interesting to look at different types of CV and how they can impact in an interview. I am applying for work experience for my Professional Practice module we have just begun so will need to write a new creative CV for this. 

Personal Development • 16 Braunton Shoot

I shot for a jewellery company the other week in Liverpool, photographing their summer collection. It was an enjoyable experience and although I was on my feet working and travelling for 12 hours, and spent numerous days afterwards editing the photographs, I learnt a lot from this experience.