What I need is a personal statement that explains my interests and passions in photography and also my ambitions and future aspirations.
For my Final Major Project which is based on Macro-insect photography and looking at the perception of how we look at insects, I have written this artists statement to explain this body of work and I feel that even though the content itself will not be relevant to my motor sport personal statement, there are definitely elements within that which I can use.
Richard Meftah
BA (Hons) Photography
Professional
Frameworks 3
Personal Statement /
Artist Statement
My fascination with natural
history plays a huge part in my personal photographic practice.
I use the technical elements of
photography such as macro and photo-stacking, to accurately document and record
naturally occurring species in the wild.
This quest for perfect detail
contrasts strongly with my fascination for experimentation.
Using incredibly shallow
depths-of-field, long-exposures and ambient light, I also try to produce much
more abstract and artistic images of the natural world.
Looking at insects as more than
just insects.
I see them as little characters
with their own unique personalities.
My work seeks to unlock these
personalities from our traditional, top-down view of the insect world.
Using an eye-level viewpoint to
capture my subjects, I try to give my viewer the opportunity to see these
fascinating little creatures face to face.
When I took this personal statement into one of my feedback tutorials, my tutor commented that the layout of this statement stood out as it was broken down into manageable sections instead of long paragraphs of information and way concise and easy to read whilst still giving the reader a good overview of my practice.
This is a good and diverse selection of artist statements and a good starting point for my research.
The last statement from Jerry Takigawa mentions time and this is an element of my motor sports photography that I definitely want to convey in my personal statement.
As a motor sports photographer, through my camera, I am able to see and capture split-second moments in time that are normally not noticeable with the naked eye. It is the capture of these split-second moments that fascinates me as a photographer. I really enjoy the challenge of being able to capture this instant of time and to allow others to share it through my photography.
Fig-1.
Figure 1. Sample artist statement from this website.
Website: Writing an artist statement article from the Guardian
This is a great article that looks at the way some people can write overly elaborate art-statements using what the author calls ''Artspeak"
This arty way of explaining one's work would not be at all relevant to my motor sport practice. My statement will require a much more honest and straight forward approach.
Who am I writing for? Consider my audience.
This section of the article is definitely relevant to my personal statement.
I need to understand as I mentioned above, who is my target audience and what type of statement will be relevant to them.
Fig-2.
Figure 2. Who are we writing for?
Website: Studential.com Photography Personal Statement
This is a personal statement for a photography student who is applying for a place on a photography course.
It is a very long statement but covers several key areas that I wish to incorporate into my statement such as my interests, ambitions and future aspirations.
Fig-3.
Figure 3. Personal Statement.
Website: Art Study.Org
This is another collection of interesting artists statements, they are generally quite concise with lengths ranging between 2 and 4 paragraphs.
I want to keep this simple minimal approach to my artist statement and not have a solid page of text for the reader to have to wade through.
There must obviously be enough information to thoroughly explain what my practice is about but in a manner that is quick and easy to absorb.
Fig-4.
Fig-5.
Fig-6.
Figures 4,5 and 6. Personal Statements.
Website: Pittsburgh High Photography
This page has a statement by American photographer Lauren Greenfield who I have studied in depth on one of my previous modules.
It is a statement about her body of work ''Girl Culture". It is very personal in its delivery and explains how she has arrived at this body of work.
In my statement, I wish to do a similar thing, to explain how my interests in photography and motor sport have got me to where i am today and where I see myself in the future.
Fig-7.
Figure 7. Lauren Greenfield, ''Girl Culture".
Figure 8. This is another personal statement from a student applying to a photography course.
This statement is straight-forward in it's delivery with a lot of artspeak.
It explains the influences, ambitions and future aspirations of this particular student and these are all elements that i wish to include into my personal statement.
Fig-8.
Fig-9
Fig-10
Fig-11
Fig-12
Fig-13
Fig-14
Fig-15
Figure 9-15 are additional personal statements that I have read online as part of my research for this element of the module.
Below is my completed personal statement.
Ever since photographing his friends at a
track-day at Donnington Park in 2005, Richard has been utterly
fascinated with the art of motorsports photography.
Over the
last eight years, Richard has developed a significant portfolio of work from
documenting a vast spectrum of different car and motorbike racing events around
the UK.
He has
covered everything from small club-racing meetings at his local circuit at
Oulton Park in Cheshire, to rounds of the Moto Grand Prix
World Championship in Barcelona, Valencia and in the UK.
In 2008,
Richard was appointed as the official team-photographer for the British
Superstock racing team, NCT Racing. Their rider line-up included: veteran
British
Supersport rider Lee Jackson, Isle of Man TT specialist Conor Cummins and
the incredibly talented young Irish racer, David Haire.
During this
season, Richard accompanied the team around the country throughout every round
of the 2008 British Superbike Season and also accompanied them to the 2008 Isle of Man TT races.
Richard’s
motorsport photography draws inspiration from the works of world-renowned bike
photographer Stephen Davison and acclaimed Formula One Photographer, Darren
Heath. Influences from these two expert photographers can be seen in
Richard’s approach to photography.
The
un-posed and candid nature of Davison’s work is seen in Richards photography of
people and the influence of the artistically creative use slow shutter speeds
and shallow depth-of-field from Darren Heath’s work can
definitely be seen in the creative approach to Richard’s photography.
Richard’s
ambition is work with a motorsport team as their official photographer during
the 2013 racing season with the intention of producing a book to document the
team’s journey throughout the 2013 racing season.
Not just to
capture their action and success on track, but also to
document the events behind the scenes
that defines a season in
motorsport, the highs and
lows, the
smiles and the tears. Creating an intimate and powerful documentary
of the spirit that is so evident in a successful racing team.
Summary.
Writing this personal statement has really made me think about myself as a photographer.
When I consider the wealth of previous experience that I have listed in my personal statement, it makes me realise that I am well qualified and experienced already.
I now aim not to just consider myself anymore as a student but to look at all of the experience that I have gained in the theatre of motorsports and during my last three years at University.
To now consider myself as a true professional and to have the confidence to speak to prospective new customers in this way.
Building my website has made me realise that I do have good technical skills and the vision to produce some very strong images already and will surely continue to develop my skills, vision and technique to a very high standard in the future.
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