New York! New York!*

*If you are singing the song in your head, I apologise as I know it will be stuck in your head all day but it had to be done. And if you escaped the reference but are now singing it, again, very sorry.

Ever since I was little I've been going to America with my family; I absolutely love it. I have been lucky enough to go to most of its great states but a small handful of them really have my heart and New York is one of them.
The film arts course at PCA run a trip there most years and I was very disappointed when I couldn't afford to go in my first year of study. So I started saving and in April 2012 we were off!

I can't believe how excited I still get in the taxi ride from the airport just waiting to see that first glimpse of the skyline, it may be dorky but to me it's magical!

View from the airport shuttle window on my little digital 'snap-shot' camera.

It was a different dynamic visiting it with a group of people, the majority of whom I didn't know but I came back having made a great new friend which was a real bonus.
When we first arrived I was adamant I was going to go off on my own and shun the usual touristy places which I had done quite a few times; but the timetable was relaxed and the group atmosphere was friendly so I went with the flow and really enjoyed it and we did end up doing a lot of new things anyway.
It was great to go back with photographic knowledge and to be able to put that to use. I could have and probably should have taken more pictures but enjoyed it nonetheless and picked up inspiration for other areas of interest such as writing. And of course now I have that knowledge I can put it to use next time as I know I wont be able to stay away for too long!
One of the main highlights has to be going to the Yankees game. I've always wanted to go but never got round to it so it was really exciting. Okay, so I don't really know much about baseball this is true but the atmosphere was amazing, I got a souvenir beer cup and I love cheering. Its a winning combination.

I don't usually play around too much with post production effects but I added grain to these and played around with the colour temperature settings to try to evoke an old film camera look of New York. I don't think they would work in a large scale but would be nicely suited to miniature prints.

Contrast of nature and man-made in Central Park.

A moving stopping point of 9/11 remembrance tiles that stretch all the way round a large fence in Greenwich village.

A personal favourite from Grand Central Station.

View from the Empire State Building.

N.Y.C skyline from the evening river boat cruise.

Unfortunately I didn't have my Nikon D7000 at this point and didn't want to just take a digital mini camera so for travel pictures I bought the Panasonic Lumix G2; a compact system camera which was brilliant for bridging the gap between a point and shoot camera and professional DSLR.

A glorious image of me at the Yankee stadium. Yes that is fear mixed with excitement you are seeing in my face there as I am not keen on heights and we were in the cheap seats at the back. 

Thanks to Sarah Packer for the image and in fact most of them that night as it took a mixture of beer and keeping still for the first hour to keep me calm.

A brilliant trip!

Blogaphobia? Well hopefully I am cured.

New year. New start. That always tends to be the general feel of January.
I've never been one for making resolutions and thinking a change in the year date will create drastic changes in my life; however this year I have decided to make a variety of goals and stick to them, some some personal and some more career orientated.

The most appropriate one to highlight here is to become more engaged with social networking, blogs etc. It is no secret from my distinct lack of posts that blogging isn't really my thing, I find it almost uncomfortably self-indulgent. But enough negativity because these forms of communication are a big part of our world now and I must accept not all ideas and thoughts can...or should be kept tucked away in my sketchbook. I very much enjoy reading other blogs and find all this 'tweeting' rather intriguing; so instead of sticking my head in the sand I have decided that I must be proactive and embrace it!
Starting with immediate effect, making a goal to do a post a week (baby steps people, that's enough for now!)

So there we go, now in the meantime prepare for an influx of posts that actually belonged to 2012.....

Best in show.

I haven't entered any photography competitions before but now I have my new Nikon D7000 I feel I'm definitely ready to get involved more.
One I have always wanted to enter is the Countryfile magazine/TV show competition. The launch is next week so I'm looking forward to finding out details and this will be something I work on over summer.

A couple of last years finalists:

Mark Blake-Winter Weasel.

Kevin Stock-Best of friends.

Making plans...

As part of our work based learning module we have been asked to think about a five year plan in terms of where we wanting to be heading in our careers and after graduation.
If I'm honest I found the idea completely daunting and although it's still a little vague I do have an idea of how I would like things to pan out with hard work and luck on my side.

Short term goals are to continue developing my photography something which I took on board from meeting Joe Cornish, about not becoming complacent with anything. I have a lot to learn still with the technical side of photography so I think I need to start setting myself mini challenges and projects outside of college work.

I also want to really start pin pointing what I want to say with my photography, developing and fine tuning my style. It has been great being exposed to all the different directions you can take your work but I need to start thinking about what kind of audience I'm pitching to.

I'm looking forward to the summer as it's going to be a chance to me to have time to work on my own projects which I intend to set myself over the three months. During term time I focus all my energies on college work and at the weekend I work so it doesn't leave much or any time for me to do my work so it will be a great opportunity for that.

Long term goals are to start gaining work experience, perhaps assisting professionals who are out working in the industry.
I would like to be involved with curating again, getting more involved with other parts of the process as it was an experience I really enjoyed.
I need to start doing more research into a particular field of work I have found an interest in recently which is picture editor for magazines. I love fashion and music so will start to think about looking for work experience and even internships for after graduation. To work at somewhere like Glamour or one of the alternative music magazines would be a dream for me.
After I graduate I plan to take some time off; 6 months to a year and go travelling, possibly around America again because it's somewhere that I love. To document my travels through photos would be a fantastic project.
One of my big ambitions outside of photography is to finish my book I'm working on. Writing is one of my biggest passions alongside photography but because of my many other commitments the book is a project that is taking a considerable amount of time (3years and counting at the moment!) To have it published is one of my biggest dreams but to finally finish it one day would be satisfaction enough for me even if only a handful of people eventually read it.

Britain Collected

As part of a separate module on my photography course we were given the opportunity to take up a complimentary study alongside our other projects. I was very pleased when I got my first choice of curation.
Curating is something I have started to think about in terms of a career after graduating. Photography is such a competitive industry that I think it is good to have other options when looking into jobs and curating would allow me to stay within an artistic and creative field.
The module required us to work as a team taking on individual roles to put together a real exhibition inspired by the Sinoption exhibitions happening across Plymouth which were using the themes of cultural identity, specifically chinoiserie. Further information can be found on the Sinopticon website.
Our idea evolved into British cultural identity and came to be known as 'Britain Collected' featuring work by Jane Perkins, John Hinde, Phil Nicholls, and a collection of British Vogue covers.
Overall the project was a success and a process which I really enjoyed, enforcing my feeling on possibly following curation as a career path. It will be something I look into doing again, perhaps taking on and trying some of the different roles as my task was purely marketing this time.
A beneficial and enjoyable module!

The flyer I designed for distribution.

A couple of images from the private view taken by Alice Scally a fellow member of the Curate group.

We also had an article in the Herald newspaper which can be seen here.

Past and Present.

Our final assignment of the year is entitled 'Audience and the Community'.

It has given us as students the opportunity...or push to start going out and working with people we don't know, building relationships and forming our own projects.

My work focused on Devonport Park and took on the style of re-photography. It was a study looking at the contrast of heritage and development of this location, working with members of the community to help further shape and develop my initial ideas.

The intention of the work is to provoke questions about the spaces shown and their interaction with history and memory. At first it felt like a very specific study of one particular place but I feel that its message can stretch further beyond the boundaries of Devonport Park and translate to our own histories.

As they are revisited, it redefines the spaces and creates an interesting juxtaposition of what someone once knew of this space many years ago to have it is perceived to a present viewer. Each individual can find a different layer of narrative within the composition whether it be on a personal level or a direct link to particular cultural memories that expand out of the frame.

It has taken me back to a quote I found whilst researching at the initial stages of the project. Sourced from the website of photographer Kurt Tong.

It stated that memories are like jpegs, broken down into smaller pieces and stored away.

For future generations these older images and re-photography as a whole serve as little fragments of that larger personal and cultural memory puzzle that always has pieces missing and faded over time, but if you squint you can still just about make up the whole picture.

'Past' images sourced from:

Devonport Online administrator Liz Cook.

Plymouth City Council courtesy of Chris Coldwell.

Many thanks for their cooperation and help. 

Devonport online is a fantastic resource for all information on the area. Definitely worth a look so please check it out.....

Visit the Devonport Online website

Images and content 2012©Jennifer-Anne Photography.

Interview, Joe Cornish. Bangwallop Gallery, Salcombe.

When I first started at Plymouth College of Art it was fascinating to be introduced to all these new sources of inspiration and photographers, out there making a living doing what they and I love.

Although I myself do not shoot many landscapes one of my first real inspirations both through his imagery and his passion for work was Joe Cornish who I discovered in a lecture and in his book 'First Light'. When I found out he was going to be in the local area running workshops I contacted his gallery, crossing my fingers someone would get my message. Joe himself replied and was kind enough to meet me one morning, giving up his spare time before starting his workshop to chat to me about his journey in photography.

Thank you for setting aside the time to meet with me, it's much appreciated. 

I'd like to start with how it is that you got into photography? In terms of the route you took professionally and also what sparked your passion.

Well I first started using a camera, 35mm at University when I was studying Fine Art. Nearly almost straight away, the moment when I picked up the camera I knew I love it. I started off using it in my first year and then started to get more creative throughout the second, third and fourth years, so by the time i graduated I was quite experienced and was taking pictures all the time.

When I graduated I really only had one thing on my mind: how could I get into professional photography? I had no idea and was very much on my own. I knew one photographer who was in America, Mike Mitchell in Washington DC who I had met before on a trip to the states. I knew his sister in law who was an old University friend of mine and after I graduated I got in contact with him. Luckily he wrote back and said that I could come over and if I was in Washington we might be able to find you a job. And that is how I started in photography; as an assistant to an American photographer. I twas a lucky break but of course it wasn't easy but nothing is and it was worth it.

That leads me nicely on to my next question. When you were starting out, how did you go about generating work for yourself?

It's very different to having a structured job, employment where a lot of the decisions are made for you; most photographic work is freelance which is still true and probably even more so today. I think the most important thing is you must exploit any contacts you have but you also have to be very imaginative within your work and where you look for opportunities.

In my case I was chronically shy and I still am quite shy strangely enough, but you've got to do it, got to push yourself. You put on your best smile and go out and talk to people.

In my head I had this vision of being a landscape photographer but I didn't know how to do it, I mean there's relatively little work in nature photography, well that's paid anyway.

So in my case I started out taking pictures of people, portraits for actors for the actors book. My brother was a young musician so that lead me into the area of photographing musicians. Any opportunities that arise you really have to take and for a long time it wasn't really making me any money and you have to be prepared for that.

I'm interested in your focus on landscapes in particular; what is it about these open spaces that keep you motivated to continue to photograph them?

That's a really good question, quite a human question when you thin about it, I mean why do some people prefer to be outdoors with nature and others happy milling around in the city? It's simply because I love being outdoors, I love the fresh air and I'm an active individual. Also that I'm very inspired by light, colour and texture. I have an art background and I think the things I just mentioned are the greatest source of inspiration for artists.

To be outside is a natural thing to do for me and especially being shy when I was younger it was the natural thing for me to do to avoid much contact with people [laughing].

Recently after working for many years with film you've made the switch to digital. What made this decision for you?

I should state I haven't given up shooting film. I'd like to regard myself as a photographer, not a digital photographer or a film photographer. I'm shooting digital at the moment having made the investment into a digital medium format back. The beauty of making such an investment is after the initial cost of the equipment the costs are relatively low and all you are paying with is your time. Whereas with large format film it can be £5 per exposure with 5x4 and even more with 10x8.

The digital is a nice change after all those years of expense, although I don't resent or regret them. I have a wide range of shooting methods all of which I fell are still relevant and therefore use particular ones for what I feel is appropriate for the style of shoot.

I feel that I am working towards using digital and film so you can't see the difference, you shouldn't be able to see the difference. To me  capturing light and composition, yes the process of arriving there is different but the intention is exactly the same. It is how you capture it and how you print it and whether it's film or digital it really is very important to get the best results you can in camera.

Then you have the element of interpretation, if you choose to make very subtle changes within post production and how you choose to print. All these elements and stages should combine to ensure you get your artistic interpretation across as best you can and to the highest standard.

What are your views on contemporary landscape photography and how the critics tend to favour the dead pan aesthetic over the picturesque?

Having come from a Fine Art background I'm always slightly uncomfortable being characterised as a picturesque photographer but I completely understand why people would say that.

The art world sneers at the picturesque which has a lot to do with intellectual snobbery. Why there is this distain for the beauty and inspiration of nature I'm not sure, I really don't understand. Of course we must challenge creativity but like I said the distain seems incredibly short sighted.

I don't see dead pan as being a directly negative towards nature, I just see it as another style which is how some people approach nature with. Like Gursky and Burtynsky, but I love that work, absolutely fantastic.

It's a more cool and clinic way of exploring something whereas with light I feel it's more of an emotive language.

I enjoy many different styles of photography, dead pan is just another preference. Essentially what I think is, that it is important to be true to yourself and indeed your own style.

What advice would you give to students such as myself starting to find their way in the photography industry?

It's about working hard and I expect you've heard a lot of that. It's difficult to make a living as a photographer but then it';s never been easy to make a living as a photographer but people still do it.

There is work out there but like I said you have to be prepared to work hard and always develop your photography, don't get good at something and become complacent. This also means developing the business side of it as I'd say 90% of it is based on human relationships, your client, customers, models and so on.

You have to been incredibly adaptable, very diplomatic, sometimes tough but fair and sensitive to the people you wrk with. This is part of your role as an artist; to exercise emotional intelligence.

Be prepared to go out, be pro-active, smile a lot and do the things you need to to do get work.

Thank you very much for your time, it's been a pleasure speaking with you.

All images ©Joe Cornish and sourced from the Joe Cornish online gallery