This week Owen Harvey came in to talk about his practice from graduating 5 years ago up until now. His work focuses interest in youth and subculture, and on the notion of individual identity and social groups. View his work here.
He spoke specifically about his work he was showing to us, which was an insightful look into some of the thought processes and inspiration behind his series. He also mentioned his interest into the subcultures he was photographing which inspired the project and creating timelessness within the Mod UK series of pictures (above), which made sense viewing the images, as your really not sure when they could've been taken.
He also spoke about his 'Ground Clearance' series (above). This is a series he produced whilst out in America of a particular group of people known as the Lunatic Low riders. This was an interesting series to look at as he talked about where he started and his journey in creating this series. From limited time in New York which affected the way in which he worked, to not quite getting the images he wanted from the project initially.
From this he began to shooting differently, and through this his images developed a cinematic aesthetic to them. He then realised this was working in terms of what had initially inspired him to do this series, which were his interest in the hip hop scene and watching films growing up such as Drive and Up in smoke.
What's also interesting with this project, is the risk he took traveling to America and not really knowing what he was going to produce. This is something Owen said to us that we should ''Take risks and make yourself feel uncomfortable'' and it may not always work out but it may also work in your favour and create something you didn't think was possible.
He also talked about making money alongside doing your personal projects and how he has done this throughout his career. This made me realise that getting a job that may not be anything to do with your photography isn't a negative, and to still work alongside this on the projects that you want to do.
He also spoke about many other things, including how to get your work out there, your online presence, building networks and creating your own opportunities.
Overall a really inspiring talk from someone who was recently in a situation similar to our own and how his career and work has developed since then.Im going to leave a quote from his talk that he shared with us about imagery that I really liked in terms of thinking about photography:
''Pictures that asked questions are a lot more successful than pictures that answer them''
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