Personal Work

There’s no use beating yourself up

One of my favourite personal project briefs to photographers is to come up with a series which can be made whichever country you travel to, as well as right under your nose. It requires an overarching idea which ‘carries’ the project and shows that you’re able to travel and get consistent results. (I wrote about

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Purpose and personal projects

This month I’ve been working with photographers joining my next Bootcamp mentoring programme, and helping them figure out their purpose, or ‘why’, and then using that information to inform a personal project. It’s a wonderful way to begin the year (and prepare for the 8 week intensive) and as always I’ve been so fascinated by

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When is an idea not an idea?

If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll have heard me say on repeat (like a broken record) that personal work is your number one marketing tool. Especially personal projects with an idea behind them. So what is an idea? It’s not a topic (Football is not an idea, neither is vintage cars, even

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3 tips for sharing travel work with ad creatives

If you have a personal project gallery on your website, are you guilty of having a list of place names? CUBA TOKYO ALASKA It sounds so exotic and farawayish…but actually- does it? Nope. To advertising creatives, it’s like landing on yet another amateur travel bloggers site. And that is at best boring, and at worst

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A rich career in photography

“Why would I order a camera part online when I can get out into the world and take photos on my way to the store? Why would I not want that experience?” These are the words of London born NYC/ Sydney advertising photographer Simon Harsent, who chatted to me a few weeks ago about his work,

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Sowing inspiration

In just a couple of days I’m flying to Hanoi, Vietnam. I’ll be joining a group of photographers from around the world who have spent the last 5 weeks (between juggling jobs and kids and life) on The Series Project program, researching and identifying stories they want to tell. As requested (by me!) they’ve already started

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Can you remember the first decent photography gig you got?

Can you remember the first decent paid photography gig you got? The one where you thought- OMG I’m really doing this! It might have been 30 years ago or 3 years ago but there’s a very strong chance it was inspired by something you created for yourself. And you shared it because, what the heck,

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