Thinking about Collaboration in my Photographic Work (Week 4)

Yet again, the reading for the week has widened my view of my own photographic practice. In this case Daniel Palmer (2013) writes about how the solitary picture of the lone photographer and author is potentially changing in light of citizen journalism and the sharing of images taken by mobile phones. Whilst social networking sites do not in themselves facilitate collaboration or collaborative input, in practice, tools such as tagging enable individuals interested in particular types of imagery to potentially share and discuss. Palmer goes on to consider these developments in light of single authorship and whether this is compromised. However, further consideration suggests, that in fact collaboration was part of the pre-web era and that multiple parties had previously engaged in producing images through the combined efforts of people such as newspaper editors, image processors and readers.

Reflecting on my own photographic practice I was surprised to identify a number of collaborators in my work. Whilst my earlier career in photography was solitary, in the recent past I have sought views, comments and critiques of my images and advice, support and mentoring in working for RPS distinctions. The advice has been provided by camera club members, RPS mentors and others who were happy to share their views of my progress.

About ten years ago my husband decided to take up photography so we could share my hobby. Since then we have spent all our holidays travelling the world, photographing wildlife and sharing, reviewing and processing and presenting our images together. We regularly do joint talks to camera clubs across the southwest. We have also joined a very small self-help group where we spend time critiquing each other’s images over a curry. My husband has recently published a book on photography and used a number of my images.  The page below shows a review of the book in Amateur Photographer featuring my photograph of Niagara Falls.

So our hobby has become our life’s obsession and will be a significant part of our lives as we leave the world of work behind and spend more time on the Isle of Skye.

References

 Calder, T (2018) Amateur Photographer 13 January 2018 edition

Palmer, D, (2013) A Collaborative Turn in Contemporary Photography? Photographies, 6.1, 117-125, DOI: 10.1080/17540763.2013.788843