mollymartinblog

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Overview

This blog reflects my engagement in a process of personal and professional development. It reflects upon the steps that I have take to consider the different ways in which I can achieve progression, success and above passion as photographer. In doing so I have considered different photographic approaches and careers. There are amazing and engaging success stories in photography for example Annie Leibovitz, Don McCullin, and Steve McCurry - photographers of portrait, documentary and landscape/culture, and all three of these fields found in Matthew Thompson’s work. This work has encouraged me to put my work out there and to try and generate a buzz around my work. Developing this blog has pushed me into identifying my creative space but also to think about what a full-time career in photography might look like. To think about how I capture message, story, beauty, the techniques I use, how I speak to my subjects, my relationship with colour and my belief in what I am doing and why.

Photography is a form of art, it involves practicing and refining my craft. This blog has provided me with both the platform and context for practicing my craft in ways in which I had not previously considered. I have really enjoyed this project and I am looking forward to putting newfound skills to more use. I have definitely seen a confidence change between the start and the end of the weeks and have found working with people has developed me both personally and professionally and my photographic eye has grown and developed alongside my ability to put my models at ease. 

I am now considering developing my own web page. In time this could include a web shop. I can also explore selling my work in Unique at Ulster University.

(image taken by Bobbie Hanvey after my shoot taking portraits of himself at his home in Belfast)

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Steps for success

To begin taking some action on bringing myself into the photography world, I took my first small steps to success. 

I am interested in photography that captures “hidden disabilities”. When exploring the interface between photography and the better understanding of health conditions I came across an interesting and high profile photography competition. I have sent my work off to Wellcome for their 2020 photography prize. I chose this competition because their topic for this years prize is Mental Health, which expands further into the ways health disability and how it can effect us. My project on epilepsy fits perfectly into one of the categories ‘hidden worlds’. It is one of my favourite pieces of work I have done so far, so even if I don’t get very far, it’s exciting to think that my work will be looked at and considered. 

https://wellcome.ac.uk/what-we-do/our-work/wellcome-photography-prize/2020

I have also started an instagram photography page, processing business cards and through my recent networking I am planning meet up opportunities that have been offered to me with professional photographers. 

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Matthew Thompson landscapes

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Matthew Thompson culture

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Matthew Thomas architecture 

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Matthew Thompson portraits

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Case study - Matthew Thompson

Matthew Thompson is a Dublin born photographer who studied his first degree in Design from the Dublin college and went on to do a Masters in Ulster University in 2014. I chose to look at his work as a commercial photographer because I saw one of his projects was portraits of artists, musicians and writers which is essentially what my project was on also. His photographs of people I really admire in that industry such as Hozier and James Vincent McMorrow really inspired me.

Since his Masters he has gone on to win many awards and had multiple exhibitions including press awards for British Journal of Photography, Irish Magazine Awards, Collections in Ireland and exhibitions in Northern Ireland, China, Finland, Munich and London.

As well as his portraits, I love his range of photography. His work on architecture, landscape, culture, are all really interestingly put together and the concepts behind his projects are thought provoking.

I think this shows his perseverance and true passion for being a photographer. I find this also very inspiring and has encouraged me to get out there applying to prizes and competitions, creating a social media page, getting in touch with businesses and creating and business cards.

http://matthewthompsonphotography.com

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A really helpful video on how to create a watermark for photographs. I Know that I would certainly like to use one before putting my images on social media sites. 

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Test shots from my shoot with Bobbie Hanvey. I really liked this shoot and for the first time throughout my editing process of the photos I experimented with black and white which I think makes a great shot, however the black and white does not fit in with the series of other environmental shots as they are all colour. In the end I decided on mid-shot portrait but I like both of the photos above and they easily could have been my chosen images too. 

Bobbie Hanvey, aged 74, is known for his portrait, journalistic and political photography of Northern Ireland. 

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Two test shots from the shoot with Una Monaghan, harpist. I loved the whole palette of this shoot and that the creative environment she currently works in is her newly bought house where the walls are stripped, which let me have total focus on the instrument and able to use lighting in different ways as everything else was plain. I liked the eye contact to camera in the mid shot but felt I didn't get enough of the stripped walls, and love the framing in the long shot however I felt the use of lighting in my final portrait was creatively the best. 

Una is a harper, composer, and sound artist from Belfast. She is well known for her experimental sounds in the Irish Traditional music world and in 2016 was Artist in Residence at the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas at McGill University, Montréal. Una is the curator for the JamJar series of contemporary and experimental music for Moving On Music in Belfast.

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Two test shots from my shoot with Tara Lynne O’Neill. I do like both of these shots however I feel that in the long shot, you can’t tell that it is Tara Lynne enough. For the portrait in the dressing room, I felt that compared to my final chosen photo the eye contact was better through the mirror to the camera as opposed to beside it. 

Tara Lynne O’Neill, 45, is a very well accomplished Belfast born actress most recently known for her main role as the mother ‘Mary Quinn’ from the series ‘Derry Girls’. She played the role of ‘Joanne Ryan’ in Eastenders in early 2000s, and has had other starring roles in films such as Disco Pigs, Becoming Jane, and regular appearances in The Fall and Line Of Duty. Recently, Tara Lynne has been working in the Grand Opera House in the play Xmas For Dummies, where she kindly let me photograph her.

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Test shots from my shoot with Neil Shawcross. I think the environment is shown well in these photographs. It is clear in the mid-shot that he is an artist as he is surrounded by his work, and in the long shot we can see the environment of his studio while at work. I do like both of these but for my final photo I think I captured not only the environment of his studio but Neil himself as a character, even though he wasn’t ‘at work’. 

Neil Shawcross is a Lancashire born artist and now resident of Northern Ireland since 1962 when he came to teach art at Ulster University. He is very well known for his large-scale portraits and still life paintings of household objects, in particular, bottles, books and postcards. Neil has recently exhibited a series of paintings of book covers by Northern Irish writers, playwrights, poets and musicians. 

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Here are two test shots from my shoot with Anthony Toner. I found that the angles were creative, but I wanted more of the desk in as it is a very crucial part to his creative environment and the paperwork essential as he is a songwriter. It was difficult to work against the light and the overexposure in the window was very off putting. In the end I decided to take the guitar out of the shoot but let the chord charts be seen in his paperwork and create eye contact to the camera which I think worked a lot better. 

Anthony Toner, 55, is a singer songwriter from Coleraine. He has released personal albums since 2002 and most recently released a collaboration album ‘The Kiss of Light’ with the poet Frank Ormsby which premiered in the Centre Culturel d’Irlandais in Paris in the spring of last year. 

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Here is a portrait mid shot and a close up shot from my test shoot with Donal O’Connor. I decided the mid shot didn’t have enough environmental value to it and I also thought the facial expression was too intense. I thought the close up had a good amount of environment but too much glint on the eye and preferred the fiddle to be a prop. I eventually settled with a mid shot with good facial expression but without direct eye contact.

Donal O’Connor, 41, from County Louth, is a musician, producer and television presenter and member of both traditional Irish music groups Ulaid and At First Light. Donal co-owns the Belfast based studio RedBox Recording where he has produced a multitude of albums and singles for the likes of Barry Kerr, Grainne Holland, John McSherry, The Olllam, Stevie Dunne, Joshua Burnside, Arty McGlynn amongst many others.

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Using my friends and family as Guinea pigs before my first professional shoot. 

Megan and Bronagh painting

My dad drinking whiskey

My brother playing Fifa