Isaiah Hull took part in our HOME Young Creative Summer Photography Workshop. He shares his experience with us…
On the first day of the course we were introduced to our workshop leader Mario Popham and shared our experiences of working in photography with the rest of the group. As there was a wide range of experience levels, it became a comfortable atmosphere and I felt as if the variety of beginners and experienced photographers helped me feel more confident in my own skills and knowledge. Mario was encouraging and assured us no one would be out of place, showing us samples of his own work so we could see his own style of documentary photography.
Then we did some exercises to help us on the course and split into groups of two and three people. I benefitted from the group work as I knew nobody there at first and the groups were easy-going and social. We paired up to take photographs and it was refreshing to find people of a similar age with common interests in art and photography. We were given briefs to work towards and Alexander Rodchenko was the photographer we were emulating on the first day to help us get used to using the cameras. I found that working to a loose structure helped in choosing nearby locations to shoot and whenever we were in doubt, Mario guided us in how we could get a good shot without stopping us straying from the brief or being creative.
Sharing a camera at first felt difficult but I quickly found that this furthered relationships in the group by helping us discuss our tastes in photography, come up with ideas and decide which shots to take. At lunch we discussed new ideas between us including how we could improve the photographs we had already. The first day covered a lot of ground and I felt completely confident in photography after this promising start.
On the second and last day of the course, Mario had decided to change the programme and instead of working around a classic photographer as we did on the first day, we were introduced to portraiture photography. Taking portraits of each other was not appealing at first especially as we had only known each other for a couple of days. Though we didn’t have to be in front of the camera in these new groups, it felt awkward at times but it was important that we didn’t take it too seriously at the same time. In the end I enjoyed being in front of and behind the camera as I could appreciate how immediate it was.
Towards the end, we returned to the groups from the first day to edit our pictures. My partner and I ended up with too many photos and so the editing took a long time to get 15 final pictures from an initial 100. I found that this part was my favourite, despite the tedious accepting and rejecting process we had to go through for each of the photos we had taken. It was a good bonding session over our likes and dislikes of our own and each other’s pictures and we had to be honest. It was these arguments and agreements that brought out our shared passion for photography.
Overall I learned that photography doesn’t necessarily need mass preparation or production behind it, it can be as spontaneous and of the moment with making use of our surroundings. Having confidence behind the camera is important and learning as I go along is a great virtue.