Another great weekend at Oriel Colwyn’s Northern Eye Photography Festival. There was a great lineup of photographers featuring people I knew and others I didn’t but was glad to learn about their work. The fast paced PetchaKucha sessions, which featured 10 photographers talking for 6 minutes one after another, was exciting. I actually took part in this and spoke about my swimming work. I haven’t spoken about my work in years because I lost confidence in myself. Once I realised that my swimming project was also a project about being autistic and queer, I felt like I had something worth talking about. It wasn’t just “Yay swimming.” It was important point about the importance of giving disabled/queer/neurodivergent people space to find themselves, because when they do it is amazing. So I stood up in front of Martin Parr, Tom Wood, Peter Dench, Holly-Marie Cato, Jan and Chris at the Caravan Gallery and a whole room of photographers and made that point. It felt great and gave me the confidence to keep going on making the work into something.

I want to thank the team at Oriel Colwyn for not only picking my work for PetchaKucha, but for creating another great festival of talks and work to explore. The photograph is up for a good few weeks, possibly longer as I saw Niall McDiarmid’s beach shelter work is still up from 2019.

Some notes I made during the presentations.

Holly-Marie Cato

• Important to give photos back to those people in them. Don’t just leave them on your drive.
• Be patient.
• Theres always an exchange happening. Whether you listening or taking someone’s portrait. The exchange is important.

Peter Caton

• Dignity is crucial. Not pitty. Wants to show people with dignity and compassion. More connects than disconnects us.
• Consent is extremely important. Everyone signs a form unless over 3 people in which they get video verbal consent. The subjects need to be aware of where the images may end up.

Martin Parr

• Always send people a print
• Small details give a sense of community
• Go out when the weather is bad. Get an underwater camera and flash.
• Objectivity is inherent in photography
• Now might be boring but it’ll be interesting later.
• Pineapples shouldn’t be on pizza
• Ability to connect is what makes photos.
• AI can’t replicate the quirks of a photographer
• Recommends print lab in Manchester called DS

Margaret Mitchell

• Like to spend time with people to get a feel for how they hold themselves before taking photos. That way they don’t have to direct much.
• Like to go back and show people the work to get approval.
• Can’t live with the work without knowing that the subjects are happy with the photos.
• Don’t want people to look miserable but also not to smile. We don’t sit alone smiling.

Bobby Beasly

• Get in close with people. Either proximity wise or connection wise.
• Liked having their work out in public for people to bump into.
• Editors liked the colour, flash and movement of the photos.
• Personal work got commercial work.
• Put work on postcards in Photographers Gallery. Clients saw and called.

Derek Rodgers

• Would ask people to take their photo. When they said why, said that it was for a project. Not entirely true but didn’t want people to pose in a way they thought he wanted. Happily chatted after though.
• Don’t have a book of work till 1999. Things take time.
• Liked to photo people kissing. Positive and joyful.
• Nice to be nice.

Kyle McDougall

• Camera was a tool to get into environments and connect with them
• Often it’s doing the work that reveals what the project is really about
• Photography went from narrow focus to endless possibilities.
• Need downtime. Have periods of fun. Explore where photography can take you.
• Patience. Don’t over think or rush. Make the work. Play and explore.

“As you get further along in your career, a consistency may develop that’s of less interest over time. Your work can start to feel like a job or a responsibility. So it’s helpful to notice if you’ve been working with the same palette of colours all along. Start the next project by scrapping that palette. The uncertainty that results can be a thrilling and scary proposition. Once you have a new framework, some elements of your older process may find their way back into the work, and that’s okay.”

“It’s generally preferable to accumulate several weeks’ or months’ worth of ideas and then choose which of them to focus on, instead of following an urge or obligation to rush to the finish line with what is in front of us today.”