Why is photography important to tell stories within your practice?
Photography is a highly accessible medium that we all have a relationship with. Most people have daily interactions and experiences with imagery in some form, so I feel it’s the most effective and relatable means of communicating ideas and concepts. When images are placed back into the public realm, they become even more potent and can expand a story of people and place in many different ways, with the opportunity of engaging a much wider audience.
Where do your ideas begin?
I have spent a long time walking around what is a very compact geographical area, speaking with each business owner, considering how the skills of a business can be used to make work, engaging in pub chat, and observing the daily rhythms of the street. From each of these encounters and situations, multiple ideas have emerged. Ideas tend to escalate, and one thing leads to another. I am constantly asking myself questions: what happens if I do this? What might I encounter if I go here, or there? There is always a sense of curiosity present. As a curator, day to day I am faced with (and enjoy) logistical, material and spatial problems to solve, which feeds back into my own practice. Sometimes my ideas begin in reverse. For example, I may find a particular building or shop window of interest, consider what kind of image or images might function in that space and devise a project from there. The ideas net is cast wide and not all ideas get pursued, but a few have been distilled (with guidance from GRAIN Projects into ideas of promise).