Week 13

Laura Pannack graduated from Brighton university in 2008 with a BA Hons in Editorial Photography. Since then she has won and been shortlisted for 15 awards, and just a couple of weeks ago won a World Press Photo Award for her image of Graham, an annorexic teenager.

Laura has been through what I will have to go through in two years - a 'grey' patch. When you've finnished uni but you haven't made it as a professional photographer yet. Her advice is to prepare financially, contact people early, stay in touch, support each other, keep shooting, look backwards, remember why you're a photographer, stay connected, help others, treat people with respect, stay open minded and stay positive. There's no way I'll be able to prepare financially, but I'll definately stay open minded and positive!

Week 12

I just remembered why I'm a photographer. Lately I've been feeling really deflated and wondering what I'm doing studying photography at all, but today I picked up my favorite book - Photo's That Changed The World and everything seems right again. There are photo's that we appreciate for their beauty. And there are photographs that shake us, disquiet, and distress us so deeply that they are etched into our memories forever. This book is about those photo's.

Week 11

I discovered Pieter Hugo's Hyena Men in an exhibition in 2008 called Street and studio: an urban history of photography in the Tate Modern. I've never researched him before but his name came up in a lecture a few days ago so I thought it was about time. He is a South African born and raised photographer who has worked all over Africa, notably in Rwanda and Nigeria. Hugo's Hyena Men series was centered around a group of 'itinerant minstrels and performers who used animals to entertain the crowd and sell traditional medicines.' Hugo spent 8 days traveling with them which, in my view, is nowhere near enough time to get under the skin of your subject. The images seem to lack any sense of emotion or empathy. His best series 'Nollywood' benefits from the extra time spent on the project, whereas his series 'Rwanda 2004: vestiges of a genocide' is shocking and an embarrassment for a professional photographer to put something like that on their website. http://www.pieterhugo.com/

Week 10

OK, I'm not really sure if this counts as a photo highlight because it hasn't happened yet. Basically I'm travelling East Africa next summer to do some photography and this week I bought my ticket! I was looking through my beloved Dan Eldon book and decided just to do it. The plan so far is London - Addis Ababa - Mombassa - Kilimanjaro - Kigali - Kampala - Jinja - Nakuru - Turkana - Nakuru - Nairobi - Dadaab - Mombassa - Zanzibar - Dar es Salaam - Addis Ababa - Rome - London. Can't wait to get back to Nakuru to see everyone again. It's going to be a good summer!

Week 9

This week I went to an amazing talk by photographer Chris Floyd. I despised him slightly because the only reason he got into photography was because he likes music and girls, and he has managed to make a great career out of it. I warmed to him very quickly though because he was clearly passionate about what he's doing and he's really funny! I used to want to be a music photographer myself, but decided against it because the music industry doesn't have any money anymore. Chris used to live the dream, being paid to tour with bands and take photo's, but this would never happen anymore. I was clearly born too late! He has done some documentary stuff in the past, like stories on the Arizona/ Mexico boarder and The 2004 American election which I found very interesting and would probably rather do than the music. Recently he has been doing mostly portraiture work, which is excellent, but I would like to see him do some more documentary in the future.

Week 8

As I'm sure everyone is aware, the African cup of Nations is again upon us. In 2006 I was lucky enough to be in Egypt for the final (which they won) and could not believe the level of support. It was a little odd being a 15 year old white girl and being crammed into a 3x3ft shop with eight Arabs to watch penalties on an 8 inch TV screen, but everyone get's so caught up in it. We're known for our hoolaganism when it comes to football support, but it's a little different in Africa, as I'm sure you'll see from the photo's.

Week 7

On Friday night I was invited to the opening of the Africa Awakes photography exhibition in Poole. Africa Awakens is a series of exhibitions that started in August 2008 by Italian photographer Manuel Scrima. It is supporting the work of two non-government organisations (NGO's): ICROSS - International community for the relief of starvation and suffering, and NWI - New world international. I was very impressed with Manuel's photography and got to talk to him for a while about what I've been trying to do in East Africa. I nearly cried at one point when I recognised some of the children in a photograph of Nakuru, where I spent 2 months last summer. Hopefully I will be meeting up with him or some of his team next summer in Kenya. There might even be room for me in their car for a trip to Turkana! It was so refreshing to meet someone who is successfully managing to do exactly what I want to do. He can't do it as a full time job, because it doesn't pay the bills, but he is saving peoples lives through photography. If you would like to read more about ICROSS or NWI or make a donation, you can check out their websites http://www.icrossinternational.org/ http://www.nwikeny.com/ or the Africa Awakes website http://www.africa-awakes.com/.