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!