What Are They Doing Now? Official Blog Post

Successful former students created a vivid picture of life after college in the Photography Department. In the week prior to the Xmas break, five former students who have carved out a career in photography shared their experiences and stories with current HNC and NC students. Five speakers gave inspiring and informative presentations from the worlds of Higher Education, advertising and fashion photography, assisting, press and photojournalism, weddings and social portraiture and new developments in camera technology.

While all had varied and contrasting styles and approaches to their photographic work, there were several recurring ideas: the need to ‘go the extra mile’ in college and at work; the importance of people management and being able to negotiate and communicate; the value of planning and making contingency plans; the benefits of research and investigation; the need for resilience and perseverence as it takes time to carve out a career; a fluent familiarity and enjoyment of technical issues like lighting and equipment and always doing personal work.

The speakers were Simon Moorhouse whose exhibition, ‘Nostalgia’ is currently on show in the photography department, discussed his progression through the education system to a BA in photography and his development of highly technical image construction of fantastical scenes to illustrate lifestyle concepts. Davie Dunn and Peter Lawson gave an informal talk about their work in wedding photography and their personal work with portraits and dog photographs. They are particularly interested in experimenting with flash photography techniques required for quick problem-solving on location at weddings to create striking images no matter what challenges get in the way.

Stuart Vance – taking a short break from his shift for the Record group of newspapers – showed pictures taken on commission for several newspapers, and talked about the importance of knowing who you are shooting for, and working to that style. He also mentioned the value of simply “being able to talk to people and getting them to do stuff.”

Lauren MacNeish now works as a technical trainer for Fuji, whose camera systems and innovative sensor technology are revolutionising the world of compact high-end digital cameras. This gives a vivid indication of how the technology that we learn about and work with is rapidly changing, and will continue to do so. Lauren landed her job as a trainer for the Fuji company as a result of her own technical research into their equipment, and then spotting an advert for a role with the company.

As well as having many strong opinions and enthusiasm for photography, Lauren also has an obvious enjoyment of the nitty-gritty of image sensors. (I should not really say the words gritty and sensor in the same sentence – it makes photographers very uncomfortable.)

Unfortunately Alice Ogle, who has experience in the world of photography curating, did not have the time in her tight schedule to speak at this event, but will hopefully be able to come in on another occasion

The talks, and Simon’s exhibition opening the previous evening, also gave an opportunity for several ex-students from West Lothian to visit informally and keep us up to date with their adventures.

The last word should be a quote from Simon’s talk: “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."