September 1st

I have been considering pursuing a Masters in Photography for some time. Having studied Computer Science, Business Studies, and, most recently, Law, I felt drawn to an intellectual challenge in a field I enjoy. So, here I am, in the onboarding phase of an MA in Photography at Falmouth University. While working through the pre-reads, I found the recommendation to start a blog. This is the start of it all: the blog, the course, and what might be called the “journey”.

Having read some of the recommended books, I have a sense of how the course will help shape me as a photographer, not in a technical sense, but in a philosophical one. I imagine graduates of this course move from looking at pictures to seeing images; from taking snapshots to making photographs, from filling Lightroom with thousands of average images to curating a portfolio of meaningful pieces. Lofty ambitions for me, maybe?

I have always respected and enjoyed the work of some of the greats. I have books by Annie Leibovitz, Steve McCurry, Robert Frank, Martin Parr, and others. I have their prints on the wall. And I have zines created by artists who, while less well-known, appeal to my taste, such as Marc Wilson. I am hoping the course will help me appreciate these bodies of work more deeply. They are my inspiration and inform how I engage with photography, so by understanding more of why they made the images they did, there is a chance that inspiration is strengthened and my own work can become more relevant.