As part of my course at uni, we have an exhibition catalogue which goes alongside the final degree show. As part of the process we take part in a professional photoshoot.
I was given 45 minutes to set up my work, followed by a 45 minute shoot. The experience was fantastic! I’ve never done anything like that before so it was a really useful experience.
Before the shoot I looked at my studio space and the way I worked and displayed my work around me. I saw that I had quite a busy space with lots of layering going on and with draped fabrics.
I thought about how I could use some of these ideas for my photoshoot, knowing that the venue would not allow us to pin our work into the walls. I thought about finding some form of batton or pole to drape my fabrics over and experimented with this idea by making use of the piping running along the studio walls.
After discussing ideas for the photoshoot with my tutor I decided that because I want to work on commissions it might be a good idea to present my shoot as though I was having a meeting with a client. I could lay my designs out on their dining table as if to say, “Look, this is what I am capable of.”
So then I went off and looked at tables. Firstly, it had to be something I could easily get hold of for an afternoon. Secondly, it would have to fit in a car. Thirdly, I wanted it to look like a dining table, but not a cheap looking one – something that was old, and loved and you might find in the house of my clients. Based on the fact that my work is so detailed and time-consuming, my clients would need to have a large disposable income. Therefore, I felt this should come across in the table.
Now I had a look at two tables in particular, the old dining table from home which I now use as a desk. This table has been passed on through three generations so I expect it is quite valuable. This was the table I envisaged using when I first had the idea of using a table. However, I had to consider whether it would fit in a car in order to get it to Huddersfield for the shoot.
The next table I looked at was one belonging to my grandma. It’s a gate-leg table so I knew it would fit into a car.
I settled on using the first table from home. So on the day of the shoot, my Dad drove over to Huddersfield with the table and a chair. I found a suitable place in the room to set up my table beneath a window. In the room we were using for the shoot I found a pin-board which just fit into the window frame – perfect! I used the board to pin fabrics to and recreated my studio space.
Each student was assigned a second year student to help us. I asked Clair to take photographs for me as we went along putting up my work and throughout the shoot. I was very lucky in that I had my Dad at the shoot too so I asked him to bring his camera and take photos. Between the three of us I ended up with over 200 photos!
Here are some of the shots from the day...
