Final Major Project: IoP Symposium Talk – Jenny Lewis – 19-02-18

Key points:-

1. Your own work is very important

2. When you work for brands you have to dilute yourself slightly to fit with what they want

3. Don’t wait for a commission – approach paper ets with a strong project ‘I have this amazing project and I think you should publish it’

4. Don’t be judgemental – aim for diversity and inclusion

5. Try to get work published on other blogs – it opens up a dialogue and questions

6. Arle is a good place to meet publishers – ‘Have you got time for a coffee? I would like to show you something.’

7. Always take screen grabs of emails, comments, followers, likes etc to show the interest in the project

8. Statistics back up projects

9. Not waiting for commissions and shooting own projects all the time makes it easier to shoot commercial work – camera becomes part of your body

10. Make dummy books to show people

11. Be flexible with publishers

12. Take all opportunities to give tlks or deliver workshops

13. Consider project audience – some things work better as an exhibition, some as books, some as zines etc

14. Self publishing – consider costs of over stock. Plus you are the marketer and the distributor.

15. Consider what the purpose of the project is. Is online the best place to reach more people?

16. Her advice is to not set out thinking about where the work will be published – it makes the images have more rawness and honesty as you are not always considering how they fit together. You have more energy for shooting.

17. Be passionate about the work and enjoy it.

18. Use peers to help edit the work

19. Involve a graphic designer – maybe a student?

Jenny’s work:-

1. Work in participant’s location

2. Have to work with whatever is in the environment

3. Need to capture what is there

4. She doesn’t take a lot of lights, she just works with available light

5. Can’t storyboard before shoot

6. Support for project through Instagram and a hashtag

7. Shares images the day she shoots them

8. Never intended a book – was aiming for a feature in a magazine

Actions Arising:-

1. Read “My Modern Met” blog

2. Consider use of a grphic designer

Contact Information:-

1. www.jennylewis.net

2. IG_jennylewis_

#February2018 #IoPSymposium2018