|
|
My Blog
|
Posted on Friday, May 18, 2012 3:36 PM
 Andy Spain is a freelance photographer undertaking commissions for architects and other clients across the UK.
He has worked with blue chip companies like BT & Native Land and numerous architectural practices including HLM, Fielden and Mawson, AD Architects, Coda and Steffian Bradley.
Andy also undertakes personal projects for exhibition and sale, most recently 'Ecocities' which was featured in the Telegraph and Evening Standard and 'Suburbia' which was shown at Photomonth. He also exhibited at last year’s Royal Summer Show.
Andy writes a blog and offers workshops. He also sends out a monthly newsletter which always has a wonderful image to light up your inbox. And if you have got ten minutes, go over to his website and take a look at his gallery.
In your professional life, what is the single best thing about what you do? I wanted to be a photographer from a very young age so just doing what I do for a living is constantly enjoyable even if I sometimes need to remind myself.
Do you have a creative hero / heroine and if so, why?
I don't have a creative hero as such. There are many people you meet who inspire you. I met another architectural photographer recently who does fine art work (a direction I would like to go in) - 20 minutes talking to him was great.
What piece of advice do you wish you had been given at the beginning of your career? You don't know it all yet, you never will know it all, just get on and do it and you'll learn (your craft and your business)
If you hit a creative block, what is your top tip for getting through it? Just do it, some days you fly, other days are hard. Don't let the hard days blind you into thinking it's always going to be like that.
And finally, for fun, if you were a shoe, what type of shoe would you be and why? It has to be my pair of Reef flop flops I got in New Zealand years ago, if I've got them on then the sun is shining and life is good. |
|
|
Posted on Friday, May 11, 2012 9:04 AM
I was at the Private View of The Other Art Fair last night. This is an exhibition of work from emerging and unrepresented artists in the UK.
The fair is a wonderful collection of work across many mediums and is a great opportunity to buy art directly from the artists and to talk to them about their practice. It is also very exciting to see the wealth of talent and imagination this country is producing in the creative field.
With 100 artists in the show, all of them with works which engage and stimulate, it is probably bad of me to just pick out just a handful, but this is just a snapshot of a few which particularly interested me.
Nicola Anthony is a favourite artist of mine and is showing some of her word based work in the Fabelist Marketplace. I was especially taken with ‘Rubik’s Years, a beautiful glass and resin sculpture through which ambient light plays, making it an ever changing piece.
Ben Gooding produces aluminium pieces with every line scored by hand. This is mark making from the OCD school of art, with hundreds of lines repeated painstakingly, producing an almost machine tooled finish with a human touch. The process is fascinating and the finished panels produce textures dying to be touched.
Still on texture (and painstaking process), Alberto Fusco is showing his paper sculptures reflecting the volatility of human emotions. The flashes of colour from the obsessively folded pages Fusco uses hint at chaotic emotions trapped in the precise, neat and often symmetrical works.
In photography, Charlotte Anderson and Andrew Stewart both travel to far flung places using documentary images to communicate their views of the world, but in very different styles. The common thread is the sense of place and atmosphere which they create.
Atmosphere also plays a strong part in the works of digital painter, Marcel Ceuppens and oil painter Jennifer Hooper, although again, their work is very diverse in style. Ceuppens’ work is very precise and graphic with a recurring solitary figure overwhelmed by architectural verticals, a modern dilemma portrayed in a modern way. Hooper in contrast uses traditional oil painting to evoke unsentimental nature studies in vague backgrounds. Both provoke thoughts of place and time.
The exhibition is on until Sunday 13th May - full details on their website. It is well worth a visit. |
|
|
Posted on Friday, May 04, 2012 11:00 AM
I have written in the past about visioning, goal setting and affirmations. These are all really important things when setting out where you want to go and reinforcing the mindset to get you there.
I do believe from my own experience that once you start putting your message and intention out into the world that things can line up in your favour.
However, before you think that I only advocate 'think happy thoughts and all will come to you', you would be wrong. Once you have your vision and goals in place, you then have to take action.
Let me give you an example from my own background.
Many years ago, I was working on the edges of theatre administration and decided that I wanted to get into theatre marketing. I had no idea of the breadth of ‘theatre marketing’, what I needed to know, how I could learn or how I could get into the sector. I also didn’t know anyone who worked in theatre marketing. The only thing I had was a huge pile of programmes from all the shows I had seen in the previous 12 months.
I went through every programme and made a list of all the people listed in the credits as being responsible for the marketing of each show. I ended up with a list of 50 people, for who I found addresses.
I wrote to every single one of them. The letter was just a polite 'I would like to do what you do - do you have any advice?' type of letter. I also sent them my very thin CV. (A side advantage was that I learnt to type as that this was the days before computers - oh yes, they did exist - and so I had to produce 50 letters and 50 CVs on a manual typewriter.) Oh, by the way, before you think I was an over eager extrovert, I wrote letters because I wasn’t brave enough to telephone.
I sent the letters off and waited for what I expected might be 4 or 5 responses.
I got 48.
A few were very nice letters with great bits of advice, courses to go on, books to read, places to look for jobs. Most were generous invitations to come in and see them for a chat.
I spent a very happy couple of months using up my holiday entitlement in odd half days visiting little cramped offices at the top of old theatres to smart swanky suites, and everything in between.
I got to meet some really fabulous, inspiring people. I heard their stories and listened to their advice. I learnt so much about theatre and marketing and was able to make some informed decisions about defining my goal and what to do next. I went to events and met more people. I built up a network. It was also very good fun.
After a couple of months, I got a phone call from one of the people to whom I had written inviting me to a job interview, resulting in a year long contract with Cameron Mackintosh, which in turn led to a contract with the Society of London Theatre. Goal reached.
So, what action will you take today to move you towards your goal? |
|
|
Posted on Friday, April 27, 2012 7:48 AM
I have been bumping in Sinead at events over the past couple of years, as well as reading her excellent free eBook, From Apps to Zen, and her informative monthly newsletter. I have always loved her energy, insights and world view. She sent me an advance copy of ‘The Business Yogi’ and asked me to read it. Knowing Sinead, I was happy to say yes. However, I will admit to being anxious on hearing that the book used yoga and its’ philosophies as a starting point for business ideas. I had a blind spot about yoga as it is one of those things I feel I should do, as it will make me more limber and fit, but having tried a couple of classes briefly long ago, I found it too slow.
As I began to read, two things immediately jumped out at me: a) the only thing I thought I knew about yoga (that it is all about stretching the body into interesting shapes) was superficial to say the very least and b) slowing down is precisely what so many of us need to do in this 24/7 digital strive, strive, strive culture.
The book uses ideas and insights from yoga to show how work life (and life in general) can be enhanced and happiness achieved. It covers 5 key areas (Starting; Challenges; Progress; Relationships; and Focus) and takes you through each one with clarity, wit and honesty. The writers are both yoga practitioners and have developed a deep understanding of the powers of patience, stillness and balance. However, they freely and endearingly admit to their own bouts of anger or mental busyness in order to show how they use the yoga techniques to overcome these moments.
The book is a fascinating read interspersed with ‘Mat Moments’, useful practical activities to help you regain balance and perspective. These include simple physical exercises alongside short meditations. (There are also podcasts and other materials available from the website to support you.)
Do you need to be interested in yoga to read the book? No, although obviously it could be a great starting point for yoga beginners and a valuable resource for those more experienced yogi. I am a tango dancer and I found several of the concepts of focus, just doing it and letting go applied as much in my dancing as it does to yoga. There are a few yoga postures which are recommended in the ‘Mat Moments‘, but even if you chose to leave these out, there is still a wealth of practical material which you can build into your day to day life, making tiny changes which could have major impacts on your well being.
So, if you are put off by the yoga tag, please don’t be - this is a really inspiring book for anyone who wants to find headspace and happiness.
And the Elephants, Frogs and Monkey Minds? Go buy the book and find out for yourself! |
|
|
Posted on Monday, April 23, 2012 3:06 PM
With a bit of practice, most of us can put together a plan to make a project or a business work. However, if putting together a great plan in which everything works was all that was needed for us to sail through life, then we would all be millionaires, household names or ... add in your own indicator of success.
As an entrepreneur, with your future and your work life in your own hands, the real key to planning is not just the “in a perfect world” scenario, but the one in which you have also considered all the things which could go wrong. For example, what do you do when:
- you have a big presentation to a potential client and your child is sick and has to be off school
- you are due to deliver a workshop and you start to lose your voice
- you are writing a article for a newspaper against the clock and your laptop dies
- your key client, who provides the bulk of your income, doesn’t renew your contract
- your comfortable timeframe get truncated because you have to wait for other people to get their parts of the project back to you
- you have 2 bad payers who owe you a lot of money and it is impacting on your cashflow
These are just a few of the many problems which could knock you off track. For every aspect of your business planning, a risk analysis is vital. At each stage, ask yourself the following questions:
- What problem could occur?
- What is the absolute worse case scenario?
- How can I avoid this problem?
- If I can’t avoid it, how could I minimise or manage this problem?
It may sound depressing to think of all the things which might not work, but I can’t stress enough how important this process is. By thinking of as many problems with as many viable solutions as possible, you can build a detailed contingency plan. (I always try to come up with 12 solutions to each problem; the first ones are sensible, the middle ones are slightly desperate and the last couple are usually outrageously silly. However, this breaks open your thinking and throws up all kinds of unexpected possibilities from which you can decide your 2 or 3 key solutions.) Hopefully, you won’t need your contingency plan, but when any problems hit, you are fully prepared.
A good risk analysis will help you to see most problems as an inconvenience rather than a disaster. As you practise the habit, it will become easier, so that when the one thing you had not anticipated happens, you can face it with confidence.
|
|
|
|
|
