I don’t see this as a full time career path as i see myself having a range of paths to make up my whole career. I understand that being a freelance photographer is not the most reliable career path because work comes and goes, projects take time etc but at the end of the day we all have to make money some how. Therefore, for me, I see freelance photography as an opportunity to carry on creating my own photographic work because I enjoy it, with the possibility of making money as well. Post uni I would love the opportunity to assist a professional photographer as a way to gain some more experience, and expose myself to professional shoots with the little experience I have. I feel like this would also be a great way to stay in contact with other photographers as well as having the opportunity to see how freelancing works. Additionally, I feel like it could be a great way to gain further technical knowledge from another person, especially someone who may have different skills and techniques to you. Therefore in terms of a plan, I feel as though five years is a good number to work towards. In five years I would like to:
Move into my own flat
get a part time job to help fund living and producing work
create my own photographic projects that I am passionate about
contact different organisations to try and get my work out there
enter awards or bursaries etc to help boost those projects on
look into getting my MA
As I have previously shown in another post I have two different types of CVs i’ll be working with throughout this process. I have a professional business style CV that I have used in the past for getting part time jobs during before and during uni. This is the CV i’ll be using to get a general job to help fund my living costs, own project making and working towards my MA. However, I also have an arts style CV that I have been making which is similar to my general one as I don’t have much experience actually in the industry yet. With this being said i have targeted the information towards the arts industry and have included things like any shows i’ve been involved in as well as my aims in the industry.
Furthermore, in order to keep going as a freelance photographer I understand that i’m going to have to keep up with things such as my website, in order to keep relevant and modern but I am also going to have to keep up to date with networking in order to stay connected. Therefore, I am going to strive to stay connected with my peers from university as well as make sure to attend events, galleries, talks etc in order to meet new up and coming photographers.