Photography Guest Lecture
Abbie Traylor-Smith is a portrait and documentary photographer who has worked in the industry for 20 years. She refers to herself as a ‘storyteller’ as all the work she produces has a deeper meaning and story to be told. She started as a photographer for a student newspaper in London and over time her passion slowly became a job. She achieved work experience with press photographers which helped her build her student portfolio. Once she graduated, she tried to find jobs as a press photographer. During this time she suffered set-backs but her determination made her carry on. She applied and got a job at the Daily Telegraph, not because she was qualified for it but because of her ambition and passion. She worked there for six years on a range of projects, both UK based and abroad. Eventually, Abbie left the job as she wanted to start producing more intimate and personal work. This required her to change her portfolio to become commissioned.
Recently Abbie has worked on projects about asylum seekers, the famine in Chad, and her own personal project ‘The big O’ focusing on teenage obesity. The advice Abbie shared was the importance of building relationships. Often she will not use her camera at the first meeting but focuses on getting to know the people and their stories. This helps to build trust between her and the individual she wishes to photograph. It is vital to be honest when approaching people, as if you are people will be willing to work with you. She explained the challenge when on a commissioned project, of having to give the client what they want, but also giving them photographs that they did not know they wanted. Therefore, a creative mind and outlook is necessary to identify what will make a good photograph.
Through talking in-depth about her personal projects she explained how these are often the best pieces of work. She stressed the importance of making the most of being a student and having time to work on personal projects. As ideas are the currency of the future, in a competitive industry like photography it all comes down to how much you want success. Abbie advised getting work experience and recommended trying to practice photography everyday using platforms such as Instagram. She also suggested looking around for funding and competitions as these are great opportunities to get your work noticed. What stood out most to me, was her advice that you have to be tenacious. She explained that sometimes she hates her cameras but stressed the importance of never giving up.
I felt inspired to take up photography again as I have not had much opportunity since my GCSE’s. My aim is to start utilising Instagram as a platform, trying to make it more professional platform than personal. I am excited to go back to exploring more photographers and their work, one way I will do this is by listening to her suggested podcast; Small Voice, and attended photographic exhibitions.