I have now completed the 3rd year of BA Photography at Gray’s School of Art. I was very pleased to achieve a Pass with Distinction. It has been a fantastically productive year where I have been able to pursue my own creative goals with some very helpful input and critique from two main academic staff, Fiona Stephen and Jennie Milne. They pushed me where I needed it and were very supportive when doubts crept into my mind.

In the first half of the academic year, we had a small self-portrait project and then two main projects to work on. I chose to pursue two areas that I have long had an interest in. My first project was based on fungi photography. I felt this was a bit of a risky subject, as you can never be too sure what you will find on any given year; however, with a few foraging trips, I did manage to find enough subjects to build the project around.

My second project was based around the smaller harbours along the Aberdeenshire coast, particularly focusing on the area between Aberdeen and Fraserburgh. With the dull, often dark and wintry weather, this certainly led to a strong theme for these photos. This project was inspired by working with Emeritus Professor Gokay Devici, who has an interest in regeneration for these small harbours that have lost much of their purpose since the decline in the fishing industry in the second half of the 20th century. I will be expanding the Lost Herbers (Doric dialect for Harbours) project to include all of the small harbours along the Aberdeenshire and Moray coast over the coming months and years. More news on that soon.

Moving into the second semester, I wanted to push the creative, fine-art side of my photography. As the subject, I settled on the recumbent stone circles in Aberdeenshire. These unique stone circles are scattered across the region, and I have been drawn to visit them for many years (my family lives in Wiltshire, so I also regularly visit the Avebury area and the ancient monuments there too). I wanted to take this project down a far more creative route, and taking inspiration from ICM photographer Andy Grey and Multiple Exposure photographer Janina Wilde, I decided that abstract photography would be the best way to express these ideas. I used a combination of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and in-camera Multiple Exposures (ME). This started with some very experimental work, trying out different ICM and ME techniques. However, I quickly learned what worked and what didn’t. As the project progressed, I moved on to photograph some of the ruined churches in Aberdeenshire, too. These proved just as interesting as the stone circles, and certainly made good subjects for my abstract project. I am fascinated with the results I achieved, and I will certainly be experimenting with more abstract projects in the future.

I finished the academic year a few weeks ago and received my results last week. After taking a little time to digest them, I am finally ready to move on to the next stage. I will be returning to Gray’s in September for the Honours year, and I am already planning my work for that…

Besides that, I will be having a small exhibition of some of my work as part of the Aberdeen Festival of the Sea. More about that soon.