Ruaridh Cameron

Galleries and Email.

Around the 20th of January I contacted three galleries in Scotland which I wont name, and I approached them in a different way. Previously I have been told to not just jump right into what I want, but instead to explain who I am and then say why I’m contacting them, previously though I did not get a reply.

However, this time around after speaking with some of my peers I decided that if I don’t ask for what I would like how will I get where I want to be. So, I just said ‘I am contacting you to enquire about showing you some of my work’ (there was information about myself after this) and two of the three galleries got back to me within two days.

One of the galleries requested work via email before a physical meeting, but sadly they have not yet got back to me so I shall suspect the worst and move on. The other, however, is still in touch with me and we were going to have a meeting in the next couple of weeks but, sadly they had to cancel and have asked to see some work, again, via email.

I feel like I have learnt (even in this short back and forth with the galleries) a lot, it is perhaps more admirable to just be straight up rather than beating around the bush. Now I shall leave to gather the work to submit to the gallery. I hope to be contacting more very soon.

Edit: The third gallery has replied and I will create a post about what I have to do for them in the near future.

CV Reserch: Part I.

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Having an effective and sleek CV will be one of many things needed to get a job in the industry, showing the employer you are worthy and hard working. For now I’m going to focus on the first section. Looking around at example CV’s and CV guide etc. the majority have the first section (after your name and contact details) as a ‘Personal Profile’ were you describe your strengths in the third person. Reading the guides it said that this can work if it is worded correctly but not everyone can pull it off, I decided against doing this. When I tried; I sounded horrible, I wouldn’t have hired me.

I have dived straight into ‘Education’ and I have altered the way mine were explained, previously I gave each subject its own grade and that takes up a lot of space.

Finally, the additional skills section of education, this is the section where you can put in things you can do that don’t come directly under education nor do they come under employment. I found this part useful for myself and the realisation that my Photoshop skills aren’t that great I will work on them along with the creation of my Final Major Project (FMP).

This is the first in three posts I will create about making my CV, in the next one I will look at ‘Employment’ and a couple of other things.

Creating Connections and Research.

Museums are an excellent resource for a photographer, and Dumfries Museum has a very interesting set of collections which is why I am glad to have been allowed in to the the Werner Kissling collection. The collection contained work about the Outer Hebrides, Dumfries and a small amount on Leeds, my interest being the Hebrides. Having both my own knowledge and now a large body of research, I hope that I can build upon this slowly and come to know my home country in all of its glory. Having a large bank of information about the country will hopefully improve my photographs of the place.

I hope that making this connection with Dumfries museum will open more doors into other museums in the future. The opportunity to visit museum collections could become very crucial for cute projects and Dumfries was a warm and welcome beginning to this journey.

Image Courtesy of Dumfries Museum.

Working with Other Professionals.

I have been doing some work with a Design friend of mine. We wanted to work together to expand portfolios, and to work with people outside our profession, designers and photographers have to work closely in studios etc. so why not start now. We decided to do a Vinyl cover as it could showcase both of our skill sets. This has also taken me back to the studio to do a portrait shoot, another thing to add to my portfolio or CV. Deciding upon the band CHURCHES because looking at their current covers and their music inspired some ideas for us. After the shoot we quickly decided to create the I worked closely with him and he treated my work with as much respect as I would myself. This also prepared me to have my photographs handled by someone else which seems unnatural, especially after being the only one to handle my photographs in the past. I hope to work with a designer again or perhaps anyone that can help to expand my knowledge of the professional world before it is upon me. Here is one of the photographs and one of the designs from this work.