My Five Year Career Plan

Year One

Over the next year I shall continue making work and to enter competitions.  This will allow me to use the completions as a platform to exploit my work and possibly lead to publications, media attention, exhibitions and financial gain.

Following Vicki Churchill's lead I will apply for assisting jobs, contacting photographic agencies, leaving my skill set and contact details so that they have my details ready encase anything comes up.

Vicki also recommends becoming listed in the AOP Job Shop for potential openings. Also I can research and contact photographic agencies, leaving my skills set and contact details so that I am on hand should any opening occur.

Also over the next year I plan on attending some critiques at Treads Kent. The critiques are free to attend and would be a great way of receiving advice from my peers and other artists in the creative industry. Threads also create free pop up exhibitions which I would like to exhibit in, this would give my work exposure, allow me to network, potentially make some money with print sales and possible commissions and also would look good on my CV.

www.threadskent.com#!critique/c8sa

On speaking with members at threads, they are keen for other graduates to create the same type of business. They have accessed many small pots of funding allowing them to cover the costs of renting spaces to exhibit as well as drawing a wage. This, I feel, could be a great way to become self-sustained at the same time as networking and exhibiting work.

Year Two

After my first year as a graduate I would like to go and study for my Masters.  I would need a part time job so will continue looking at assisting photographers. 

Robin Godden, website and promotions coordinator at WeFolk Agency interned for six months, this is something else to look at, to gain experience as he did to move into an organisation with the experience needed to qualify for a paid salary. This is something to think about as having no salary may not work for my circumstances, however, I am thinking of the bigger picture and if six months is what it wool (in the right organisation) to gain the experience needed, then this could be a possibility.

I would in this time be looking at local studios for paid work, along side freelance events and look at local galleries for any opportunities that may arise.

I would also like to study after a year out of education for my Masters. I have been looking at universities that are fairly local to see what my options are.

M.A. Photography – Brighton University

• On Campus
• 12 months
•   5,580 per Year

As a student on Brighton's MA Photography course you can expect a creative and critical environment in which to practise and think about photography. The course has a fine art-focused approach to photographic practice. Its close relationship with work in moving image and sound allows you to develop your own interests through individual research projects

M.A. Photography – Canterbury 

• On Campus
• 12 months
• £9,000

University for the Creative Arts | Canterbury, United Kingdom  This MA course approaches photography as an expanded visual discipline. You are encouraged to produce professional work as well as engage with experimental and speculative approaches to making. Our facilities and course ethos help you develop flexible modes of practice that respond to the diverse field of contemporary photography. The course addresses the creative process of developing & realising a major body of work, paying attention to research, exhibition & publication.

Within the first two years of finishing my degree I will also look into assisting photographers as a form of paid work and to learn on the job experience. I will do this by networking at exhibitions and private views as well as social networking sites such as twitter.  It may also be worthwhile contacting local studios as the use of their studios in my personal time could benefit my freelancing career and the salary could help sustain a career within the industry.

Year Three

The MA (part-time) would take me into my second and third year. I would like to be working assisting photographers as well as running pop up exhibitions within a collaboration. All the while  would like to be making my own work, thinking about projects for the future alongside actively making work.

Year Four

After my MA would take me into my fourth year as a graduate. I would continue to make work, trying to get the work exhibited and shown, creating media awareness via PR companies and paying special mind to press releases, giving the right information to allow journalists to write about me without having to interview me. I would also look at jobs within local schools who study photography for a stable income. I may look into a PGC, I have always had the idea of teaching. 

Year Five

This is tough. 
I would like to be fully established within the photography world, having created bodies of work that I am proud of. I would also like to be working at one of the local collages within the photography/creative arts brackets.