Bread and Butter Photography - 1-2-1 with Gary Clarkson
March 12, 2020Gary Clarkson is a UK based documentary photographer, his work has been published in newspapers and magazines, as well as winning awards for his documentary work.
Gary is also one of our lectures at the university of Huddersfield and i had a chance to discuss my commercial portfolio with him and to where he thinks to take my work next.
Gary explained to me the concept of having a voice within your images compared to ‘bread and butter photography’ in which he meant images that can be produced easily by any ammeter photographer. He picked two of my images from my collection that he thought represented my style vs bread and butter and explained to me the importance of creating more work using my voice and style, as this is what will help me to be noticed by employers. He explained to me that should make images for fashion brief but make it not about fashion, for example a festival wear clothing brand… show off the clothes but create a narrative to the image.
Gary also gave me advice of how to sequence my portfolio by telling me to print 6x4 images and put them together into categories. he suggested possibly colour coordinating or sectioning into genres. He also suggested some commercial photography website to view to get inspiration for my own.
I am very grateful for Garys advice as it has made me think more about the way i take images and to not be afraid to think outside the box on commercial briefs in order to stand out.
