For those of you that don't know, photography wasn't my original art form and although it was always a big part of my creative projects, I didn't realise just how passionate I was about photography until I saw that my photographs captured the most precious moments in my life. I started out as an artist specialising in painting and portrait sketches. These ranged from small A6 watercolour paintings of flowers to giant abstract paintings and mixed media pieces. My first project which seriously involved my photography skills was essentially a textiles project which ended in a series of A1 pastel drawings. I carried with me an old analogue camera, a digital canon 1000D and a few kit lenses all borrowed from my parents. My knowledge of photography was all through brief research projects relating to different photographers and artists. The model was a close friend of mine who had absolutely no experience modelling. I applied her makup myself and made her dress from scratch. The project went surprisingly well and I was able to easily explore the lighting and posing techniques with my subject. The way the photoshoot flowed came very naturally to me and I never had trouble with what to try next and where to shoot. Perhaps this is a mixture of my creativity and my natural bossiness! It was during my foundation degree in Fine Art that I really discovered just how passionate I was about using photography to capture moments and express ideas and emotions. My professors themselves were painters and while they appreciated photography as a means to an end, they didn't seem to understand it as a stand alone art form. While this was happening during my time at college, I started covering family events and portrait sessions elsewhere. These seemed to all go really well and it was addictive - I couldn't help but want to do more! For my final project on my foundation degree, despite my best efforts to appease my professors, I just had to include my photography. The project was all about impulse and motion. For this, I had done a sports photoshoot using very skilled cyclists and skateboarders that happened to be on the same course as me. I also incorporated my Fine Art painting skills and the exhibition went very well. I had a very individual art piece that was abstract but still showed the skill and hard work that went into the shoots. I was still creating, and involved in, a lot of painting and designing projects when I started doing photography on the side. I really found my element when my son, Finley, was born. That's another story, perhaps one that will be featured in one of my future blogs - stay tuned!
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Clare ShapcottPhotographer Archives
December 2021
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