The images, opinions and occasional ravings of a photographer and PHD Candidate.
The people I most admire - both in my personal life, and of the people whose life stories I’ve come across - are the ones who fit the term renaissance man. People who’ve applied themselves to many things and gotten good at them, or who while known mostly for one thing did not let … Continue reading Broaden Your Portfolio – Academia, Work / Life and being a Jack Of All Trades in a specialist age.
If you’ve read some of my more recent posts, you’ll have read about my sports photography. Well, this Sunday I took my last sport shots for the foreseeable future. Since October of last year, on a more or less weekly basis, I’ve headed down the hill from the University’s main campus and through the gates … Continue reading Bittersweet Art – Closing Out A Photo Project.
Image Copyright AJGilbey2019 Aberystwyth School of Art is a little unusual amongst art schools, in that it’s also an art museum. One of the side effects of this, aside from serious fire and intruder alarm systems, is that every so often we all get an invite to go along to the current exhibition and hear … Continue reading After Hours At School Of Art – Or, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Curation, But Were Afraid To Ask.
I never thought I’d be photographing sports as part of a fine art MA. That’s not because of the sports, it’s because I never thought I’d be doing a fine art MA. Some of the first pictures I ever took were sports photos. When I was dragged out of bed to stand on touchlines while … Continue reading Sports Photography As Meditation
Early on in my MA, one of my tutors touched on the idea of the development of skills. Practice. Repetition to achieve perfection. In the same breath, he said that this wasn’t the same as athletic training, because an athlete’s only skill is to continue repeating the same thing. I call Bullshit. As covered elsewhere, … Continue reading The Artist And The Athlete
This little essay is something I wrote back in December 2018, right after the events described. I didn't have anywhere to publish it back then - writing it was just a way of working it all out. Given as I'm here to talk about my artistic practice, this blog seems like the right place. … Continue reading Arts, Ethics and the Unfortunate.
When, some months ago, I announced that I’d enrolled on a Fine Arts MA, a lot of my friends and colleagues asked why. Not so much why the MA, but why Fine Art in particular? A fair enough question for a man whose background was in English literature, writing, acting and taking the occasional photograph. … Continue reading If I’m An Artist, Does That Make This Art?
So, after a long break, I’ve gotten back to taking pictures on film. It’s been a while – about twelve years if memory serves. Unfortunately it also led me to a slight confession, namely that I’d never actually developed any of this “film” stuff. That’s an embarrassing admission for an MA student studying photography, and … Continue reading Triumphant Return To Film
The best thing to do, when you find yourself staring at a blank screen is to turn it off, then go outside and play. Read a book under a tree. Watch a sunset. Paint a picture. A close second is to start writing something. It might not make a lot of sense, but it will … Continue reading Day 1. Week 1.
Photos By Alex 