As I said in my previous post, I felt Ian Farrell had opened some doors for me in the industry and no doubt he had! He often completes jobs for Bright Publishing who are based in Cambridge and back in early August they had a vacancy for a photojournalism commission but needed a student or aspiring professional’s perspective. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be commissioned to do the job! Photojournalism has always been something I would like to experiment with, so being offered this opportunity was absolutely ideal. Being able to speak to another professional photographer as well, especially one based in London where the main roots of the industry lies, was really beneficial to me.
The job was for Professional Photo magazine, a print-based specialist photography magazine. Their September issue is going to have a loose theme of how to get started as a professional photographer. So the job was to interview an editorial and portrait photographer, Will Corder, who has recently gone pro in the last few years, to investigate his journey to where he is now and to retrieve any professional advice he can give to students studying photography and other aspiring professionals.
After conducting the interview I had to transcribe the hour-long interview to be able to single out the most useful and worth quotes to incorporate into the writing of a 1500 word journalistic article; detailing the most valuable aspects I had received from the interview: how Corder got started, his inspiration, his journey, his involvement with the Association of Photographers (AOP), advice for amateurs, information on his personal projects, specific equipment he uses and talking about what his dream shoot would be. After drafting and re-drafting, editing and re-editing, when I eventually had the finalised draft of the article, I sent it to Corder to help inform him of which of his photos would be most suitable to fit alongside my writing on him. The deadline for the job was to be completed by the 17th of August, but it’s only been ready to show now as part of their September issue which was released on the 13th September.
Below is an image of the first page of the final page layout which was used in the magazine, of my writing and Corder’s photographs – the September issue was out in stores to purchase; in WHSmiths and many supermarkets! It’s been an incredibly valuable experience for me to have written this and to have my own work published in an established and national magazine and I am so grateful for it, I’ve really enjoyed experimenting in photojournalism and would be open to more opportunities within the realm.
If you’re interested in Will Corder’s work, please check out his website: http://www.willcorder.co.uk