I am still stunned and can’t quite believe just how quickly this Erasmus year has gone by. The months seemed to turn into weeks and the weeks into days and here I am now, writing my final blog post for the year before the hand-in date! Aside from my mandatory blog reviews post, this is (sadly) my last writing to you all…
I think it’s fairly clear in all my previous blog posts throughout the year what an incredibly fantastic time I’ve had, filled with life-changing experiences. From living centrally in a foreign capital city, to studying at a Spanish university, to going on lots of cultural trips and forming countless photography projects/shoots – it goes without saying that this year has been a once in a life time opportunity and I’m so grateful I’ve been able to do it.
To reflect upon the year overall so far, in terms of successes, I feel that I have definitely grown and developed as a person. I’m a lot more self-confident now in decoding language, approaching strangers and navigating foreign places which has resulted from living abroad. I am also a lot more confident in my photography work and its online presence through my social media etc because this year has enabled me to develop professionally and given me the time I needed to engage with professional contacts in the process. In terms of development in my education, I have learnt the Spanish language to an A2 level (which hopefully will advance even further over my months left in Madrid) and I’ve also learnt how to decode language which are both very valuable life skills. I have both advanced on and improved photography skills I had already learnt but have also learnt some new darkroom, studio and Photoshop skills – which even if I don’t use again as they’re not useful to my practice, they’ve still been beneficial to me as a professional to learn; allowing me to gain some more expertise in these general areas, as they are ones I might wish to pursue in my future career. I feel as though I have also been very successful in completing my own photography projects/shoots and exhibitions – as mentioned in more detail further on in this post.
In terms of challenges and problems, I found that learning the Spanish language has proved difficult for me. I expected it to be, as learning any new language is hard, but as I have advanced and got into A2 level, what I’m learning with my tutor is getting a bit more complex. For example, we recently started to read the children’s book ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which proved harder to get through the first page than I thought it would! However, I absolutely love learning the language and value it as such an amazing skill to have and I’m definitely planning to pursue it within my remaining months in Madrid and after I’ve left. I’m continuing to learn Spanish until I leave in July by having regular tutoring lessons and completing the homework set, using Duolingo almost daily, independent practice/learning and watching Spanish television. I also plan to keep in practice of this skill in all ways possible (e.g: using Duolingo, independent practice etc) once I have left Madrid so that I keep what I’ve learnt in check!
In relation to my photography, I did find it challenging but rewarding to independently motivate myself both creatively and academically to pursue projects, shoots and exhibitions, largely due to my exchange university’s (UEM) lack of academic content. Nevertheless, I found this and updating my professional social media, without any tutorial or guided help, useful practice for after graduating as it has forced me to independently face the systems of the real working world. As far as I am currently aware, unless we are set new tasks in the upcoming months, I have now completed all tasks for both my classes for the second semester, the ones as previously detailed in my blog post about ‘Semester 2: the new classes’. As mentioned in the blog post, I have not found any of the tasks to be useful or beneficial to me as a person or my professional career, compared to my first semester classes (details about these in previous blog posts). This has been a disappointment for me, but I have found other ways to make the most of my time as detailed in other blog posts and coursework assignments for the Coventry International Enhancement Year module.
Aside from what I have already mentioned, I still have a fair amount planned for my remaining months left living in Madrid before I move back home for good in July which includes the plan of hoping to do a water-based fashion shoot in collaboration with Jasmine Smith. It will be a technical and professional challenge for us both as neither of us have done a water-based shoot on location such as in a swimming pool or lake before. Additionally, we plan to be using both digital and film photography, therefore we can attain different aesthetics and we will have to conduct some research for completing such a shoot. This will hopefully allow us to advance our fashion photography skills, including the skill of directing the model, as this will be particularly difficult as they will be in water for a lengthy amount of time.
I’m looking forward to distributing my ‘12 Streets of Madrid’ photography zine in the upcoming months to local passersby in the city; to see if any interest in my work comes of it and to simply just exhibit my creation and share it with others local to the art. Additionally, the exhibition myself and Kelly Bryan are currently in the midst of planning with our collaborative project which we plan to exhibit in the summer, will also be beneficial to my profession as I will be able to state my work has been exhibited in Madrid. Furthermore, I have been recently informed by my teacher at UEM that my best work from both the photography classes I completed in first semester which I submitted, have been selected for UEM’s online Flickr exhibition and for the physical printed exhibition that is planning to be held at UEM in the upcoming months. I hope this will go ahead as not much has currently been arranged and I know they were struggling for participants; I have been told I will be emailed when a date has been arranged for the event. If it does happen, this will also enhance my professional portfolio, showing I’ve been exhibited in a foreign country and at UEM which will show to potential clients and employers more proof I studied at the university and lived abroad. Additionally, it will show that I have inter-cultural awareness and that my work is widely internationally recognized.
All the other experiences I have gained such as the travelling; having day trips to nearby Spanish towns and longer trips to Berlin, Morocco and an upcoming one in May to Valencia, have all increased my cultural knowledge and awareness of the many lifestyles the world has and Europe as a continent (yes Morocco is classed under the European umbrella apparently).
Upon reflection, I think the whole year has been one huge surprise. I was surprised when I actually got accepted to study at UEM and was still shocked when I got on my first Ryanair flight in September to move to Madrid. Everything I have learned professionally, personally and educationally which has developed myself as a person as well as my career has all been an amazing benefit to me and I am so glad I completed this Erasmus year.
To conclude and officially sign off, I have attached to this blog post a link to a PDF document exported from the phone application I have been using throughout the year called ‘Day One Journal’. The photo app required me to take a photo each day, add it to the app and write a bit about what I got up to that day and reflect upon it if I so desired to. I am doing this for my own benefit, to ensure I have a memory of each day of the year whilst on my Erasmus adventures. I plan to continue using this app until I move out of Madrid in July; it will enable me to have a visual keepsake outcome of the year and will be sentimentally valuable for me to reflect on in my years to come. Additionally, it’s a way of documenting and representing my entire year, hopefully allowing viewers to gage a real sense of what my daily life consisted of living in Madrid. Moreover, it also of course shows my trips: travelling home to England, when family/friends have visited me in Madrid, my own travels - all giving an insight into my year and what I got up to on those too. Therefore, I thought I would share with you all my incredible year so far day by day... Click the link below to access the full PDF document I've uploaded to 'issuu':
https://issuu.com/hollyhoultonphotography/docs/day_one_journal_for_final_blog_post
Here's a little preview of my first entry to my 'Day One Journal' - my first day in Madrid!
