Today I have been focussed on my panel ready for the British Institute of Professional Photographers assessment next week. 20 prints, each 20″ x 16″ in size (although my prints are much smaller than this, each piece has to be of a standard size). The supporting documentation is all ready and now, finally, printing and then everything needs to go into the portfolio case to come with me to Preston on Wednesday.

Am I feeling confident?

In a word… no.

I have been here before, never quite making it to this stage… but I have prepared a panel then thrown everything out and started again on a new concept. Twice. But this time I am committed and the panel has been printed, and my fees have been paid.

The problem is… I have changed my mind conceptually of what I want to produce and how I want to produce it – not just for the panel – but for my wider work too. I want to print fine art landscapes shot on film, developed by hand (my own) and printed traditionally (also by my own hand). I feel there is something inherently more honest about this approach – and also it means that more of me goes into everything I do.

Now… I say I want everything to be done this way, but the reality will be, I think, more blended. Selling large hand printed single editions is a limited market place and the price of that kind of work is going to be high, so I think I need to address the more volume market too and that work probably will be digital, or at least have digital elements to it. I haven’t set on my ultimate solution to this yet, it may be that I shoot and develop by hand, then scan and have an outsourced print solution. I may even shoot some digitally… I just don’t know yet!

Thematically I think I am heading in the right direction, although there is work to do there too. I want to shoot more of the clearance sites from that traumatic period of Highland history. The panel contains some of that but also other structures from other periods. I want to not just record, but make thought provoking art, of these places.

I think I now have everything I need to make a start on this idea, the next step is to find the time and space to shoot! I haven’t settled on a film stock yet so there may be a little inconsistency as I work through some options on that front too!