Miss Aniela Photography

Above: taken by Jeff Greene.

I have just got back from an exhausting week of work at Cologne’s humongous biennial photography trade show. At Photokina I did occupied two presentation slots a day at the Microsoft booth, throughout the six days of the event.
Within minutes of acquainting myself with the theatre and booth space, I could tell this would be different from the setup at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit. Rather than a contained space with captive viewers, the trade show environment offers freedom for visitors as they pass through and decide how long to watch any particular thing. As a result, the more visual and active presentations work best.

Above: Rehearsal day. Taken by Jeff Greene.

‘Creativity meets efficiency: The art of the digital workflow’

My role was to present two Microsoft imaging programs from my own perspective as a fine art photographer.
First I gave some Flickr background of the story of ‘Miss Aniela’, and then, showing a range of my work throughout the 30 min talk, went on to discuss the programs Expression Media 2 and Capture One Pro. Expression Media is an asset management tool whilst Capture One is a RAW workflow program which may just have the best RAW conversion available. I talked about these two programs in connection with my work, my progress on Flickr, and crucially the elements of control and efficiency digital photographic products like the aforementioned two are offering; in being able to save time and money in producing work both for one’s fine art portfolio (as a self portrait photographer) and in work for clients. For example, I discussed how the two programs have user-friendly visual interfaces, make metadata templates a standard, and are geared for easy communication in the form of web contact sheets and slideshow functions.
Capture One is an essential tool for anyone shooting RAW and also offers tethered shooting, whilst Expression Media is a program for everyone: for both the pro wanting to catalog exhibition prints, to the everyday computer user who has a bunch of loitering snapshots, spreadsheets or word files, etc, on his/her computer.
I showed how these two programs fit into one’s current workflow (for example, I have always used a lot of Photoshop. I made it clear that Photoshop is a crucial part of my process and that as an artist I want products that will fit in within that process, not try and replace it).
Screengrabs of my work in use in these programs featured throughout the second half of the presentation:

Above: taken by Jeff Greene.

I met some great people there at the Microsoft booth where I was working, and also had time to browse more of the fair in my spare hours and check out exactly how vast it was. Everyone from across the spectrum of the photographic/imaging industry were there, from cameras to printer paper to Joby Gorilla tripods. There was also chance to sample fine German cuisine, from sausages to …sausages. And some strudel.

Some more pics:

Above: Nic Fillingham from Channel 10 in action

Above: Garry Stretch from Grimsby… who modelled for demos of photoshoot tethering on Capture One Pro

Above: rather randomly, the Dom cathedral.

On 9th July I gave a presentation on my work at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit in Redmond. I had been invited to talk about photo-sharing and how it has impacted on my work and opened up some doors for me. During the presentation (20 mins with 10 mins for questions) I did as best I could to give a general introduction to myself and to describe my ‘journey’, as well as analyse what I think might be the elements to the way I work. I did this by breaking myself down into four factors, factors that may constitute ‘Miss Aniela’ but are also interesting and relevant to photography and art more generally, as we move with technology and try to think where these changes might lead us in the future. The four factors were:
1. Digital photography
2. Digital processing
3. Photo-sharing online
4. Self portraiture

1-3 are topics at the heart of the Pro Summit’s debates and discussions, photo-sharing being the newest factor which has been mentioned more than ever this year at the Summit as the popularity of sites like Flickr proliferate. Number 4, however, was the ‘Miss Aniela’ crux: the colour to my presentation and the selling point which made my presentation different to anything else during the event. Combined with 1-3, I was positing the whole process of ‘Miss Aniela’ (an alter-ego I began two and a half years ago at first without intention of creating ‘art’ or being an ‘artist’) as essentially offering control, complete independence and privacy over the whole image-making process.

I illustrated the presentation with many pics, describing along the way my exhibitions in 2007, 2008, various press I have had and where I think it was all going. To make my words as relevant as I could to other people, other artists, to the general photography scene and their speculation of the future of the art, I mentioned how last year Tate Britain had not only decided to put up digital photography in its gallery for the first time but actually collaborate with Flickr to invite members of the amateur photo-taking audience to submit their pics themed on Britain. (One of my own images was selected as one of the final 40 to go on display.) It is extremely interesting how this move by a prestigious institution suggests a blurring between traditional or established art, and the modern photo-sharing public. It maybe attempts to make the bold statement that amongst the hoards of photo-sharers, there are some ‘artists’.

I contrasted that attitude to how the press coined the term the ‘flickr photograph’ (The NY Times to be precise, re: a previous blog entry of mine, but I used their words not to rant, but to point out something interesting). The term suggests that photo-sharing and digital photography/enhancements go hand in hand, which I have likewise suggested in my own presentation. However, my stance is that this shouldn’t necessarily be to separate those photographs from the ‘real’ art world. By using examples of how my own work has been welcomed as part of art magazines, art galleries, and the homes of art collectors who traditionally buy paintings (well, at least one buyer I heard about) I wanted to show how maybe things are changing, that digital photography is being accepted. I also wanted to share the idea that although modern digital accoutrements may make the creation of photographs easier, as a consequence it makes it more difficult to be unique or interesting. Bringing the theme back to the predominant one of photo-sharing, I concluded that the viewership artists accrue on sites like Flickr rewards the hard work they put into their craft, strengthening the idea of democracy and that art is ‘made by ordinary people’. I wanted to show how the figure of ‘Miss Aniela’ can encourage the modern artist to celebrate the control digital photography offers and to have their say over what ‘art’ should be.

–Hmm, I’ve blabbered on a bit there but that’s the gist of my presentation. I think it fitted it nicely to other discussions going on during Day 1, such as Lise Gagne’s story of success on i-Stock and the general talk of the blurring between amateur and professional.

Some reviews of the 2008 Summit here:

Recap by John Harrington

PDN Pulse: Microsoft Targets Pro Photographers With Summit: Who Is Listening?
PDN Pulse: Is The Amateur The New Professional?
PDN Pulse: Pirates and Money and Bears, oh Microsoft!
Thomas Hawk: Microsoft’s 2008 Professional Photgraphy Summit and What Microsoft is Up to With Digital Photography (scroll down for that one - a few nice pics with it)
The mesmerised audience by Scobleizer

I can’t yet find a video of my presention though I heard the whole Summit was streamed live on Scobleizer’s (above) video site. If anyone finds one please let me know, thanks!