Twenty Twenty

Recently in university we had a portfolio review by Frede Spencer, the creative director at TwentyTwenty the photography agency. This agency hires photographers to work for them then helps them gain the jobs that fit within their style by showcasing their portfolio and experience to potential employers in portfolio reviews and meetings.

I think that joining a photo agency is a good way to get noticed and started in the industry but I do not think that I will follow this route; this route seems to be aimed towards documentary and editorial photographers, which is not my style.

After hearing Frede Spencer talk and explain about the agency, the option for a portfolio review was given to the final year students and I took this opportunity. At first I was not going too because I was so nervous and worried about the images in my portfolio; the lecturers had not seen them all but some of them that had been seen had been criticized and I did not want to show work I had been told was not good enough.  However Frede Spencer disagreed with their opinions and it made me realise that the lecturers opinion is not the only opinion and just because I do not shoot to the same style that the lecturers have it does not mean I will not be successful in the industry.

He was also impressed that I was the only person in the room who knew straight away that while I was studying photography that did not mean that to make it in the industry I had to be taking photographs; he asked each student what their plan was and if they wanted to be a photographer, I was the only student asked who said that I would not be taking photographs and that I would only be working on images I had been sent to retouch.

I also realised I needed to find a way to build up my confidence or to find a way to able to fake confidence because afterwards when I was thinking over what had happened I realised that I over explained every picture because I felt like it was not good enough and being judged negatively.  It also made me extremely nervous to be showing my work to so many people at once and having to stand in front of them and talk was not something I thought I could do.

Overall I am glad for this experience and I am grateful for the time and opinions that Frede Spencer gave to me, this is what built up my confidence enough to start applying for jobs and showing my work to other people.