Expect the Unexpected by Jo Bradford
This evening around 50 of us, including a visitor from as far away as Portland, Oregon in the United States, settled down to 'expect the unexpected'. And we certainly enjoyed the journey through Jo's work life and her photographic voyage with its unexpected twists and turns.
Jo spoke to us from her, living off the grid, Dartmoor home. She explained her early days making photograms and cyanotypes and her master’s degree in photography from Falmouth. While at Falmouth she produced images of stars and outer space without using a camera! She sprinkled meteorite dust onto light sensitive paper and used sunlight to expose the image.
She was awarded her master’s and reality kicked in when she had to repay her student loan. So, back to commercial photography and work for a production company in famous gardens, and faraway places, India, and the jungles of Bangalow. With the loan paid off she returned to her real interest as a colourist, making artwork without a camera. The Getty library asked if they could license her work and she began to look for a house on Dartmoor.
She bought a house that needed and awful lot of work and just to make life even more tricky she had two children!
The children were full time work, and she took daily walks on Dartmoor and began using her phone as a camera. Now she began an Instagram account and had a brilliant idea to satisfy her creative need. She decided to photograph somewhere on Dartmoor every day for a year. She posted the pics and gained a huge following. She was invited by Dartmoor National Park to exhibit her work at Princetown, the National Park Centre.
She regularly appeared on the local BBC TV station and was offered a book deal. She got herself an agent, published her first book which was 23rd in the Amazon best seller list!
Her no camera art began to be exhibited and to sell. Should she run two careers?
Jo rounded off her presentation with some inspirational advice: 'Follow YOUR ideas' and 'Make photography work for YOU'.
Jo certainly didn't follow the crowd; her enthusiasm shone through this presentation and left us inspired and asking for more.
