Lottie Hedley and Ingvar Kenne

Lottie spoke this weekend at ImageNation and I was very fortunate to have been there. She is a fantastic young NZ documentary photographer. As a student trying to make my own way, I found her talk explaining her Journey resonated with me the most.

Above image - Lottie Hedley ©

It's not just her beautiful and meaningful photographs but the way she spoke about her past that was really inspiring to everyone in the room.
Her photographs come across as an honest representation of reality whilst resembling her presence in the space at the same time. There is a warmth and honesty to her documentations of the real world.

You can visit her blog here
http://lottiehedleyphotography.wordpress.com/

There was a lot of talk this weekend about community where Lottie introduced that idea of 'finding community'.  

I also felt there was a similar thing going on when listening to Ingvar Kenne and hearing his Journey.

 

With both photographers I appreciated being able to hear their story from the beginning up to now.

 Above Image - Vincent Young ©       Ingvar speaking at ImageNation

 Above Image - Ingvar Kenne ©    ingvarkenne.com


I think this ImageNation conference was successful as each speaker seemed to have the ability to shift your thinking into another world from the previous speakers situation, whether they were documentary photographers or advertising photographers that heavily construct and manipulate.


My mind switched between thinking images as a result from large sets with big production budgets were awesome (Like those of Alexia Sinclair and Tony Drayton) to believing that a simple snapshot of a place of significance can explain everything. Of course neither of these approaches are simple and none are overly complicated. Both approaches tell an important story. It is the feeling of being in a room where these two styles can co-exist that is so exciting to me. Being a good photographer, I think is about story telling and learning the ability to do it well. Or perhaps it is the ability to interpret the images you make. Maybe that is the difference between 'a photographer' and 'someone with a camera'. In photography, we no longer just make images but we share them and talk about them.
 

 Above Image - Vincent Young ©      Alexia speaking at ImageNation

We shouldn't categorize ourselves into different genres such as an advertising photographer and a documentary photographer because interesting things start to happen when these overlap, or at least when you make an effort to consider the other.