James Arthur Allen- Guest Lecture 15th November 2017
’you become a photographer when you stop
obsessing over gear and start obsessing over photos’
James Arthur Allen graduated 4 years ago from University College Falmouth and is currently studying a part time masters in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales.
James moved on to talk about his more recent work which involves documenting and exploring post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in his project 'The Cost of Conflict' the idea for this project stemmed from James witnessing the effects of war on his friend returning from Afghanistan. James approached this subject with care and considering its sensitive nature. James reached out to Jason P. Howe, a photographer and journalist who moved to the mountains of Kabul, Spain after suffering from a breakdown attributed to PTSD after serving a decade as a war photographer in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Colombia. Jason invited James to spend 2 weeks documenting his new life in Spain and even gave him £600 to cover travel and expenses.
In second year we will be able to actively engage with James and learn about his experiences as a photographer. I am also excited to learn about medium format photography, which is James' desired method of photographing.
James Arthur Allen graduated 4 years ago from University College Falmouth and is currently studying a part time masters in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales.
Since graduating with a first class honours degree in Press and Editorial Photography James has become immersed in the photographic, creative and educational industries including travelling the world for commissioned works. His photographs have been used by many reputable companies including The Telegraph and The Guardian.
James talked about his first year of university and his struggles with project ideas. He asked us rhetorical questions such as; Why are you Photographing? Who cares? I believe he did this so we can think about the substance of the work and is it really suitable for a prestige degree project?
In James's first year he showed us how he spend time squatting with young artists and creators at The Peanut Factory in London which is essentially a creative warehouse. He spoke about how he was in his comfort zone doing this because everyone he was able to photograph were creators themselves and therefore understood, this gave him time to be creative but maybe didn't push him to his full potential. Arthur Allen embraced the chance to photograph the royal marines in training, he spoke about how challenging this was as the subjects tended to be aggressive and saw the student photographers as a nuisance, this resulted in him shooting a lot of images from a distance or of the backs of heads.
James talked about his first year of university and his struggles with project ideas. He asked us rhetorical questions such as; Why are you Photographing? Who cares? I believe he did this so we can think about the substance of the work and is it really suitable for a prestige degree project?
In James's first year he showed us how he spend time squatting with young artists and creators at The Peanut Factory in London which is essentially a creative warehouse. He spoke about how he was in his comfort zone doing this because everyone he was able to photograph were creators themselves and therefore understood, this gave him time to be creative but maybe didn't push him to his full potential. Arthur Allen embraced the chance to photograph the royal marines in training, he spoke about how challenging this was as the subjects tended to be aggressive and saw the student photographers as a nuisance, this resulted in him shooting a lot of images from a distance or of the backs of heads.
In second year we will be able to actively engage with James and learn about his experiences as a photographer. I am also excited to learn about medium format photography, which is James' desired method of photographing.
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