Introduction
My name is Pete Ashton. I currently describe myself as an artist who works with photography. A year ago I would have reluctantly called myself a photographer and was thinking about what it meant to be an artist.
To this end I took on a mentor, Karen Newman, who was in the process of setting up the Birmingham Open Media lab, and she helped me apply for an Arts Council Grants For The Arts award, which, somewhat amazingly, I got in July 2013. I was suddenly officially “An Artist”. Which was nice.
The grant was to research and deliver and series of participatory photography walks in Digbeth, Birmingham, and in doing so develop my career and practice as an artist.
This book, Collective Photography, along with the extensive appendices, totals everything I’ve written on the subject over the last year and was produced in part to help me gather my thoughts for the evaluation report the Arts Council requires.
It serves as documentation, evaluation and exhibition, amongst other things, and as such it is bitty and at times incoherent, but it should be of use for anyone hoping to undergo a similar experience.
I am one of those artists who has not gone to art school, nor do I have any desire to. I believe that everyone has the capacity to be “an artist” if they chose to be and that, for all its many flaws, the Grants For The Arts scheme is a good way for non-graduates to achieve this.
As such the book is also about my figuring this stuff out. If Art is deliciously ill-defined, what does it mean for me to be an artist?
My website is peteashton.com and I’m on Twitter as @peteashton. Come say hi.
Timeline
March 2013
Met with Karen to discuss “becoming an Artist”. She recommends Grant for the Arts funding for personal development.
April 2013
Met with Peta Murphy-Burke from Arts Council to check viability of my plan and to get feedback on draft application.
May 2013
Grant for the Arts application submitted.
July 2013
Grant for the Arts funding awarded. Research period starts.
Shimabuku photo walk workshop run for Ikon Gallery.
September 2013
Research trip to Ars Electronic Festival in Linz, Austria.
Still Walking festival.
Psychogeography workshop run with Cathy Wade.
October 2013
Art Walk run for WeArtB38 festival in Hall Green.
Hurvin Anderson photo walk workshop run for Ikon Gallery.
Research trip to Bristol.
November 2013
THE WALKS.
February 2014
Spaghetti Junction walk.
Presentation at Bees In A Tin.
March 2013
Digbeth walk.
April 2014
Research trip to Resonate festival in Belgrade, Serbia.
Queensway walks begin.
May 2014
Cancel remaining Queensway walks.
June 2014
Start Birmingham Camera Obscura project with Jenny Duffin.
Start getting ideas straight and writing this book.
September 2014
Presentation at Birmingham Loves Photographers
Finish the book. Submit the Activity Report.
October 2014
Move on to the next thing.