Rebecca Parker

Recently, we had Rebecca Parker, a photographer based in Lichfield, come in to talk to us about her work. I have been interested in Rebecca's work for while. I cam across her whilst looking for possible mentors locally to assist me in my studies. I found her work very interesting and fairytale like, with a certain whimsical and innocent feel to her images.

She told us about how she started as a photographer; by working with Adobe Photoshop as a hobby. She used stock images to create her pieces and was advised by friends and family to take her own. She started off by using a compact digital camera and then once she was confident with the final outcomes of her images, she then invested in an SLR.

She started by taking images of paid models, who were unfortunately more interested in the money rather than the final outcome. After building up a portfolio, she posted it to online photo sharing sites such as flickr to get her work noticed by the public. From this, she found models who were interested in her work and understood her vision. This made it easier for her as she was sharing a vision with the model, creating more of an understanding and therefore has the opportunity and versatility to create more dynamic images. Her post production work on Photoshop is often very subtle retouches and generally doesn't affect the entire composition of the image.

I was very interested in her work and the general aesthetic of them. I really love the charm and beauty each of her images have, an effect I am striving to convey in my current practice.

Fascinated by her work, I contacted her to thank her for visiting our college and talking to us and also to ask if she would be interested in seeing my work as well as a possible opportunity to work on a shoot with her. She replied:

"Thank-you so much for your feedback, it means so much to me that I was of some use.  

I do indeed love your photographs, especially the one of the little boy looking out of the window! Your images show skill and confidence. Indeed keep at it!

Indeed I will keep you in mind for some shoots.

Thanks so much, I love coming into the college, I feel so at home there. I love meeting people like yourself.

Keep in touch! 

Rebecca"

I am very pleased with the response and am very excited by the thought of working with her.