Masters of Photography - Craig Easton

After having seen his work at the Open Eye Gallery, as mentioned in a previous post, Craig Easton delivered a more in depth talk about his practice for listeners who were inclined to learn more of what his work meant contextually as well as why he felt them to be important topics and subjects to capture and exhibit.

Not focusing on his commercial work, Easton chose to discuss his documentary photography. He spoke mainly about his projects Bank Top, Thatcher’s Children, and Sixteen. All three of which comprises of powerful imagery that commented on different societal faux pas. Be they racial division, classism, or an innocent observational study of teens at a vulnerable age that have stories of their own that they want to share. The latter project was Sixteen which Easton spoke in detail about as a collaborative project which was refreshing to hear that, even as a well established practitioner, collaboration is still so profoundly encouraged and practiced by many.

Most of Craig Easton’s projects span over long periods of time and for that level of dedication, photography requires patience, especially in Easton’s case with the use of large format film cameras which take roughly 20 minutes to set up for a single shot'; very meticulous.

Some pearls of wisdom that Craig Easton left the listeners of his informative talk with were the likes of:

• It’s important to learn how to be able to talk about your own work.

• Companies will try to underpay you for a good story or series of images, don’t let them bully you into underselling your work.