LA Bound

Charlotte Greenwood, Illustration and Visual Media

When I first started my degree I told myself that I would become an illustrator and that I couldn't be an artist for two reasons:

• 1. I don't have anything to 'say'. I thought that my work lacked a personal voice and that I would be more suited to visually communicating what someone else (e.g. a company) has to say.
• 2. Money. It's not exactly a secret that artists notoriously struggle to make ends meet.

However, as much as I have tried to fight/deny it, I have finally accepted after two years of studying at LCC that I want to be an artist, not an illustrator. And, after trying to conform to the styles of my peers and trying to force myself to draw for the past two years, I have finally accepted that I strongly dislike drawing.

I have had a fascination with the natural world for most of my life; something that my parents encouraged. This has heavily influenced my art and, as my degree is communication-based, it has been hard for me to escape the fact that there is an urgent need for people all over the world to understand the devastating impacts our actions have on the environment. As an artist, I want to focus on how I can play a part in inspiring social change by raising awareness of and promoting a better understanding of the environmental issues we are facing today.

So, when I started making plans for my DPS year, I knew that my approach to it would be very different to that of the majority of my peers. I began by expanding my knowledge on the creative practitioners working in a rather specific area of art that I have become increasingly more interested in: experimental analogue photography. I came across an institution called The School of Light in Los Angeles which is run by a British photographer called Andrew Hall, who "continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the medium". I found that the school offers a variety of courses and decided to contact Hall regarding whether the school would be willing to offer me an internship. I was asked to submit an application and to my delight - I was offered a two month placement from October until December where my role will be to assist in all aspects of the film photography and darkroom work and teaching that takes place at the institution. As well as this, I have also secured a place at the first year of EXP. 20, a new international experimental photography festival that will take place for two days in Barcelona in January.

The motivations and ambitions that I set out in my DPS proposal have, for the most part, remained the same. Although I hope to secure an internship/placement working in an art gallery this year, I predominantly want to focus on developing my practice by working on several self-initiated projects - and hopefully getting some of my artwork published in a magazine or exhibited somewhere.