2017 has been a busy year and as a result I've not had time to write news and keep my site updated. My intention throughout 2018 is to write news as frequently as possible and use this post as a very brief round up of some of my activities during 2017.
I was voted onto the Executive Board of the International Visual Sociology Association for a 3 year term and took up my place in January 2017. This was an exciting achievement and during my first year with the Board I have Chaired the IVSA Awards Committee, visited Montreal to attend the Board Meeting and participate in the IVSA conference and organised the IVSA Elections.
In April 2017, Anita Strasser and I co-organised Engaging in Urban Image Making symposium which, due to the quality of our speakers, was a particularly successful event.
I took on the role of Organiser for the International Urban Photography Summer School and we held an enjoyable two week intensive course during August. The participants on the course arrived from places as far-flung as Beijing, Mozambique, Austria, Turkey, Italy, Rotherham and London and their commitment and quality of work was notable.
As the Organiser of the UrbanPhotoFest Open, I had great pleasure in working with the web developer to create a new design for the 2017 competition website. The competition opened at the beginning of June and ran until the end of September. We invited submissions into 4 categories that included People, Urban Landscape, Architecture and Objects. The quality of submissions was incredible making it difficult to judge. However, I believe we chose some fantastic winners and I enjoyed handing out of prizes at Tate Britain during the lauch of UrbanPhotoFest.
During UrbanPhotoFest I was privileged to have been invited to speak at The Photographers Gallery as part of a symposium called Urban Photography: Making, Researching, Teaching. My presentation discussed my critical pedagogy built up over a very long teaching career and I gave examples of my approach in relationship to urban photography and walking.
Finally, I worked hard during the summer months completing my Kings Cross visual project. It is currently called: Welcome to the Neoliberal City and I will soon be writing up a description. I will write more about this project in the coming weeks.