Beccy Strong came in to talk to us today, she is a slightly different guest speaker to the others we have had in the past because she has only recently got into photography she used to work for the BBC as a camera woman.
How she got into the film business
She did a BA in film history in Manchester which left her using her spare time watching TV, movies and documentaries and started taking it all in which was when she decided that's what she wanted to do as a career. She thought ti seemed like a crazy idea for someone who was working in a nightclub at the time with a degree in film history. So that she could save money she moved back to her parents house where she saw an advert in the local newspaper who were advertising different locations for a TV programme so she emailed the company who didn't have a paid job but had a work experience place so she went along and was a location assistant and was really good at it even though she had no experience.
She then moved very quickly with the crew and soon became the location manager on a feature film as they didn't take the location crew from the previous feature film with them so Beccy ended up taking the location managers job. Once the feature films had finished she then moved to London and got a job as an edit assistant but she hated it because she was creating adverts and commercials and she didn't connect with it but she did get practical post production experience and made good contacts.
She then moved to Bristol and worked as a waitress but was determined to work for the BBC so she kept knocking on the doors of the BBC but she couldn't get in, at that time there were no female camerawomen and she didn't have much experience. She did end up getting a job in a production company in Bristol but they just wanted someone who could sit at a desk and just type and photocopy so she lied and said that was all she wanted even though it definitely wasn't. This then landed her a project:
Journey into Amazonia
This project was going to be shot underwater so she started to organise the shoots because she had a lot of diving experience so they needed her out there. She didn't have a specific job title she was basically there to help out with whatever anyone needed help with. They had to build sets while they were out there which meant they had animals living with them so another of Beccy's jobs was to make sure they were all fed and kept alive so the camera crew could shoot them. When she came back from the project hse then found herself without a job again because she had been freelancing on the previous project so she got in touch with Kodak.
Kodak Sponsorship
At this time Kodak was sponsoring anyone that wanted to shoot on film as everything was turning digital so they gave her about £2000 worth of film and technical support, she then spoke to British Airways and they gave her flights to fly out to Kenya to shoot her own film. She shot the film on VHS and hasn't had it converted so she unfortunately wasn't able to show us. At the time she was out there the BBC were producing the Africa series so she got in touch with them to see if by any chance they wanted her to do anything. Because she was already out there so they didn't need to pay for any of her equipment, her flights, insurance or accommodation they took a chance on her and gave her five days to shoot for the Africa series. They paid her £200 per day for five days of shooting.
First job for the BBC
After the Africa series she eventually landed herself a job with the BBC and her first job was to go to Somaliland for Comic Relief with Billy Connolly shooting in an A&E hospital for a month.
This then led to her getting lots of work for Comic Relief and she was making short 5 minute clips for websites and charities. She had to learn and overcome a lot as well however:
She had to work on a low budget
She had to learn how to work with high end celebrities
She worked for lots of charities and NGO's
Worked with Martin Freeman - her and the camera crew made a cafe shut down as they didn't have a location to shoot with Martin Freeman which was the first big problem solving she had to sort out. They paid the cafe a fee because they lost business for the hours they were shut and they got members of the public to come in and pretend to be actors whilst they filmed.
Elephant Diaries - her first major series work
It was a project which was a 5 part series with presenters on the frontline out in Kenya. They all had a license to walk on foot with the elephants so they all had a lot of interaction with the animals. She didn't say much else about the project but it did look really fun, she did say she then got pregnant and thought her career was over because she took two and a half years out to look after her son. She then got the offer to work on a series as a family, at this time her son was three so they had to think about whether they would do it or not but in the end they decided to go ahead and shoot the series.
Mountain Gorilla - filmed between Rwanda and Uganda
This project was the hardest for Beccy but also the most amazing for her because the living conditions were hard especially with having to care for a three year old but amazing because she got to experience things she would never have been able to if it wasn't her job. They all got a lot of attention while they were filming but when the project was over she knew she never wanted to do a project as a family again because it was just too tiring and exhausting.
She then focused on producing film for charities:
Dartmoor National Park Association
Sexual Health charities
Abortion charities
Children's homes - fostering and children in care
Premature baby deaths
Music videos for folk musicians
The one music video that she worked on and is still working with the musician now is Nomad Blood, Martha Tilston
For Martha now she works on feature length documentaries for the promotion of Cliff Top Sessions which has recently premiered in America. Below is just a teaser for the feature length film:
MA Photography work
At this point Beccy had the motivation to create images and she even got to the point where she was churning out work but she was interpreting others work but that wasn't what she wanted to do as it was boring her. She had to think about what she wanted to say through the images and how does she say it? She then started to shoot on medium format which made her think more about the work she was creating and slowed her down.
Wilde Blood
The words Wilde Blood go back far into her family and mean a lot to them. This project was a way to help Beccy explore her own voice within photography. This was a family based project based on her childhood and upbringing but focusing it more on her son and his friends because they have a lot more restrictions growing up in this day and age than she did when she was growing up. She wanted to photograph the young people in the world that surrounds us. Everything that she was shooting she believed was true as far as she understood but she was making interventions. Some of the photos were taking as the events happened. Her son had an apocalyptic dream which I believe helped her to create some of her images. She didn't want her images to look crisp and documentary styled as she doesn't consider herself as a photographer who takes their camera everywhere with them.
She then shared some of her research with us:
Charles Eisenstein
YouTube
Ted Talks
The image below of four boys going skinny dipping includes her son and two of his friends. She's had a lot of questions about this image and the consent that surrounds it. This is actually one of Strong's favourite images but of course has asked the boys about the image. They have asked for the image not to be published on Facebook or Instagram but anywhere else is fine but she checks every year or so to see if their opinions have changed and she always asks the parents as well.
Working with Trish Morrissey
Trish Morrissey is an author who Beccy managed to get an internship with and has been the most technically difficult thing she's worked on in her career. Trish and herself mentor each other on their work so they can help each other out. Beccy has helped Trish create a film on a character called Mrs Portman who is a control freak. Morrissey plays every character in the film and then Beccy edits it which I think is why it's been the most technically challenging thing she's ever done be cause she had to layer all of the characters over each other.
Self Made - Kay Jane Browning
She has recently started working with transgender people on how they feel about themselves. The person she spoke about today was Kay Jane Browning. She has been following him and asking and documenting in a way how he feels about himself and his identity.
All of Beccy's photographic work has been created in the past three years and her name isn't widely out there but wishes it was. She would love for her name to be widely out there and in galleries but she is using the technique of contacting people in the hope of getting her name out there.
I loved listening to the talk by Beccy because although her work isn't based on work that I am necessarily interested in it was nice to hear someone who is quite recent to photography and how she has got her name out there and been successful and how she's done it.
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