We had a talk from Tom Duffield as part of our current module. Tom Duffield is a photographer, researcher, and a previous alumni from the University of Huddersfield. In this talk, he discussed his transition from personal to professional work, focusing on his most recent project, ‘Poppy Promises, ’ and transitioning from this to taking professional opportunities.

He began by discussing his most recent project, ‘Poppy Promises’ and the process of creating this work. This project has been a work in progress for around the past 6 years, and he said the slow pace of creating this work was vital. This project is about his family life and how it was to grow up with a father who suffers from drug addiction. This project features a collection of calming images with a hint of disturbance and plays with the idea of being high and on withdrawal through the use of colours and warm and cool tones. There are also many circles within the book which is representative of the cyclical nature of addiction. Throughout this book, Tom was thinking about including handwritten notes between him and his dad, however, he felt that this would be slightly forced and just show a stylised version of what he thought the viewer would want to see. He instead used a collection of text messages between him and his dad as he felt that this was a more natural way to help to include his dad’s voice.

In relation to his project ‘Poppy Promises’, Tom discussed the importance of the editing down process. He said that when working through a lot of images, it is very helpful to separate the images into sections so that the relationships between the photographs are more apparent. I have a lot of images for my own project, so this is a piece of advice I will be trying out! He discussed displaying these images within an exhibition and how he used the sequence within his book and echoed it with a smaller amount of images on the wall. In relation to this, he spoke about how important it is to share and exhibit work.

Now moving on to the professional aspect, Tom discussed how within his work, the personal and the professional are very closely entwined, and they help to inform one another. He said that commissioners need proof of concept and to show them what you can do within your projects. He discussed how it is really important to maintain working human relationships with people, and it is a low-energy investment rather than having to search for brand-new work and clients. Within commissions, he said to always make sure to get something that you can use within your own portfolio. A key way his personal work led to commissioned work is that he approached sensitive topics within his work, which then led to being picked to photograph sensitive topics within commissions as he had experience of doing this. He had to find ways to illustrate sensitive topics and portray a story without directly showing it. 

He discussed the importance of keeping the ball rolling even with a lack of commissioned work and to prepare work and projects and hone in on your skills during these times. Focus on what sets your apart from other people, allowing yourself to experiment and let your natural style emerge. Enjoy taking photographs and focus on the process rather than the outcome. Additionally, something that he emphasised within his talk was taking opportunities and the importance of being prepared and open to these new opportunities.

It was really interesting to see the progression and the links between his personal and professional work and how one can lead to the other. This talk gave me some great advice and made me think about the potential of going forward and doing commissioned work in the future!