As it is only a couple of days away from the new year, I am putting together all of my resolutions, well not so much resolutions but more of a list to do and to explore next year. 

This year, I set up my studio, a lovely little place in an Eco Hub, where I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by lots of other creatives. I visited Iceland (second year in a row, yes, I should find somewhere new but I love the Blue Lagoon so much!), finally visited Dublin (always seemed so close yet so far!), Amsterdam (I wanted to see that with my own eyes after hearing various people’s versions of the city) and of course, my beloved Alicante (what can I say? I’m from Essex, it’s what we do.) I had my work in five exhibitions, most notably Foto 8 Summer Show and Coda at Proud’s sister gallery, Strand Gallery (curated by the lovely Kayung Lai). I sold my first print (horray!), progressed to a graduate teaching role at University of the Arts and best of all taught a documentary photography course over at Hackney’s Centre for Better Health. 

I also set up Underground Gallery, which came together out of chance (and a load of hard work!), with the highlights definitely being curating the Photography Fair (thank you to everyone that sent the 260 photographs we received!) with work by Stuart Griffiths, Hannah Lucy Jones and Gesche Wuerfel among them. I would also like to thank a gentleman called Aladin whom again, through a random meeting has become a great friend and support of the gallery. I would like to thank everyone that came along to the private views and got slightly drunk with us :p

I read this saying, ‘getting lost will help you find yourself’ and that’s so true. At the start of the year, I was a bit confused after uni. Institutionalised is way too strong a word, but after what seemed like endless years of education, to be finally allowed to be whatever you wanted to be, just seemed a little bit overwhelming. (I must also say that I am thankful for the luxury of being able to study to degree level and to have missed the tuition fees rise.) But in all of this, I think I neglected my own personal photography. Yes, I did lots of shoots, but not so much for my own work. So this is resolution number 1, to devote more time to my documentary photography.

So here is to next year, to even more hard work, to more fun and more photography!

Happy new year everyone! X