SWOT

SWOT.... Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is safe to say everyone will have all of these factors in life and in the creative business. Working as a photographer it is helpful to address these issues in order to succeed.

My Strengths:

• Film processing, darkroom black and white printing
• Technical skills learnt including studio lighting, medium format and large format photography
• Improving on contextual knowledge which really shows within my recent work
• Essay writing
• Creative thinking, using own initiative for projects

My Weaknesses:

• I sometimes lack confidence when presenting my work or explaining my ideas to others
• My time managements skills can be less then perfect but they are improving
• I haven't managed to gain a lot of experience working as a professional, need to work on contacting agencies and photographers to do so.
• I tend to avoid exploring Commercial photography although I would like to do occasional work as a Commercial photographer to fund my own photographic work as an artist.

Opportunities:
There are several competitions that I want to enter over the summer including some from Black&White magazine this will advertise my work and my name hopefully making contacts and creating more opportunities.
There are free spaces such as empty shops and building that the council let upcoming artists use to show their work which I will try to enter my work into. This will make it possible for the general public to view my work and hopefully create more opportunities for places to show my work.

Threats:

• Money: Without money making photographic works as an artist may not be possible as I'll need enough money to complete a project and enough money to exhibit it.
• Competitors: The field of photography is hard to break in to and get your name known as there are so many talented artists and photographers out there to steal the limelight. Dedication and persistence are much needed in this line of work to stand out from the crowd.
• Contacts: Contacts are essential to getting your work shown and your name heard within the creative field and not having enough contacts can threaten your chances of success.