Once again, no new work has been made in the area of my Final Major Project. However, work is continuing to be made on my personal project ‘Station to Station’.

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Despite the realisation that I’m not interested in setting up a business its still a good idea to consider the creation of a Mission Statement, Identify a potential product and a potential market.

Mission Statement:-

To produce high quality images of subjects that interest myself and possibly others, examining the effect of such photographic images upon myself and those who may wish to view them.

The Product:-

For myself, with no interest in or desire to create a photographic business the product will be :-

• A meaningful and related collection of images having a clear narrative structure.
• Initially a PDF document containing the above images
• A Portfolio
• A ‘photographic book’ created using the images made to satisfy my own creative and photographic desires.

The Market:-

• Immediate family, friends and other interested parties
• Talks / Presentations for Local Camera Clubs and Photographic Societies

Should there be a desire for such works to be made more widely available then I would look more closely at the above statements and aims but, making money is, for me, not the aims of this exercise.

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Should I ever decide to pursue the option of becoming a Professional Photographer and try to setup a business I would need to identify and produce the following items :-

1. A Mission Statement
2. The Product
3. The Market – Who are your customers and who are the competitors? Photography is a constantly changing cut-throat industry
4. Management Requirements – If employing others
5. A Financial Plan – How much will I need to setup the business, find customers, create the product, market the business and still have enough to live on
6. Insurance – will need some or all of these – Public Liability, Personal Indemnity, Employers Liability, Equipment, Portfolio and Goods In Trust.

Then I need to consider :-

• How much will I need to survive?
• How much will the business need to run successfully?
• How much income will the business potentially generate?

Without even pausing such things as operations costs, bank management costs, accountants and sales and marketing or agents fees this is a very daunting proposition.

At this point I think its again necessary to ask the question – is this really what I want? I’m afraid that I once again have to state that the answer to the question is no – its not what I want at all.

From a personal point of view I would be happy just to complete the MA with a good, well thought out and executed Final Major Project, with the possible;e bonus of a self published book and a small exhibition as the final result. I think that will be enough for me.

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I need to accept, that if I am to become a professional photographer then I will be setting up a business. If so, then I will also need to accept that my chosen photographic path will need to provide me with an income on which I can live. While for some this may indeed be the case for myself it is not.

As I have stated in a previous post, I have no desire to create a business and no therefore no real desire to become a professional photographer.  For myself, I just want to create images of things that I find interesting and/or important and, to try and understand how photography works – just why do some images have such a deep emotional impact upon me while others leave me cold and uninterested. This is the real reason why I have chosen to study photography. If, somewhere along the path to such understanding it becomes possible to make some money from photography then good and well but making money has never been my primary aim in this area.

When the making of photographic images becomes a means to making money I feel that personally, I will have lost something – It will become just another job and I already have one of those. Of course, having stated that, then there is no harm in looking at what is involved in creating a photographic business.

This weeks lectures outlined some of the tasks that it will be necessary to perform – a brief list being shown below :-

• Production & Account Management
• Marketing, Sales and PR
• Customer Service
• Administration
• Legal Requirements
• Technical Support and Development
• Human Resources

For myself, this would be  taking me from the aims for with which I pursue photography – to relax, gain knowledge and to have fun.

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