Today, we’re really excited to feature Michael Foxington, who finished studying at PSC in 2016.
What got you started in photography?
I have always been creative, I've tried my hand at many different things, illustration, sketching, painting, digital painting, music. I've always had a deep urge to create. Through most of my life i was creating just for myself as a form of self expression. Eventually I hit a point where I needed to start producing higher quality references for my paintings. So I thought I would get a digital camera and it would be so easy to capture the images as I envisioned them. I was so delightfully wrong. I picked up my camera and barely put it down over the next five years. My first two years in photography I got a lot of photos of my dog, friends and places that I would frequent. I read everything I could about technique and technology and went about as far as I could on my own.
Why did you decide to study at PSC?
One day I realised that I was no longer following any of my other creative pursuits. I had set up a small home studio and was shooting portraits every day if I wasn't working on my photography, then I was reading about photography. I realised that this had become my passion and I was very aware of something being missing. I researched courses and institutions around Melbourne. I researched the people who had come from the institutions and their achievements, I read reviews and I went to open days. I decided to study at PSC because although I actually missed the open day, they were happy to take me on a tour of the building and talk about the course. I walked in and saw the beautiful photographs on the wall and fell in love. This is what was missing from my work, the context, the concept, the style and the power of the images I was seeing. I knew that I wanted to make images that could inspire others the way these images inspired me.
How did PSC help get you where you are today?
PSC opened my eyes to artists who I might have never discovered on my own. Through the bachelor degree I learned about the history of photography, I learned about reading meaning into images and the tools to tell stories through images. Through the course of study, my thought process behind creating changed completely and I feel matured through the development of work and the encouragement, feedback and critique received from the lecturers and fellow students. I also received many opportunities to expand my network and meet people through recommendations who also influenced my photography. Whether through our trip to Malaysia for the Obscura Festival, or through the Image Makers seminars, or the opportunities to assist photographers.
How do you balance your commercial and personal work?
I pursue commercial work to finance my personal work. There are many rewarding things to be gained from commercial work. When you are working within a commercial budget you learn how to be efficient and productive. When I am producing my personal work I apply the same working methods to ensure that the project is executed and realised. Although in personal work there is sometimes more freedom to experiment and more freedom to sometimes get it wrong and go back to the drawing board. Although many of my personal projects are collaborations with other creatives, so we generally try to plan and pre-produce together efficiently to ensure that we get the results we want.
Tell us a bit about your new job as well as your personal work.
Just after graduating I received an offer for full time employment as a studio product photographer for a large homewares company. I actually saw the job crop up on the PSC job register and thought to myself it would be a great opportunity and I considered it very thoroughly before I wrote in an application. The strength of my portfolio managed to secure me a trial and my experiences in studio photography that I had developed at PSC helped me to do well at my trial.
I'm very excited to start on this job and challenge myself every day to produce amazing images for this company. So I will be fairly busy working for them during the week and I'll be spending my weekends working on my personal work.
What are you working on at the moment?
I have a few projects for this year that I've already begun, I'll be exploring further into still life art photography, and combining fashion, beauty and art to make some interesting commentary on relationships. I've also got some amazing collaborations lined up, there are a few that are in pre-production phase at the moment, so meetings, discussions and a lot of sketches. I don't want to get too far into detail on some of these as some of them are seeds that need a lot of soil, water and sunlight to mature into fully formed images.
Who and/or what inspires you?
I'm drawing inspiration from many places, it really depends on the project to where the inspiration is coming from. Some ideas are inspired by music, and some are inspired by memories. Right now, I'm going back through David Cronenberg's filmography and realising some interesting things about the way he tells a story. I'm also looking at Yoko Honda, Roxi-Lola McCormick Thompson and Leta Sobierajski.
What has been the most rewarding part of your career so far?
I would say assisting Lindsay Adler when she ran her Masterclass. It was amazing to handle the equipment for someone who is such a legendary photographer, I learned so much on set and it was an amazing opportunity for me. It was one of the coolest opportunities that arose for me at PSC.
What advice would you give to current PSC students or people thinking of enrolling at PSC?
For current PSC students, make every moment count. Don't miss the opportunity to speak to teachers you don't have classes with, I've learned so much from teachers I did not have classes with. Remember that in order to find your voice you have to speak, so pick up your camera as much as you can and show new work every week in class, by the end of the course you'll be amazed at what you have achieved. Also you won't learn everything in class, take the initiative to read more, shoot more, do things because it is what you want to do, not because you think it will get you a better mark. For people thinking about enrolling at PSC, book in a time to talk to someone, go and look at the work on the walls and look up the graduates and alumni to see what they've achieved.
You can see more of Michael's work on his Instagram and website.
Our full time Bachelor degree and part time Advanced Diploma courses for 2017 are still open for application, so if you’re interested in following Chloe’s footsteps, give us a call on (03) 9682 3191 or visit our website.