Student Stories: Julia McLean

OCA Photography Programme Leader Dan Robinson caught up with Julia McLean about her experience on OCA’s short course Investigating Place with Pyschogeography

HI Julia. Thanks for your time. Can you describe yourself briefly?

Julia – living in, and inspired by, coastal Suffolk.

And what’s your previous educational experiences and what drew you to Open College of the Arts?

Having been a “hobby photographer” for decades with an interest in wildlife, I started to develop a broader experimental and more artistic practice during lockdown with a “365” daily photo blog. I was frustrated by an artistic plateau and demotivation at the close of that project but had no inspiration for how to move forwards. I was also limited as I currently work full-time. Friends had undertaken and recommended the OCA course. It fitted perfectly with my new project-based practice and a new interest in creative research. With a scientific background it was genuinely motivating to make my brain work in a different way to learn new and totally unexpected things.

Can you describe your OCA journey? Were there any specific challenges or barriers that you faced and overcame? 

I thoroughly enjoyed the course – it was engaging and motivating and outside any previous experiences. The weekly tasks were sometimes intimidating but by “having a go” and being willing to experiment and even fail – definitely part of the psychogeography experience – meant I tried all sorts of new creative avenues. Apologies to the group and tutor for my terrible poetry, though 🙂

You just had some recognition for your work, well done! What happened?

After the short course finished, I didn’t feel the project was finished and I continued making work. This became a panel of 15 prints achieving ARPS distinction [Associate distinction with The Royal Photographic Society (RPS)] with some images shortlisted for IPE165 [Open Call RPS exhibition] and landscape photographer of the year. 

I’ve been working with a local arts charity theartstation.uk and they have supported me to mount an exhibition of those prints in public at sizewell beach which will be up over the summer. Available online: Julia McLean’s Radius. 

It’s been incredibly validating to share my work and see people’s varied responses with formal recognition giving a true sense of completion. My top tip would be to use a peer group and link in with your local arts team – I never would have thought about exhibiting “in situ” if a friend hadn’t previously done similarly

How did you find the tutor and peer support on the short course?

The peer group was fabulous – all working in very different ways which led to lots of cross-pollination of ideas. Garry Clarkson – tutor – was particularly supportive of the new approach I tried of “cubist collage” including “me” in the image and this has led to the final project.

What would you say the Short Course did for you?

The short course helped me feel confident I could pursue further art education.

That’s great to hear. What’s next for you?

I am planning to apply for a Master’s in photography and philosophy at Central Saint Martin’s in order to further develop my practice. I suspect photography will always play a central role – it helps me think through things even if sub-consciously, but the experiments I made in other modes of practice on the psychogeography course will continue to develop.

Brilliant! Finally, what advice would you give to someone either just starting out on this OCA course or struggling with any aspect of making work?

If you’re just starting on the course remember to have fun! It is not some earnest navel-gazing academic discipline. That said, you’ll get more out of it if you do commit fully to the experience and try everything. If you’re struggling with making work, put your big flash camera away, get your walking boots on, stick your phone in your pocket and play “one shot every 5 minutes” while you walk out from your front door. Simply stop where you are every 5 minutes – even on your normal dog walk – and make yourself create an image of something, or make a voice note of what you see. It might appear banal but you’ll be surprised what your sub-conscious sees when you’re not planning it.

Thanks Julia, a pleasure to speak to you. 😃

Dr. Dan Robinson, programme leader photography

Julia’s work produced on the short course is available here: Julia McLean’s Radius. 

More of Julia’s work is available at https://www.lensculture.com/julia-mclean