Guest Speaker 17- Amak Mahmoodian

Amak’s talk was very interesting as she talked about her work poetically and descriptively. The way she talked about her work was inspiring even though I got a bit lost in some aspects of her talk.

The mention of her project “Zanjir” explores the double identities of women and their lives in Iran. She started this project with the journey of people, performative identity, recovering and connecting. The photos were of people she knew with their face covered by photos of their past- how people live in the past and exist in the present. I thought that this was an interesting approach to what she was trying to simulate through her portraits- this relates to my current project as I am working with covering the identity of the subject. It was insightful to hear and see how Amak approached this.

She gave us some good advice in regards to freelance and post-course in the Q&A:

• Send your work to competitions and open calls if they fit your work

• Send your work to online platforms

• Don't get disappointed about rejection, your work will still get remembered and feedback can be given.

• Work hard, and enjoy your work.

• Listen to feedback

• Find a balance between creating and promoting- dissemination is 80% of your work.

• Try to learn something new and apply it to a new project.

This advice is helpful for me as I am currently looking at sending my work to online platforms and competitions and have a worry of rejection but this talk has made me consider more about my work and how the hidden identity can be interpreted.

Amak’s website: https://amakmahmoodian.co.uk/

Screenshot from Amak’s website.