JAYNE LLOYD

PHOTOGRAPHER

Photograph looking down at a brick floor, with a small utility cover in the centre, with an 80s style small grey, white and black tile patternon it. A brick wall with a black pipe is visible out of focus at the top of the frame.

Notes on my DYCP: Reflections on Developing My Creative Practice

In November 2023 I was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant from Arts Council England. It was a huge privilege to receive and something I still can’t quite believe now.

As a freelancer it’s easy to get consumed with the day-to-day and taking time to work on learning new skills and experiment with ideas can be difficult to squeeze in but it should be prioritised. I had reached a point where I really felt I needed to be able to dedicate time to reflect and to enhance my skills to reach the next level in my career. Having funding specifically to do that allowed me to work on my creative growth and I’m extremely grateful to have had this opportunity.

I set out to develop my skills and investigate ideas for art that tells the stories of my local community through photography. Here’s a brief look at some highlights of what I got up to:

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Photograph of a person with short grey hair wearing a black Tshirt and dark jacket, looking to the left of the frame, with a dark grey background behind.
Photograph of a person with long dark hair in a black jumper, blue jeans and white trainers, standing with one arm on their hip. Behind is a large wooden structure on wheet with a large square and cross, framed so the person's head is positioned in a triangle to the left. Behind that is a greenish panelled wall and below is a tiled floor.
Photograph of a person with long blonde hair, framed to the right of the frame, looking into the camera and with one arm up on their hip. They are lit with blue turquoise light to the left and pink light to the right.

One of the first big things I did was a week-long course in portrait photography at University of the Arts, London (UAL). A whole week focusing just on portraiture was absolute bliss and a great way to kick things off. It’s made a real difference to my portraiture work since then and environmental portraiture in particular is something I’m really enjoying working on more and more.

I met lots of wonderful people in the creative world to discuss ideas, I researched local community groups, went to exhibitions, bought photo books and spent time reading and looking things. I did Magnum Learn online courses by Alec Soth and Mark Power which I found really useful and interesting and have dipped back into several times.

I did a short course in Photojournalism at UAL where I learnt a huge amount about photographic storytelling and produced a project investigating a building next to the university that intrigued me. This felt like a pivotal experience for me – in under three days I went from panicking about how on earth I was even going to come up with an idea to producing work I’m really proud of and is part of my new portfolio.

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Photograph of the Michael Faraday Memorial, a large, squat metal building covered in indented squares of metal, with a black metal frame crossing over. In the distance tower blocks are visible and in the foreground is a road with a cyclist blurred as they pass.
Photographic portrait of a person with dark brown hair looking into camera, wearing a thin knitted scarf in shades of orange and brown, a light brown cordoroy jacket with white collar and a dark top. They are framed by the lines of the Faraday Memorial behind.
Photograph of a person standing in sunlight in front of the metal panelled wall of the Faraday Memorial, with benches just visible behind. They are looking to the left of the frame, with their hair in a high ponytail, with a dark tote bag on their shoulder and wearing a black winter coat.
Photograph of a section of the Michael Faraday Memorial, a large, squat metal building covered in indented squares of metal, with pigeons on the floor and blurred flying in front. There is a small staircase to the left and at the top right a towerblock with colourful squares on it can be seen behind.
Photograph of part of a metal door in a metal wall, with a sticker saying 'Zeus strikes' with a symbol of a zigzag arrow pointing to a fallen person (resembling an electrical 'danger of death' sign) and a colourful sign to the right with symbols and text saying 'Location, Elephant & Castle Substation', No entry unless authorised, Danger of death, In emergency telephone...'
Photograph of a paved floor with 'MICHAEL FARADAY' engraved on it. In a puddle to the left is the reflection of a tower block and to the right a person's legs with black trousers and brown shoes can be seen walking past, one blurred as it moves.

I had lots of FORMAT Festival portfolio reviews where I got useful feedback on my work and had great conversations with photography professionals. I’m excited to show the new body of work I’m building at the next one.

I had one-on-one mentoring with a picture editor and together we did a complete overhaul of, well, pretty much everything, professionally speaking. We looked at my existing work and what I’d like to do more of, made a brand new edit of my portfolio and explored how to succinctly express what I do. I built an entirely new website, learnt how to create ‘pitch decks’ to make my proposals much clearer and researched and made a start on approaching new people to work with.

Screenshot of JayneLloyd.co.uk with text saying 'JAYNE LLOYD, PHOTOGRAPHER, PORTFOLIO, PROJECTS, ABOUT, BLOG', an image of an artist in her studio, surrounded by work; 'SELECT WORKS, VIEW PORTFOLIO', a portrait of a woman sitting in a conservatory, an interior photograph of an art gallery and a closeup of an artist's hand holding construction of a silver brooch; a photograph of a strawberry patch with golfballs on it and the words 'PHOTOGRAPHING PEOPLE, PLACE & PROCESS', 'PROJECTS, VIEW PROJECTS', a photograph of a metal structure and garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, a portrait of a person in a brown coat and autumnal scarf and an interior of Hampton Court Palace. Below is text including 'JAYNE LLOYD' and a search box at the bottom.

All of this culminated in meeting with a number of brilliant community organisations in Colchester, who I’m spending time with, learning about their activities and exploring how to work with them to bring their stories to new audiences through photography. I’m loving the creativity, meeting new people, making plans for the future and am excited to keep building on this.

This opportunity has been transformative for me and I’m determined to keep the momentum going. I’ve committed to putting time and resources aside to keep learning, experimenting and working on projects that excite me.

I’m really grateful to have been able to do this and I’d encourage anyone who is thinking of applying to do so!

The DYCP Award that made this possible was supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Find out more about Arts Council England at https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

Logo showing (in a circle to the left) 'ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND', a vertical line and 'Supported using public funding by ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND'

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