And, until now, I wasn’t sure ‘getting to 40′ was something to celebrate — or how to do it; but just today I got an idea as to how I can record it that will reflect brilliantly where I am now; and my passions.
I’d like to commission a photograph from everyone I know.
I’d like you to take/make a single photographic image — of whatever you think I’d like to have an image of and send it to me.
The image can be of anything — write me a note, sketch or doodle, photograph yourself or something (anything) you think will excite, intrigue or amuse me. I don’t mind if your skills aren;‘t great or if it’s on a camera phone (or whatever), I care that you thought a little about it, and that you created this work just for me.
I will then take all the submitted images and collate them into a book (just for me) that will be my momento of my 40th. If you include a message with the image I’ll make sure that, and your name, goes in the book.
You can add it to the facebook page, email it — or post it (please ask for my postal address in a private message!)
I will be celebrating my birthday (28th March) with family around the ‘big day’ and then having a more proper party a little later in the year (my March is already busy enough!)
I’m now safely into the day following my last big thing (last as in previous, don’t worry — there will be many more…) – and it felt to go ok. It never fails to surprise me how great it is when you get a bunch of like minded people together in a room with an instruction to be open, sharing and friendly and — dagnabbit — they generally obey.
Yesterday was WePublish — a new event aimed at getting to people to talk about and share experiences around the act of publishing in the digital age. With newbies, seasoned bloggers, more seasoned hacks (sorry, guys — just kidding) and a mix of those with more general tech|culture interests gathered at the amazing ‘OBH’ — we set off on what turned out to be a revealing and though provoking day of discussion.
It was the ultimate in unconferencing:
There were NO SLIDES. That really was none at all in the end – pedantry alert – as the one projected graphic (see above) was a jpg.
There were no talks or presentations — even the few of us who drafted a couple of notes largely ignored them and went with the flow.
And flow it did — everyone who attended the event contributed!
We sat around in comfy seats, chewed the fat, drank coffee and ate a fairly fantastic lunch (thanks to the support of NTI Leeds)
I’m not going to comment on specifics — or on outcomes; I’ll document those later over on the site. But I have reached some conclusions:
There is an active interest in blogging and other forms of digital publishing in the area.
The debate around it is intelligent and those involved are seeking direction in producing better content.
To everyone at NTI Leeds (and the caterers) who ensured it was such a simple event to deliver
For their ongoing support and ridiculous faith — Linda, Imran and the other LSx-ers
And finally — I guess I have to thank those people who (completely) ignored my (many) requests to get permission to use their event franchise. Without your incredibly poor communication and rudeness WePublish would most likely never have been born. So — cheers! (my apologies for the mini rant there).
THANKS — all of you.
So that’s it — WePublish is. It will now take it’s place as part of the LSx family (more on THAT soon!)
*By the way, I think we decided the answer was ‘Yes, sort of’
This old digital world’s a little odd — it’s turned us all from mere consumers of the written word to people who, at least, interact with it and, often, publish ourselves.
I work for a firm that produces magazines largely for the employees of larger companies — my role is to appropriately deliver them digitally but I also publish a lot in my own right. As a photographer my images appear on flickr, facebook and my own website and my writings are starting to be posted on blogs and other sites around the net.
What interests me is how many people are publishing without a clear understanding of the impact of what they do, of the potential they have at their hands and the possibility the Law may get involved in what they’re up to.
It’s for these reasons that I got together with Linda and Jeff at NTI Leeds to create a new event — WePublish. This is an unconference — an open, friendly and sharing meeting of minds and networking opportunity for everyone involved in content creation in Leeds and the region around it. The event is aimed at everyone negotiating the new digital publishing landscape — writers, journalists, publishers, producers (video and radio), webmasters and everyone else who supports them.
To all those people I’ve annoyed with my behaviour or upset with my attitude — I’m really sorry.
But I’m so bloody happy right now! I’ve just come back from Sixpiece — a one day only exhibition of images submitted from the mass photo shoot at Kirkstall Festival. 33 photographers submitted images to what will probably become the start of an amazing archive images recording the festival and it was amazingly curated by Rachel Barker and Lauren Pissochet and supported by Ken Stratford (along with both East Street Arts and Kirkstall Valley Community Association).
Some days (well most of them) I’m too busy dealing with the future to enjoy what’s happened — and the last 18 months have been an absolute blast. Exposure Leeds has been amazing and the fact that we’re now moving this to a structure that will hopefully allow it to flourish but what has been amazing is how this little social enterprise has allowed me to flourish.
This probably isn’t such a deal to others but tonight I walked up to an MP and introduced myself; and he turned around and congratulated me on all I had achieved. I doubt he really knows anything much about Exposure Leeds — and he probably says the same to loads of people he meets. But, I introduced myself to an MP!
My little bit of world has changed shape so much lately and I can’t help but be proud of all that the group of amazing individuals that is Exposure Leeds has managed to do. As the group moves from loose form into a properly constituted entity and starts to set in place elements that will ensure future stability and continuity I hope to review the first year and a half — but one thing is for sure; when I look back at what we’ve achieved I’m always amazed at how we’ve done so much, made so many good links and given a wonderful energy to so many people.
And for those of you out there who are part of it — every last one of Exposure Leeds’ members is a true star in my eyes!
Jon Eland is a digital evangelist — employed to deliver truly engaging internal communications at Words&Pictures, truly excited by photographic image-making, chair of the West Yorkshire Photocamp unconference and deployed as the self appointed leader of the Exposure Leeds photography group.
