One on One With Oli Sansom
Now is the time to refine your photography and focus on subjects local to your area.
We ask our Ted's Master Oli Sansom his photography journey through isolation. Read on to receive some helpful tips and tricks to growing your photography at this time.
What has the extra time over isolation allowed you to achieve?
The extra time over isolation has allowed me to get on top of SEO, sharing content I’ve shot over the years, as well as tighten up the back end of things. I’d rather be working, but then all this stuff wouldn’t be getting done, and it turns out it's really important! And, consumed so far, all of both the iso periods which has been a real shock.
Have you had many local photography adventures recently? Do you have three recommendations for where to go?
My recommendations for where to go locally: 1: Look on google maps - literally! Turn it to satellite view, zoom in, and throw some names of areas you find into search. Ive been on countless weird and wonderful (and to be fair, downright fizzer) adventures doing this. 2: Look at your local architecture in a new way. There’s a lot of great stuff rapidly disappearing. 3: You know, I’m just not into epic stuff. So this might be a fizzer for people. But the area of Seddon backstreets are incredibly photogenic in so many ways.
What are some tips and tricks to improve your photography locally?
Tips for improving locally: look to what you love! There’s a goldmine, you may have existing access (which is 90% of it) and you’ll be compelled to produce the project. Make friends with people outside your bubble, immerse in a new community, and that's where the ideas and intersecting lines come out.
Now is the perfect time to boost your social presence. Do you have any suggestions for fellow photographers trying to grow their following?
Increasing presence is a strategy and job just like the shooting bit. I’ve never paid it as much attention as I should and it impacts who your work can get in front of. That said, it’s time-consuming! Find out big accounts that are sharing work, and submit your work/tag them in to get access to theirs. Tonnes of photographers do that. Narrow in on the type of work you’re showing. We like to hit follow on accounts where we easily get an understanding of what we’re in for.
Being unique never hurts - a mates presence skyrocketed when he changed his account from high-end couture (he’s a dress designer) to taking the piss out of covid influencers, and showing total disregard to what he was putting on the platform prior. And it was brilliant! Lastly, volume. Put the artist ego away if you want presence, and set up a strategic posting schedule. Instagram as a platform favours volume. Tap into it! I got a 25% follower increase in a month just by automating a month worth of posts 3x a day as a test. Then align these tips with the sort of work you want to do and be seen doing. Presence and artistic value are two very separate things.
How has this period of isolation changed your perspective on photography?
I wish I had an answer to the affirmative! It hasn’t. Though tt has made me cautious of not pressing a binary idea of what isolation looks like on other people through photographing them, and I've found it hard working out how to document it as a result, and so I haven't.
Going forward will there be new adventures and directions you have planned during this time. Could you give us some insight?
New adventures! I have two projects that I've had on the boil for years that I finally feel like starting. I don’t want to say too much in case I don't execute them properly but they look inwards at all the things I like locally in terms of architecture, place and being.
Do you have any recent photographic projects that you'd like to share?
Recent photographic projects: no formal ones, but I did make some images in India right before lockdown Some of which are displayed on this page.
You can find my recent wedding photography works here.
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