Claudy Woods: London photography portfolio crit

BA (Hons) Photography student Claudy Woods tells us about her experience attending the Year 3 London Portfolio crit, and how it has affected her work and practice.

Earlier this year we, the third year photography students, embarked on the epic journey to the industry crit held at Tileyard in London. We anticipated the day with a sense of horror and dread knowing we would be presenting our work to photographers at the top of the industry for their honest judgements and, as far as we could tell, probable disapproval. However, we could not have been more wrong about what was to come that day.

About Claudy

Just to leave you in suspense for a few moments more, I’d like to tell you a little about my practise so that we are properly acquainted. I’m Claudy, one of the aforementioned third year photography students. I have always enjoyed taking pictures since I was quite little and joined a photography club after school. However, I started taking it seriously after seeing an exhibition by an artist called Linder Sterling in 2019. She used a mixture of her photography and found images to explore her experience of being a woman. This theme and mixed media approach really appealed to me and is something that has inspired my own work ever since.

For the last three years, I have been exploring the relationship between female sexuality and the Catholic church. I come from a lapsed Catholic family and have always found the faith an interesting topic, specifically some of the shame it has caused for young women. My current project, Every Saint Has a Past, is a series of self-portraits depicting different female saints. Despite having empowering stories, the female saints are often glossed over when learning about the Catholic faith, mostly due to them being sexually immoral. It is a shame that their lives are ignored as I feel they could be a source of hope for young women, both Catholic and not, in a world where we constantly receive judgement and criticism. These images incorporate many mixed media elements as well as costumes and props I have made myself. This is the body of work I brought with me to Tileyard for critique.

The crit itself

Now, let us get into the actual crit. Once we arrived and got our caffeine fixes and nervous wees out of the way, we all headed into The Gallery – a large room with three tables set out for us. The day was split into two group crits, one before lunch and one after. My day started with a chat with Andy Earl, Catherine Losing and Tom Bunning. As soon as I spread my work out, all three told me how much they liked my use of bold colours and the fact that I already had a distinctive style. Once I explained the context and inspiration behind my work, Catherine commented that I seemed confident when talking about my work, which was lovely to hear after going in feeling nervous. Andy Earl compared my work to Gilbert and George’s stained glass which I think is the best compliment I have ever received. We then discussed how I should go about getting the series published and that I should not be afraid to start sending it to people, which was a useful and inspiring conversation. I went into lunch on a massive high, realising this was nothing more than one large group crit.

I came back from lunch feeling confident for the next session with Richard Seymour, Dean Chalkley and Christine Harding. They were a little more technically critical, pointing out that the skin tones in my portraits do not always match – this is something I will go away and work on. Another comment was that there would need to be text accompanying my images at an exhibition to ensure they made sense. Now, I don’t really agree with this as the work is meant to provoke the viewer to investigate the characters I depict on their own terms. The only information I would want to provide is the names of the saints. It is important to listen to critiques of your work, but also to know what to take to heart and what should just be a suggestion. At the end of the day, no one knows your work better than you.

One of my favourite parts of the day was watching my friends come out of their crits absolutely glowing. We have all been on this big university journey together, so it was lovely to witness everyone get a boost in confidence from the conversations they were having.

Once the final crit had concluded it was time to move to the bar for a well-deserved cold one and a de-brief with course leader James Smith. In a very on brand way, James laughed at us for being so nervous in the morning. This was also an opportunity for some relaxed networking and even some more impromptu crits with the professionals we didn’t get to speak earlier.

Reflections and advice

At the time of writing this it has only been a few days since the crit, but I have already acted upon the advice of Andy Earl and have started to send my project off to publications in the hopes of publication. Before the crit, I was convinced that no-one would connect with my work enough to publish it. I now have a newfound confidence in my abilities and a stronger sense of excitement for what is next.

If I had any advice for another student it would be to make work that excites you. If you love what you do, it is so much easier to tell people all about it and get them excited too. It is also important to remember that not everyone will connect with what you do and that is okay too, do not let it dishearten you – your people are out there!

Overall the day was a really valuable experience. Thank you to James Smith for organising it, Andy Earl for hosting us and all the professionals for putting up with our chaos for a few hours. It was much appreciated by all of us.

See more of Claudy’s work