Charlie Booth is a History of Art graduate and Programme Coordinator at Redeye – the North West’s most well-known Photography network.
In this interview, she tells us about her portfolio career – which also involves working for Manchester Histories and as a freelancer and in collaboration with Liz Wewiora (who is Open Eye Gallery’s Head of Engagement).
Charlie is extremely hard-working, conscientious and has a passion for photographers to grow as practitioners and enjoys seeing them do so through Lightbox and other Redeye endeavours.
Charlie has worked on Car Booty, a project with the Wewiora sisters (Liz and Helen) and they have new plans in the foreseeable future.
What first attracted you to the world of Photography?
After graduating from university I started working at the Hepworth Wakefield and South Square Centre as a Curatorial Fellow. On one of my first days I was condition-checking hundreds of framed prints by the Photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia as it was being de-installed. It was my first experience working with photography and cemented the art form as a firm favourite.
A year later I was working at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art as a freelancer and heard that Redeye, the Photography Network, who shares part of the gallery’s office, was looking for a new programme coordinator. What attracted me to the role was that it was very people focused, helping artists develop and get to where they wanted to be in a social and supportive way. I have learnt so much about photography since working at Redeye but I still count myself as a beginner. Sometimes it’s difficult not being trained as a photographer when people discuss technical elements of their work. However, every workshop and event I learn something new.
Can you tell me a bit more about your role as Programme Coordinator at Redeye?
My role as Programme Coordinator is to manage the programme of events. The events range from practical workshops for people to develop skills, to networking events for photographers to share work and get feedback from their peers to lectures and conferences from established photographers for people to get inspiration on interesting projects.
I’m also involved in helping support our members with enquiries, advice and support. So, for example they send me emails each day that range from introducing them to other people in the industry who can help them to sending information on copyright or pricing.
You have a portfolio career – i.e. you work at Redeye and Manchester Histories as well as other freelance projects – what are the most rewarding/challenging aspects of working in this way?
Any job you do, you and the people you work with, will always expect 25% more from you. You have to spend time on say social media liking relevant things, attending openings, answering emails out of hours, reading articles, travelling to festivals etc. When you work two or three jobs that extra 25% from each job can build up to an extra day a week.
The positives of portfolio working way outweigh any negatives. I think for good mental health we need perspective and working two different day-jobs allows this time away from your network, the emails and the to-do lists to digest and reflect on what has just happened. I work for two organisations one in the history and heritage sector and one in the photography sector. Both are funded by different bodies, have different budgets, different ways of doing things and so I can cross and compare them weekly. There are so many funny and nice coincidences where I can take things I have just learnt from one job and use it in another.
I love my freelance work the most as it’s freeing and I get to collaborate with a good friend, Liz Wewiora. We first met when working together at CFCCA. Later, with her sister Helen Wewiora , Liz employed me to be their curatorial assistant at the national touring show ‘Tall Tales’. Now, we collaborate under the name Wewiora and Booth Projects mainly producing the ACE funded Northern Art Carbooty but we will have new projects announced soon.
As part of your work for Redeye you have attended many talks by photographers – are there any particular talks that stand out to you?
Yes, so many! Most recently:
- Nina Berman’s lecture at the women in focus conference in Cardiff.
- Mandy Barker’s talk as part of her CFCCA exhibition last year.
- Edgar Martin’s lecture at GRAIN’s state of photography conference.
- Rob Hornstra’s masterclass in Manchester in March 2018.
- Michal Iwanowski’s lecture as part of Epic Journeys in 2016.
- Natasha Caruana in Liverpool at FACT as part of the exhibition New Observatory in 2017.
- Mahtab Hussain in conversation with Tim Clark at the New Art Gallery Walsall
- Jem Southam at the FORMAT conference in 2017 – this lecture made me cry.
Which women/non-binary/female identifying photographers who are working at the moment do you admire?
Maryam Wahid, Natalie Wardle, Susan Derges, Sophie Gerrard, Lucy Ridges, Lottie Davies, Roxana Allison, Natasha Caruana, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Fleur Olby, Arpita Shah, Karina Lax, Verity Adriana, Joy Gregory, Jessica Fairbrother, Michelle Selway, Yan Preston, Sian Bonnell, Lasma Poisa, Lydia Goldblatt, Liz Hingley, Rachael Munro-Fawcett, Roz Doherty and Alison Baskerville.
You recently attended Format Festival – what work did you particularly engage with?
Sixteen, a group touring exhibition made up of tons of portraits of teenagers across the UK - it’s in the Market Hall in Derby and shows work from a broad range of photographers depicting what it is like to be sixteen today.
I also really liked Emily Graham’s project The Blindest Man that is exhibited on the ground floor of the Market Hall. Kings of England by Graeme Oxby in the BEAR coffee shop is a firm favourite. The Old Tram Shed is an incredible and unique venue this year.
I’m biased but I am really proud of the work that FORM collective pulled off in the Eagle Market this year, an independent fringe for FORMAT funded by Arts Council England. I’m biased because FORM was founded during the Lightbox course, I managed for Redeye last year, but the group of photographers mentored by Nicola Shipley have grown from strength to strength since then. They’re a great bunch of very talented photographers who this time opened it up to working with other new artists. I also think the work by the East Meets West photographers in the Eagle Market and QUAD was really strong.
Which all-female initiatives/talks are you drawn to in this industry and others?
Landform is a new initiative founded by the photographer Cath Stanley. In its current form it’s an Instagram account that shares the work of female landscape photographers but she also organises photo walks in the countryside. It’s a safe space for female photographers to be able to ask questions and get help with technical and conceptual elements of their work from a peer group of other photographers.
I also really admire the epic and ambitious scale of 209 Women which was exhibiting at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool recently. It must have been an administrative headache managing that many photographers and MPs in this current political climate. They had work on show from photographers at all levels which I think is important to avoid the same names all the time.
But gender imbalance isn’t just an issue for photography and I really want to mention a handful of other organisations that tackle this subject in the wider cultural sector too:
Idle Women are simply awesome – they create new and innovative projects that are focus on social justice. They’ve recently won an award for their Mud to Medicine project.
Pregnant Then Screwed (founded and run by Joeli Brearly) works ‘to end the motherhood penalty’ by offering free legal advice, a mentoring scheme and they also lobby the British government for legislative change.
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