Guest Lecture, Holly Falconer

Holly Falconer is a London-based photographer, hailing originally from the west country. Her work is inspired by Britain’s idiosyncrasies, her circle of friends and exploring the boundaries of identity.

Holly shoots documentary, portrait and fashion photography, and has worked for clients such as Converse, i-D, Vice and Paper. Her subjects have included Savages, New Order, Paloma Faith and Nigella Lawson. Recent documentary projects have included ‘Parade’, an ongoing project about why women choose to join together en masse in the twenty-first century and ‘Drag Goddesses’, a series on London’s female drag queens.

Not only was I fascinated by her interest in Britain's idiosyncrasies, documenting it through photography, but the fact she had no idea that photography was her preferred media because she'd always imagined herself as a journalist. 

She studied English Literatire at UCL.

After realising that photography was something she was more interested in she received her first job at a couple of magazines. From this she realised how much she loved putting a shoot together and left working for magazines to then become an assistant.

She enjoyed assisting a lot, even on its bad days when she could be assisting all day and working into the night. Overall she recommended it. 

From her personal experience she also recommended that we all put ourselves out there and go to events even if we wouldn't usually connect with it. These are the opportunities we are missing!

A few pieces of her work has lead to commissioning especially her images that capture the protests. Some of these images and including her passion in feminism have lead on further to her then photographing drag queens and there personal lifestyle. 

Holly then went on discussing a few do's and don'ts when applying for an assistant role:

• Make it brief
• If wanting to show work of your own, add your website. Must state clearly where to find the photos and contact details
• Write of any previous assisting you have/had completed
• Place of study