Whilst in London I has a chance to reconnect with an old acquaintance of mine Dr Mike Roles. To give him his true title.
I first me Mike years ago when he was a winner in the Benson and Hedges awards. At that time he was also running a professional photographic business with studio at the top of Tottenham Court Rd. He later went on to run a degree and lectured at the Royal College where he did his PhD with the sculpture Department. This was because at that time he was somewhat underwhelmed with the quality of the photographic course. I agreed with him on that because in my experience the photographic work done by the design students far outstripped that in photography.
So Mike’s CV is outstanding he now has a world based exhibiting profile with commissions at the very top level.
I feel that we are missing a level of individuality that creates the mythology that goes with notion of a national treasure. He is strongly independent yes and I wonder if in this contemporary world confident risk taking is being drained out of our industry.
We chewed the cud and reminisced of course but also discussed the relationship with education the industry and the state of markets. Both in the area of advertising etc and gallery culture.It was nice to see how much we still agreed on.
Yes the summary is its tough in all areas. Unfortunately I see little research in this area coming out of academia which would provide effective support for practitioners.
Dr Mike declaiming!
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