When asked if I would be interested in presenting at the third annual Australian Railway Photography Forum in Sydney, I jumped at the chance.Â
Steam train photography has been my passion since childhood, so any opportunity to share and discuss that passion with like-minded rail-fans and photographers elicits an enthusiastic and immediate âyesâ.
Only after agreeing did it dawn on me that:
a) I have no idea what a photography presentation should look like,
b) My photos are incredibly disorganised. Many of them arenât even in the country, but rather sitting on a hard drive back in the UK and,
c) I hate public speaking.
Four months preparation for a forty minute presentation
So how does one overcome those obstacles and put a presentation together?Â
My process began with âredecoratingâ two walls of my living room in post-it notes, trying to distil my photography down to key themes and concepts and find photographs to match.
Did it look like an homage to A Beautiful Mind? Yes; yes it did.Â
But Russell Crowe must be on to something, because it was also an incredibly useful exercise to put all my thoughts and ideas in front of me, ready to be considered and rearranged systematically as I got closer and closer to something worth sharing. It allowed me to gain a much clearer and deeper understanding of my own photography.
With the help of those colourful post-its, Iâd already produced a bare bones structure. It was then time to turn vague ideas into sentences and string them together coherently.
Yes, it was time to start talking to myselfâ¦
Well, time to start speaking into my Voice Recorder app at any rate. Whenever I had downtime, on my commute, or waiting for my fiancee to finish shopping, Iâd regale my phone with anecdotes and opinions, all the while starting to pull together photos from those disorganised folders and hard drives. Gradually what emerged was a fledgling presentation.
All that was left to to was practise, take feedback, refine it, then rinse and repeat. Many, many times.
Cometh the hour; cometh the fear
While preparation helps, it certainly didnât eradicate my fear of public speaking. My thanks to Alan Shaw for acceding to my request and putting me first on the programme, so I could then relax and enjoy the other presentations rather than spending the entire day distracted by nerves.
I'm delighted to say that those four months of hard work and looking a little crazy paid off - my talk was very well received.Â
Iâm reliably informed that any nerves didnât show, and by the time the floor was opened up for questions I felt almost relaxed standing at the podium, fielding insightful questions from the audience. In fact, some of the questions were so interesting I hope to spend some time exploring them in future blogs.
Can I go again?
All in all it was an incredible experience, and despite my nerves I would do it again in a heartbeat. I've been living on the high for the last couple of weeks.
It was an honour to share the stage with so many other talented presenters, with topics ranging from magazine editors sharing their insights, through how to catalogue and share collections for posterity, to those like me presenting their personal conceptualisation of their work. I also had a great time simply talking and networking with people who all share this particular passion.Â
I would highly recommend it to others if you are in the Sydney area next year. I certainly will be trying to attend in the future.Â
Iâd like to conclude by conveying my heartfelt thanks to the organisers, the sponsors, the presenters, and all the attendees.Â
Photo courtesy of Alan Shaw.
Further information on the conference:
Founded by Alan Shaw, the forum is inspired by the Center for Railroad Photography and Art's annual conference (conversations) in Chicago.Â
Presented by: NSW Rail Museum
Venue: Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum), Sydney, Australia.