In-Turn-Shift
In-Turn-Shift is one of the turning points of my life. It's a mentorship program which gave opportunity for photographers to explore work development, book-making, exhibition making and hosting talks, all of it with financial support on work for photographers. Being project manager of this project shows my real friend, real enemy, real working purpose. It's a project that makes me grow up in a nick of time. So I really want to dedicate this page to pin down what I've been through from all the process.
October 2021
Pin Meekham is my co-worker, best friend, and of course, a marvelous photography geek. She started thinking about an internship program which really aims to mentor photographers and fascinately talked to me about it. I agreed immediately and we started to plan a program.
At that time, Pin and I were working for an online press called D1839 magazine so we approached the project plan to the D1839 team and they also saw In-Turn-Shift as a promising program and were excited to see it.
Pin and I became a newbie project manager.
In-Turn-Shift program proposal
We got support from Ball-Naraphat, a photography artist who always put himself 100% on any educational program and he has a beautiful thoughtful body of works, as a main mentor of the program.
Poupay-Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet, my girlfriend who is a NYC-based photographer working with numerous publications, as a guest mentor.
Arc press to help with the book-making process.
Le Photographe Studio, help with lighting workshop.
Sangkrohsang, sponsor, exhibited prints.
and Glimpse space, an exhibit space which also helps us with financial support.
November 2021
Open call artwork but Monsicha Srisuantang
We open calls for portfolio and project pitches from photographers. Finally, we got around 75 submissions then we narrowed it down to 10, interviewed, and selected 3 finalists.
First, Toey-Nutthawut Taeja. He is a full-time photographer working for Urban Creature online press and working on his personal project at the same time. He pitched a project about shooting things from a protest; tear gas bullet, rubber bullet, marble, etc as a traditional still life then edit it with his protest pictures.
Secondly, Takkatan-Supaporn Thampakon. She is a full-time video editor working for Voice TV press. Her pitch project is a continuous project from her previous one in which she captured her grandma and grandpa in a Thai rural area. Her grandpa passed away and in this project, she wished to come back and tell a story about her grandma's life now.
And third, Keetar-Santi Jaisan. He is a call center guy for a delivery service. Keetar always loved playing sports in his childhood and wanted to be a professional athlete. Sadly, the education system didn't teach him properly so he didn't know lots of things in time and had to abandon his dream. So he wanted to do photography work that would help him look back to the broken dream in his childhood.
Each of them got a budget for work development and a once a week mentor meeting which Ball and Poupay gave insightful advice and comments to work on. During the week, Pin and I were always available for participant photographers. We do one-on-one meetings almost everyday to discuss the direction with photographers.
We usually discuss over Zoom and Figma. This is Toey's Figma board
December 2021
Yes!, After months of everyone’s hard work. The project was finally solid enough for the next step.
This month, we do a 2 days lighting workshop with Le photographe Studio and we started working with Arc Press on editing for books. Arc Press' perspective is quite graphic and composition centric. So it was a challenge for the photographer to listen to advice from Arc Press and adapt it their own way to tell their story. After that, we visited a publishing house to learn about paper selection and made a book mock-up.
We also talked and worked on the exhibition layout. What's best for each storytelling? How many pictures do we want? Which part of space do each want?
Photo editing
January 2022
All projects are finally finished!
Toey-Nutthawut Taeja's on Thai protest
Takkatan-Supaporn Tampakon on coming home to her grandma
Keetar-Santi Jaisan on his lost childhood dream
We print the photographs and it is very beautiful! We were working on framing and with help from Pin's dad, we installed the work at Glimpse space.
February 2022
The exhibition is open. Pin and I sent a lot of press kit and guest invitations for opening day and after 3 days of lonely installation, it is so surreal to see Glimpse space so crowded.
We have an exhibition open for 1 month. Pin and I come to Glimpse space everyday and visitors also come everyday! We talk about the process. Doing an exhibition tour. Turn exhibition into community space.
The process table is a hit. Every visitor had so much fun. Pin do a zine on photographers thought process. I love it so much that I quietly keep the zine myself.
We have a conversation table every week. First week is about mentoring hosted by our mentor, the second week is about work development hosted by our photographers, and the third week is about printing techniques hosted by a print technician. We also have a book club every Wednesday.
Now I'm quit D1839 magazine to work on my own platform, Fotogarten, as a full-time photography education worker, so you can see how much those 6 months inspire me. It teach me what to do, who to avoid and when to run away. Pin, my co-project manager, is also working as a full-time photography education worker at Fotogarten with me. We stick together both as co-worker and as friend. I still have good friendships with participant photographers and their friends. The program lets young photographers know I'm here to fully support their good works.
So to sum up, that 6 months really gave me a lot.
Collaborators
Project under: D1839 Magazine
Project Manager: Pasinee Pramunwong, Pin Meekham
Art director : Monsicha Srisuantang
Participant photographer : Nutthawut Taeja, Supaporn Thampakon, Santi Jaisan
In collaboration with : Ball-Naraphat, Poupay-Jutharat, Le Photographe Studio
Sponsor : Glimpse Space (Financial and space), Sangkrohsang (Printing)
