An alter ego update
Another late night, another unscheduled but somewhat overdue update!
I’ve been trying really hard to figure out where everything I do fits in my tangled web of websites and blogs, social media accounts and notebooks. The notebooks are destined to never be sorted out, but the online parts have been a journey!
Between two writing retreats and the you-know-what in 2020, I’ve had a few new alter egos develop, so I’ve added them over here on the meet my alter egos page, updated image galleries for the ones I already had here, and also added a mailing list sign up for my art & fantasy photography. Along with generally having a bit of a tidy up of the random trailing pages that were lurking.
Best practice probably says I should merge this site back into Carla Watkins Photography – but stubbornness, multipoddery and me say it’s staying as it is. I still hope to re-release the Unfurling course at some stage, either as a course or as a book, and I like having somewhere specific for this recurring interest / obsession of mine that grows rather than fades with each passing year.
While I’m sadly missing Colchester Medieval Festival this year, I’m plotting some festivals for next year, so will have an excuse for more costume making.
So here’s welcoming Demelza Pearl Trevean, and hoping I’ll get the opportunity to shoot a bit more around my alter egos over this summer!
No grant, but inspiration
A few of you might know that I applied for the Developing Your Creative Practice grant in August. Sadly I found out yesterday I didn’t get it, but am feeling surprisingly positive – the application taught me loads, I’m stepping up as a photographic artist as a result, and I’ve become much more confident about my work and putting myself out there.
So on the whole, I’d say it was a success!
In other news, I have been meeting with amazing humans all over the shop and am developing a dream team for a new project (which no doubt I will be unable to keep quiet about once we’ve firmed up the details).
I’ve also been back to Bothwell and am busy editing the nearly 7000 photos I took there, and plotting costumes and shoots and all sorts :)
And I have fabulous unicorn hair as of yesterday! Go see Verity Clarke Hair if you’re feeling colourful.
I also have about eight squillion things on my to do list, so on that note I shall be off… but I’ll be back soon! x
Steampunk selfie at the East Anglian Railway Museum
Popped in to the steampunk extravaganza at the East Anglian Railway Museum yesterday afternoon :)
Acquired a new wand and some custom pieces for my goggles, met some fabulous humans and took my tiny top hat-in-progress for its first trial run.
I walked like a girl in a boarding school story with a book on my head 😂 so will be looking at different ways to secure it, especially as I add to it and it gets heavier! The headband was pleasingly invisible though.
This guy was magical and Dad would have loved him. His name is Ichabod Steam – give him a follow!Loved the event and more shots to follow 💕
It was the first run of this event at the museum, I’m hopeful there will be more as it seemed a great venue & atmosphere!
Alter ego wise, I wore minimal kit because it was INCREDIBLY HOT (so just a velvet dress, my pocketwatch necklace and the hat), and was so absorbed in taking photos I forgot all about Nell. Maybe I’ll work some camera stuff into her backstory, too…
A new-old direction
It’s been a while since I’ve been over here – since launching my photography business in earnest, and then dealing with grief over losing my Dad, my alter ego work took a back seat.
And then, in April, I went to Bothwell School of Witchcraft as a photographer – my first larp, my first larp photography and an astounding, profoundly lifechanging six days.
#notacult… really, not, but oh, the acceptance and the likemindedness and the creativity and imagination and commitment to making magic – meant real magic happened.
New friendships which feel old, a sense of coming home, and a feeling of fitting in like never before.
I cried for days when I came home, and now the change Bothwell has wrought in me is beginning to take shape. I’m taking myself more seriously as an artist, I’m taking my business more seriously, and most of all I’m allowing myself to play and imagine and create – as I always have, but more publicly.
In larp I’ve found the endless game of pretend I’ve always longed for – in real life, with a real tribe of people who get it, and get me.
And I feel like something in me has been released. So here is where you’ll find my alter egos, my costumes, my daydreamings, my characters, my fairytales, my imaginings and my journey.
I’ll document as much as I can here, and the “proper” shoots will live over at Carla Watkins Photography.
Delighted to have you here for the ride!