The last 16 days have been a whirlwind of activities and events that have left me breathless. I always knew putting on two degree shows would be hard work by it was much harder than imagined, but also quite slick when all the parts moved together.

Building and tearing down Ipswich showed some people in a new light and the spirit of cooperation was first class. As ever, there was always someone not pulling their weight but we built two spaces and transformed UCS with the paint from our sponsor Dulux – Trade Flat Matt – Night Jewels 2 – an absolutely stonking success in sophistication.

Building Free Range was a challenge and a half. Considering this is the 14th year of graduate shows in this skanky ex brewery warehouse, one would have thought that a system that enabled efficient access to the building  would be in place. The rental for the space was circa £7000  but chaos seemed to be the order of the day and given the very early start that most of us had it was a trying day to say the least with the first screws going into a build at 1300. We were there at 0830! Free Range need to sort their act ot unless it is just that – an act. Money for old rope.

Anyway, griping aside. We transformed our space T5 into the most original looking gallery in the building. No end of plaudits came our way on both the use of the colour and the design of  the labyrinthine gallery. It worked. The vision for this was a culmination of two other shows – one at the Barbican -‘In the 60’s and 70’s – Everything was moving’ and Salgado’s ‘Genesis’ at the Natural History Museum. Both these shows determined that in my eye no work would be hung on a grotty white warehouse wall. I think some people needed to be convinced but the dry run at Christmas had tested the colour at least.

Hanging my large format work was quite an emotional moment for me as I had held that back from my degree assessment on the basis that space was a premium. I have to admit to feeling a tad choked when I stood back and looked at the finished work. So many thoughts and tiredness combined to mix up all sorts of memories, such as 12th June 1993 – 21 years to the day that I nearly killed myself in a car accident, the thoughts of the fact that my grandfather could have made my large format images albeit in black and white, and my father too using grandfather’s camera, the three years hard slog to put in as much as possible and take as much as possible from the course when I really could have got away with doing as little as possible (but that is not me), the support I had from from my wife and younger sister to keep me going spiritually and financially – all a heady mix.

The hard work paid off though and I could not have wished for better validation than that of Tom Hunter. I had researched his photography as part of my Edglelands project  and his personal compliments and tweet  sealed my degree and made it all worthwhile.

As they say, it is all over bar the shouting. Now to clearing out my personal effects from UCS and waiting for the 8th July for the final assessment.

Whatever happens, they were the best of shows and my objectives for the academic year have been met.

Thank you.