The New Normal

It would truly be an understatement to say that a lot has happened since my last post back in November. Having to cope with the new normal of a virus-induced lockdown and the phenomenal events that occurred after the tragic death of George Floyd in the US, I think it’s fair to say that there has never been a moment in history that compares to this. Photography during these times has remained a constant; providing us with images that inform, connect and inspire.

In these insecure and challenging times, it’s great to be acknowledged for all the hard work that is involved in running a busy photo desk. So it was a lovely surprise to win the award of ‘Best Picture Editor’ for the second year running, at the BSME Talent Awards, along with my colleague, Kate Edwards. I celebrated in style - in my back garden.

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Source Graduate Photography Online

It was a real honour to be asked to review the work of this year’s MA and MFA photography graduates, and select six that really resonated.

It’s never easy to narrow down choices when the quality is so high and the ideas so well executed and ambitious, but this process allowed me to think about the considerations of the next generation and how photography is being used to reflect and respond to the demands of an increasingly complex world.

https://www.source.ie/graduate/2019/selection1_ma.php

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Portrait of Humanity 2020 photo awards - Judging

I’m very pleased to be a part of next year’s judging panel for the Portrait of Humanity awards, the second year of the new global competition by the creators of the impressive Portrait of Britain photography competition. I expect the standard to be very high and am looking forward to seeing a range of work by a global network of photographers. More details can be found by clicking on the link below:

https://portraitofhumanity.co/

Below is a winner from the 2019 competition - photograph by Natalie Lennard

Aquadural, UK

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Leica Akademie, Pitch Perfect Workshop in Lucca, Italy - December 2019

Sharing a new video produced by Leica Akademie, about my forthcoming course, ‘Pitch Perfect’. The course aims to explore the process behind pitching photography projects and proposals to editorial publications and is open to all types and levels of photographer. The course will be taught in English and will include some practical aspects.

Black and White Spider Awards

I was recently on the judging panel for the Black and White Spider Awards. The competition aims to showcase the very best in Black and White photography, with categories for both professional and amateur photography. It was an interesting experience to judge such a diverse range of photography - from architecture through to photo-journalism. The winning results are now online.

https://www.thespiderawards.com/

Below is a winning image in the Nude category, taken by:

Nikolai Endegor
France

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Leica Masterclass - in Lucca, Italy - December 2019

I’m pleased to be undertaking another masterclass for Leica, this time in Lucca, which is the home of the impressive bi-annual Photolux photo-festival. The two day workshop focusses on photography projects and will explore the process of coming up with ideas, turning a personal project into a published photo-story, pitching stories to editors and the presentation of final projects.

For more details, click on the link below:

https://store.leica-camera.com/it/it/pitch-perfect-a-masterclass-with-caroline-hunter

BSME Talent Awards - Best Picture Editor 2019 !!!

I am very pleased to announce that I am the proud owner of a prestigious British Society of Magazine Editors Talent award.

On Monday evening, myself and my job-share Kate Edwards won the coveted title of Picture Editor of the year 2019 !

Unfortunately I was able to attend the award in person but my fellow colleagues texted me a pic from the event as evidence. I was later sent the following very lovely quote from the judges:

Another category with a very high standard, but a clear WINNER … which is THE GUARDIAN WEEKEND – congratulations KATE EDWARDS AND CAROLINE HUNTER – a strong team that makes excellent use of its global resources.

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PITCH PERFECT WORKSHOP - FOR LEICA AKADEMIE, ITALY

Last November, I travelled to Milan to present my first workshop, Pitch Perfect - pitching stories to magazines and publications - for the Leica Akademie.

One of the questions I’m often asked when I meet photographers (emerging and established) is ‘how do photographers pitch ideas to you ?’ I thought it would be useful to create a weekend workshop dedicated to this subject.

Over two days, we looked at the many different ways that you can contact, pitch and present your ideas to editors. We investigated the value and pitfalls of social media as well as exploring the creative process of researching and coming up with new ideas. It was a stimulating session and the participants were a mix of established professionals, emerging photographers and career changers. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did and the feedback that I received was great. It was particularly interesting to see Milan again - I last visited the city as a teenager, on my very first trip to Italy. It was historic, chaotic and fun. Years later it has been transformed into a modern, stylish, European capital. I hope to return soon.

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Photos: Maurizio Beucci/Leica Ambassador


Catching Up - Encontros da imagem

Since it’s already February, I will stop pretending that it’s still the start of the New Year and will refrain from using the word ‘belated’ every time I bump into an old colleague or friend.

My new year’s resolution is to be more sociable, even if it involves never leaving my sofa to do so. First stop should naturally start with social media, including the updating of this blog. I’m a bit behind, but there were some really memorable events from 2018 that I need to give a shout to - the memories of which are making this currently cold spell feel a bit warmer.

Last September brought me to Braga, in Portugal. Braga is a small, under discovered picturesque city in Northern Portugal. I travelled there to attend the Encontros Da Imagem photo festival.

Encontros Da Imagem is a wonderfully eclectic festival with a small, formidable team behind it. I was invited to be a jury member and portfolio reviewer for their 2018 edition and spent many a day getting to know my fellow jurors, meeting artists and viewing some stimulating work. It’s always a pleasure to prise myself away from my desk and have conversations with people that I would ordinarily never meet in London. The compact size of the festival meant that getting to see all the shows was easy. When it came down to the judging, of course we each had our own subjective opinions about each work (coming from such diverse backgrounds), but this made the judging process all the more interesting !

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Visiting the many exhibitions, and some of the lovely international curators that I met along the way…

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Leica Workshop in Milan in November !

I’m very excited to be presenting a workshop next month in Italy at the Leica Akademie in Milan. The topic is photo-stories and projects, and how to best pitch ideas and proposals to magazines and other publications. I’ll also be talking about the commissioning process and how to best to market photo-stories for various different publications. This workshop is aimed at emerging and mid-career photographers.

More information is on the link below:

https://store.leica-camera.com/it/it/pitch-perfect-a-masterclass-with-caroline-hunter

Portrait of Britain

Being a working mum means that I often spend my evenings rushing straight from work to make it back for story time. Last Thursday evening, I managed to make a rare outing to attend the Portrait of Britain book launch. I always admire the selection of portraits chosen for this competition, so I was pleased to be asked to judge (as part of a panel) this year's entries. The launch party was a lot of fun and was filled with all the photographers whose work is featured in the book, as well as their muses. The photographs will be exhibited throughout Britain and will be displayed on billboards and in other public spaces. 

 

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NORMANDY LANDING - A BOY ON A BEACH

After telling strangers what I do for a living, the next question is often, 'but do you take photos yourself' ? I do, though not often enough to call myself a photographer, and almost always when I'm away from the busy-ness of London. My son is now of an age where he has started to become self-conscious being photographed. Images that I take of him are often accompanied by a grin or a grimace. Here he had time to do neither. Here, he is captivated by the sensory experience of listening to the sounds made by the sea. I had but a few seconds to take this before he broke free to remind me of his age once again.

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RECONTRES D'Arles photo-festival

My first post should rightly start with a visit to Les Recontres, Arles - France's leading photo-festival. If the setting (South of France, balmy weather, delicious alfresco dining) isn't enough to tempt, then the incredible amount of photography shows and photo related talks and activities throughout opening week is enough to make me brave a 4am alarm call to catch an early morning flight to Marseille.

Highlights of the trip included Paul Fusco's splendid, seminal work, The Train - a journey that saw Fusco turn the camera on the spectators and mourners waiting for Robert Kennedy's funeral train to pass by. Clever re-interpretations by contemporary photographers made this an unmissable show that left me feeling both troubled and inspired. It was also great to re-visit some of the other great masters of Photography. Seeing Robert Frank's marked-up original contact sheets close up gave me a glance into a wildly creative mind way ahead of its time. African-American artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa's  large-scale series of moving still images - more often from the African diaspora - with a few occasional surprises, was one of the few major works by a Black artist. Woman photographers seemed largely absent. Women of Colour photographers even more so. A shame. 

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