LCN Story: Photographer Jonathan Clifford

Jonathan Clifford is an Australian born documentary, portrait, and travel photographer. Previous personal projects have seen him cover gender issues, displacement and natural disasters. More recently his focus has turned to human rights abuses, in particular the global human trafficking crisis, which he continues to explore through his innovative portrait series 'The Heroes Within'.

What new medium or project are you introducing to your practice and why have you chosen it?
After doing the LCN Video Editing Module in November I’ve begun to explore video much more, and I’ve been working to include it into my practice, both in my commercial and personal documentary work. Although I’d previously done a few bits and pieces of video work, the course really gave me a solid grounding in many aspects of video production which I hadn’t previously considered and it would have taken me longer to figure out on my own.

What was the main motivation behind your application to the LCN programme?
Having previously attended the Future Focus workshop at Photofusion and really benefitted from it, I was keen to take advantage of the ongoing training the LCN programme offers. Considering the huge demand for video, attending the LCN Video Editing Module seemed for me the right way to go. I have often been asked if video is something I can do in addition to stills and, thanks to LCN, now I feel much more capable of offering that as a service.

What is the most useful advice or tips you’ve been given on the programme so far?
Every part of the course was useful and it worked really well being run over 3 days, each covering a different area, from workflow and editing, to equipment and technique. The day we spent out with Andy shooting footage in Brixton was particularly helpful as we managed to cover a huge amount of the practical aspects of shooting video in many different situations, from interviews to panning and movement techniques. Being able to spend the whole day totally hands-on with the gear in praxis really helped it all sink in and I think we all took a lot of very valuable knowledge away from it.

What plans do you have after participating with LCN?
Since attending the Video Editing Module I’ve certainly felt a lot more confident working with video and have continued to work on building my knowledge of it. The course has really opened up my options and approach to visual storytelling in my personal work. Also, I’m currently working on a few projects which for the first time will be entirely video based.