Lot's Wife Edition 5 2015

40
ARTS & CULTURE
BY Emma
Simpkin
Art in the
Digital Space
The development and rise of the online world has seen
individuals increasingly connected and defined by our
network. Social media and online records grant artists the
capacity to promote, self-publish and preserve their work
autonomously. Three Monash students and artists of different
backgrounds and media were kind enough to share their thoughts
on how they create and choose to use the online space.
www.shevindphoto.com
www.facebook.com/shevindphoto
@shevindphoto
Shevin Dissanyake - Melbourne based music
photographer, completing a double degree in Arts and
Commerce majoring in Marketing and International
Relations at Clayton.
As someone who has photographed diverse local and
international talents including Martin Garrix, the 1975 and
Tigerlily, Shevin emphasises the importance of authenticity
over strategy when it comes to using the online space as
an artist. Beginning on the photo-sharing community Flickr
in year nine and then moving to blogging platform Tumblr,
Shevin now uses a combination of Facebook, Instagram and
an online portfolio site to exhibit his work.
"In this age of photography not having an online presence
is almost like not having a camera at all."
Starting without professional advice on how to enter the
industry, Shevin says it’s easy to underestimate how vital
networking opportunities afforded by online communities
like Flickr are to young artists. Making the move to Tumblr a
little later, Shevin noticed the nature of the platform exposed
his work to wider audiences. Increased interest in his photos
on Tumblr and support for his work encouraged him to shift
to an online portfolio that would appeal to potential clients
and showcase his work.
"An online presence overall makes it so much easier, on a
business level and a creative level."
When asked if he sees the social media accounts as creative
outlets and the e-portfolio purely for commercial purposes,
Shevin agrees that his website is a more professional
representation of himself but that social media should not
be underestimated as a place for finding and creating new
opportunities.
"Social networking has helped me work with international
artists."
"You are human,
at the end of the day people
don’t want to hire someone
with a camera."
Shevin stresses the importance of keeping it small and
authentic online. This is visible in both his work and the way
he manages his online presence, choosing to never delete
from social media. He does restrict content on social media
to pictures related to music or portrait photography, as he
believes this is probably the reason why people have followed
his work. With his e-portfolio Shevin regularly changes the
images on rotation but keeps it to twenty or thirty at a time,
explaining that it should not take a hundred or so images for
someone to have a sense of who he is and what he can do.
"You are human, at the end of the day people don’t want
to hire someone with a camera. They want to hire someone
with a vision, someone with a personality and someone
who can communicate. If you can communicate yourself
well on social media and through your portfolio then they
already know you before they talk to and they know they
want to hire you."
Alena Bondarchuk - Aspiring installations artist and art
curator, currently completing a double degree in Arts and
Visual Arts at Caulfield.
"I do work for myself or to understand artists which is why
I don’t go down the pathway of putting things online."
For Alena, sharing artwork publically online equates to
promoting it for commercial purposes or creating a name for
yourself. She expresses strong support for other artists who
choose to share their art digitally but is equally firm about
her choice to keep her work offline for the most part. The