British Journal of Photography publisher 1854 Media is proud to announce a new exclusive partnership with FullBleed.tv, the online short film channel that makes beautifully produced documentaries revealing how photographers work and think.
FullBleed.tv is the creation of London photographer Jude Edginton, who has, in his own right, had a remarkably successful commercial career, working for brands like Adidas and Channel 4 as well as The Times Magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian and many other iconic publications.
FullBleed creates micro-documentaries about photographers and photographic culture from Britain and around the world. The new editorial, production and distribution partnership with BJP takes FullBleed a big step closer to realising its ambitious vision for the future: to become the leading destination for films on Photographic Art.
But this popularity isn’t reflected in quality online film dedicated to photography in the same way as other creative industries. “Online audiences interested in photography and photographers are growing constantly,” Edginton says. “The massive growth in short form content means there are now channels covering every other area of culture, from music and film to skateboarding, food and video games. We saw a distinct lack of quality online film focused on photographers and their work. That’s where FullBleed steps in.”
“You could say photographers have been ahead of the game for years, because stills photography is the ultimate way of telling stories in short form,” he says. “So, who better to stretch that out to short films than the photographers themselves?”
“We are essentially photographers making films about photographers, and I think we understand what’s important from both sides,” Edginton says.
But Fullbeed isn’t just about photography. By creating films across the spectrum of genre, style and medium, FullBleed is a way for the work of photographers to reach a broader audience.
From a film about James Fry, who shot the first photographs ever taken of the rock band Oasis, to Laura Pannack’s emotive project Young Love, FullBleed’s films are capable of finding audiences beyond the photography world, by allowing them to explore their subject of interest using photography as the medium of discovery.
Edginton cites FullBleed’s first film as a good example of this, “The first film we made was with Paddy Summerfield and his two-decade project about his parents called Mother and Father. He photographed their life and their relationship into old age and then death. This was all set in his parent’s family home in Oxford where we filmed him. The result of the film has very little to do with photography. He is telling a universal story that will affect us all and our job was to bring that story together in a film.”
Edginton’s own career as a photographer started where he grew up in London in the 1970s, and enjoyed the privilege of having a darkroom in his primary school. At the age of seven, he was taught how to print and process film.
Today, Edginton photographs about 100 shoots a year for a mix of commercial and editorial clients. But alongside his thriving practice, Edginton has always pushed himself to produce feature stories: from glue sniffers in Moscow to rickshaw drivers in Mumbai, from Air Guitar Championships in Finland to cattle branding in Texas.
“British Journal of Photography will give FullBleed a place to showcase their work, taking FullBleed to an audience of more than a million creatives and photography enthusiasts around the world,” says Marc Hartog, CEO of BJP’s publisher 1854 Media.
“FullBleed’s films perfectly encapsulate our core belief in the power of photography to tell a story. Expressing that through film in the beautifully captivating way that FullBleed does, enriches what we do, broadening the platform we offer photographers, and giving our audience an even deeper perspective.”
“As well as enriching the experience we offer our community, this partnership allows 1854 Media to provide brands with best-in-class image-led content across all channels and mediums – print and digital through editorial, still and moving image,” says Pax Zoega, 1854 Media’s Head of Commercial.
“Today, that approach is critical for artists, publishers and brands. We’re all communicators, competing for the attention of an audience with unprecedented choice, both in terms of the volume of media available, and whether or not they engage with it. It’s like perpetual war in a very crowded battlefield. Winning it means being ever-present with a relevant, authentic and engaging message, no matter the device or platform, and no matter the state of mind or time of day.”
To see more FullBleed films, sign up to FullBleed’s YouTube Channel and keep an eye on BJP’s Twitter and Facebook for new releases.
