BACKGROUND. My practice is a small medium enterprise or
SME called The Mango Lab[2].There are two of us, my partner Julia and myself, but we also collaborate with other creative practitioners to produce and provide unique learning experiences within our community. We have two studios in Chiswick, London, where we provide imagery for clients such as Reuters[3] and Getty[4] and facilitate workshops for government, business, tourism and private clients. In addition I am an Associate Lecturer under the University Arts London[5] umbrella, where I design and teach short courses and professional away-days using photography as the medium for common ground discoveries and communication exploration. It is because the practice extends across multiple platforms, from content generators to acquirers of photography, the general public to both SME’s and NGO’s (non-governmental organisations), print to multi-media, both as educator and image provider, I have a long reach within this research. It is due to this industry immersion that I chose to purse primarily a lengthy participatory auto-ethnography. By exploring this new technology I hoped to meet more ‘digital natives’ than ‘digital immigrants’[6], and through conversations widen my understanding of what the practice was doing and how it may be seen. The opportunity to not only ‘practice what I preach’ but also practice what was becoming new knowledge in the diverse faculties I perform within provided for a rich, first person (practitioner) view of the changing landscape. In addition I was in the fortunate position that I could test observations and get feedback from these faculties as I pursue this research. [2] MASSEY-STEWART, J. (2013) The Mango Lab. [Online] Available from: http://www.themangolab.co.uk/index.html#sthash.TYqm4Cm2.dpbs. [Accessed: 2nd August 2013] [3] REUTERS INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF JOURNALISM. (2013) [Online] Available from: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk. [Accessed: 3rd August 2013] [4] GETTY IMAGES. (2013) [Online] Available from: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/?esource=google+UK_Brand_Getty_Images_Exact_EN_SL&kw=UK+getty+images+&lid=s3irh67lb|dc&pcrid=27274228006&property=GI&kwd=getty+images&mt=e. [Accessed: 3rd August 2013] [5] UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON. CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS. (2013) Photographers’ London. [Online] Available from: http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/shortcourses/mediaarts/summerschool/photography/photographerslondon. [Accessed: 3rd August 2013] [6] PRENSKY, M. (2001) Digital Natives. Digital lmmigrants. [Online] October. Available from: htp://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf. [Accessed: 4th May 2013] Photo at right: IG/ @thehashtagofman