Alumni Visit to Art Students
October 2023
On the 6th October the Art department were absolutely delighted to welcome back ex IGS photography student Miles Charlesworth, founder of local media company Mchar media. He visited school to give a lunchtime talk to an interested group of Art, Photography, Media and Business Studies students about his work since leaving IGS in 2018.
Miles was always highly entrepreneurial and ran a small business taking photos and making films from year 10 onwards. When he didn't secure a place at his first choice Uni for film making, he decided to go it alone and hence started running his own business aged just 18.
Miles shared examples of his work with students and talked about setting up and running his video production company, which is based locally. He shared valuable insights into starting up a small company by 'creating the work that you want to be paid for' and sharing this with potential clients, as well as continually looking for and reaching out to clients and offering to work for free in the very early days. He described the importance of Instagram for the development of his brand and being reliable when developing a customer base, also the excitement of both helping clients develop their business through his work and working as a small operator where he sees a job through from concept to shooting, editing and output.
Whilst he wowed us with tales of photographing fast cars and trips to Ibiza to photograph models, he also emphasised the sheer hard work of starting up as a sole trader and rarely taking a break in the first few years. One of his key tips was to always have a 'passion project' to keep moving personal learning forward and maintain interest and enthusiasm.
After the talk Miles generously stayed to answer individual questions with a small group of interested students. We are really grateful to Miles for giving his time to share his experiences and demonstrate where A levels in subjects such as Art, Photography, Media and Business can lead.
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