In this day and age, there is still much value in having your own website. But maybe not for the reasons one might think.

Since I put together my very first website in 2001, it has been a place where I have been able to curate my work. Instead of thinking of it as a place to showcase your work, and an outdated mode of presenting one’s work, because everyone is sitting in Instagram these days, it worth reconsidering a personal website as personalised space in which you can play. A sand box if you will.

For me personally though, I consider my website as ‘my garden’. It is a place where I can tend to my photography, sort, curate, try out different presentations of the work, and ultimately, is a place where I can store my current ‘state of being’ as an artist.

I am delighted to find that some of my workshop friends have taken my advice and decided to create their own websites for this very reason. Initially hesitant or against the idea because they thought a website was an aim to either promote or sell their work, they have come round to realising that a website is a great ‘sketching area’ or ‘garden’ in which to tend their craft. One of my workshop friends has gotten on so well with her website that she has found she is also enjoying writing about her work. In a way, her website has become a journal of sorts for her thoughts and current work.

I have enjoyed enormously having a website for the past twenty years. It has helped me see relationships in my work, understand the underlying themes in what I’m doing, and has also provided focus for me in where I need to go next, or where my work is taking me.

If you wish to work on your photography, improve your style, find out more about what you’re doing as a creative person, then putting a website together and tending it like one does a garden, is one of the best things you can do.