About Rod Fleming

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About Rod Fleming: I am a Scottish multimedia artist and writer, with a long career as a freelance journalist and photographer.

I have held staff and executive positions in the national print media.  I write books on a variety of topics in both fiction and non-fiction. I am  active as a writer, photographer, printmaker and publisher.

I graduated with Bachelor of Art with Honours from Edinburgh College of Art in 1983, majoring in sculpture and also pursuing life-drawing, printmaking and film-making.

After graduation I worked  in film-making before returning to photography. Subsequently I worked for a number of national titles on staff and nearly all, as well as internationally, as a freelance. I was one of the launch crew for Scotland On Sunday, and became Picture Editor there.

During this time I also pursued Journalism Studies through Napier University in Edinburgh.

I graduated with a Master of Fine Art degree from Dundee University in 2011, where my practical area was photography and printmaking, especially photogravure.

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About Rod Fleming: Photography.

My photographic work is in harmony with my artistic philosophy, which has always been that artists should deliver their work to a wider public. For decades, both as a photographer and Picture Editor, I presented the readers of the newspapers and magazines I worked for with the very best of photographic imagery. I counted my daily audience in millions and felt that this more than justified the constraints I had to work under.

As a result of this intense life as a photojournalist, I developed a theory of photography as an art of reflex and reflection.

Although I had written news and feature articles for many years, I began to write more intensely in the late 1990s and my first book, Poaching the River, was published in 2006. This was written in Doric Scots, and was a homage to my home and upbringing in Scotland.

about rod fleming
The Hermary Project. Composite: Rod Fleming
The Hermary Project.

A major work which involved making photographic portraits of one woman, Marie-Madeleine Hermary, and her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, some 40 individuals. The work addressed my own  relationship with my mother (who died in 2005) but in a wider sense the relationship of all families to their matriarch, and the nature of the close genetic and emotional bonds that exist within them, through the portrayal of their physical similarities.

Prior to this I undertook an in-depth study of my relationship to my wife through photographs, which I compiled into a stand-alone piece of work, an exhibit and a book.

 

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Madeleine. Pic Rod Fleming

About Rod Fleming: Personal Profile

I am an artist, writer and media professional with a broad skill-set gained from a varied career. I am an internationally published photographer and writer. My core skills include both classical and digital photography, intaglio printmaking, writing and film-making.

I have a profound knowledge of photography both in terms of technique and in its application as an art. I am a master of  silver-gelatin  and also other techniques of photographic printmaking, including Salted Paper, Kallitype, Carbon, Gum and Cyanotype. I remain abreast with digital techniques.

Printmaking.

In Printmaking I am well-versed in the intaglio techniques including etching, engraving, dry-point, photo-engraving and the variations on these. I have learned both traditional approaches using chemical mordants, and recent ‘non-toxic’ variations which depend on the application of polymers to the plates.

In recent years I have researched Photo-Gravure, which brings together photography and ink-based printmaking. This was the major practical element of my Master’s Degree. I studied under Dr Paul Thirkell, the foremost teacher of photogravure in the UK today, and Professor Elaine Shemilt.

About Rod Fleming:  I am  familiar with both the classic technique using gelatine and copper plates, and the more modern variant which uses ‘solar plates”. These are commercially-available plates with a pre-sensitised polymer already applied, which use only water as a developer.

Lithography.

I am familiar with both water-based and ‘waterless’ lithography, a recent and very flexible variant.

I am very well versed in modern digital techniques, including PhotoShop and InDesign, which I use on a daily basis, and with large-format inkjet printers.

I have for many years directed workshops in photography and photographic printmaking. At my studio I have a large photographic laboratory, a printmaking studio with etching press, and a full digital suite. As a part of my Master’s Degree I took a module which certifies me as a teacher at University level.

I have always been  concerned with the interaction of artist with audience through the practice of art.

Teaching

I can teach the following either as workshops, as part of a more structured curriculum, or individually:

Practical Application

–    Photography as an artist’s medium, to any level required, using digital, silver-gelatine and historic techniques. I address both the conceptual and technical aspects of these.
–    Intaglio Printmaking, using both traditional processes and ‘non-toxic’ methods.
–    Lithography using both traditional and ‘waterless’ techniques.
–    Screen-Printing, wood-cutting etc.
–    Life-drawing.

Academic Application

–    I can teach approaches and methods which allow artists to connect with the viewer, using photography, moving images, sound, and installations, both real and virtual.

–    In terms of written studies, my principal areas are the history and development of Photography and Printmaking; the Renaissance and its cultural consequences; the ongoing influence of Goddess Culture. (This last was the subject of my Master’s Dissertation.)

About Rod Fleming: Academic Qualifications

2010-11    Dundee University                Master of Fine Art

1985-86    Napier College, Edinburgh            NCTJ stages 1 & 2

1980-83    Edinburgh College of Art            BA Honours

1979-80    Exeter College of Art & Design        Foundation Certificate

 About Rod Fleming: EMPLOYMENT AND CAREER

2011-Present

Freelance writer and photographer specialising in culture, travel, health, politics,  the arts and media. Currently based in the Philippines and the UK but travel worldwide. Experienced copywriter and editor. Research projects in Human Sexuality and Transsexualism.

 2003-2010

Founded and operated Rod Fleming Media, a media consultancy, photography and PR business with various high profile clients.

 2001-2003

Living in France, where I was restoring my 16th Century village property. I supplied freelance photography and journalism to a number of UK titles, and completed a published novel, Poaching the River.

 1995-2000

Founded and operated Scotscape Media, a successful photographic agency on the east coast of Scotland. It filled an important market niche and expanded to include written journalism, PR and design, and employed three staff.

 1991-1995

Freelance Photographer. After leaving Scotland on Sunday I built up a  successful photographic practice. I also continued to produce editorial and sports photography and to write.

 1988-1991

I was invited to join Scotland on Sunday, a new launch quality broadsheet, as Photographer. Later I was promoted to Picture Editor, the youngest ever on a Scottish national newspaper. In this role I helped consolidate the status of the title as Scotland’s premier quality Sunday.

 1987-1988

Freelance Photographer, working for a wide range of publications These included The Scotsman, The Herald, Daily Record and other daily and weekly titles as well as international titles such as Forbes’ Magazine, alongside PR and advertising clients.

 1986-1987

Photographic Printer at The Scotsman, Edinburgh.

 1985-1986

Video Production, Impact Offshore Ltd, Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire.

 1983-1984

Sabbatical President, Edinburgh College of Art Student Representative Council.

 

Yes I really am this person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Replies to “About Rod Fleming”

  1. Rod, I read one of your highly reasoned responses on a liberal website refuting a progressive opinion, and decided to look you up. Your web page here has me scared (maybe even scarred) with all the lady boy content. I haven’t read any of it; Dang! would you care to enlighten me, here in the open, so I don’t have to go down that rabbit hole?

    1. Hi Darby,

      Thanks for your comment. I’m not entirely sure how I can reassure you but I’ll try.

      First, I’m a libertarian. I think we all own our own bodies and lives and have the right to do with them as we will, so long as we do not interfere with other’s ability to do the same, and do not impose our will on others (so people can call themselves ‘zhe’ ‘flea’ or ‘flapjack’ and I will defend their right to do it; but they can’t oblige me to use those words, even when referring to them.) I was always a centrist but the centre has moved so far to Left that I am now persona non grata. I’m for the individual and against the group, economically dry — small gummint, low taxes — and against authoritarianism in all forms — another reason the Left doesn’t welcome me. Freedom of speech is a non-negotiable right, as far as I am concerned; and I mean all speech.

      It follows therefore that I support trans people’s right to be trans. I have issues where they impinge on the rights of others, eg the bathroom one, but in general, live and let live.

      As to my personal life, I think a lot of men are attracted to ladyboys and that includes many conservative men; they just lie about it. I don’t. I would find lying like that contrary to my principles; so I am open and honest.

      I find ladyboys attractive and I date them. I have sired all the children I intend to and I am not about to raise somebody else’s; women of the type to which I am attracted would certainly want to make babies. Ladyboys don’t have that issue. But while true, this is not the main reason I date ladyboys — it’s because I like them, both personally and in sex.

      Apart from that and in terms of the site, sexuality is probably the most fascinating characteristic of humans. Only bonobos come close and even then, not very. I write about what interests me and gains feedback from others and the trans/ladyboy/shemale articles definitely get a lot of attention (along with how to fix a damp house; search me why). So there you have it.

      I don’t see why finding out about something as fascinating as ladyboy culture is a ‘rabbit hole’. It’s interesting. You are either attracted to TS or you’re not and if you’re not, no amount of contact or reading about it will change you. If you are, on the other hand, then it is a pointless waste of life to deny it.

      We don’t really know how orientations come about but the evidence is strongly that they are innate and certainly, once fixed, are not changeable. So if you’re not attracted to ladyboys you won’t become so; but if you are, then you are. (There is such a thing as latent desire; the discovery of attraction is just that — you can’t be ‘turned’ into desiring a particular kind of person, it was always there. )

      If you would like me to address a particular topic, please ask.

  2. Rod
    A great website and a great life.
    We often think about you and the short amount of time we had in Exeter. I remember you rushing in to tell me Lenon had been shot.

    1. Hi Dave! Long time. Yeah I remember that day gosh. Plenty water under the bridge. I still have the pictures we did by the canal one night with the blond girl you were with then…I’ll send you some. Take care I’ll email you direct in the morning, I’m in the Philippines and it’s late here

      Best Rod

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