Work, Rest and Play

An artist

This is the working title for my assignment; I have been photographing people in the cities of Chester, Liverpool and Manchester. Whether these people were homeless or working or at play; some of the people I have shot have welcomed me as in the case of the street artist who had asked me to pose for him, I gladly and willingly did. Achiem Olajudal (I think that is his name) was an artist using charcoals as his tools; his subject was too like mine, people.

People are the focus of many a photographers assignments; I wanted to portray how we are today, how far have come since those days of the first images being taken by Talbot Fox. The answer of course in photography terms is very far, the principles are still the same however the subjects have changed very little. We still have people wandering the streets begging for money, we still have people performing as in at play, whether they’re mimes or musicians or even the latest sand sculptors and their sculptures.

We still have people working too, today when you’re walking down the street, you will still see flower sellers, groceries stalls, or the odd balloon seller.

I have tried to document these people as best I can from a compositional point of view, I hope you will see my interpretation of what my photographs are saying, whether it be metaphor or a shot that shows drama or invites the viewer to relate to the image because it has that spark of emotion.

My inspiration comes from the master photographers of the past century, Henri Cartier-Bresson; Tony Ray-Jones and Aleksander Rodchenko. Okay yes they’re lot more besides and I have to admit too, that one such photographer who is Lee Miller has captured my imagination from a journalistic perspective, how heroic she really was, such an inspirational woman! I will come back to Lee Miller in another post, she is worthy of much more than a few paragraphs.

Although I have tried to take some of the shots in reportage style, I have been mainly concerned with the photographs result ensuring that they are saleable to a market.

This particular shot was a young man who was so in his element a musician using ‘alternative’ objects to bang on this makeshift drum kit. He played out a good rhythm, and a few people watched, but mostly walked by not even considering this man’s exceptional talent. (Are we really, so unsociable?)

This one image, of course depicting a man at ‘play’ he is so instrumental (pardon the pun) in my thematic. I have captured a series of photographs that I will post onto my on-line portfolio. So keep watching.

What I love about this shot is how candid it looks, however the 'drummer' was certainly aware of my presence.

Next week I have a got another photo assignment this one, is purely for the sporting fraternity in particular the 'running aficionados', I will be covering the Snowdon Marathon probably one of the most demanding marathons in the UK, with an elevation gain of just over 1200 feet (365m) it is sure to prove a hard one to the relative 'newcomer'.

Am sure though I will get some exciting shots off. So until then enjoy half term, its great to have a break from Uni.