credit to the edit

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I’m up to my eyes in MA deadlines at the moment – hence my quietness. I’m trying to piece together an academic essay on multimedia (and struggling, seven years after my last essay) and am simultaneously in the depths of photo edit hell. For my practical assignment I’ve decided to use some of my Roma work from Istanbul, but the snag is that I’m going to be going all portraits – an approach I’m not certain is acceptable. I have a series I’m reasonably comfortable with, so now I just have to edit them down and find a sequence that works. But first, to bed.

street fighters – Leeds & Clayton

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TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT

Dave Hynes (top), feels like he is living in the countryside now all the neighbouring properties have been demolished. Meanwhile East Manchester resident Bill Booth (bottom) is sick of living in limbo, not knowing whether his house will stay up or come down. Just two more streetfighters.

** I have consolidated all my regeneration work – including four years worth of written pieces and more recent multimedia pieces – on a dedicated website, STREET FIGHTERS. Please check it out **

paralysis

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(Roma wedding, Istanbul, last weekend).

I’m having a bit of a wobble about what work to submit for my first assessed university assignment (due in at the end of this month). I’ve spent months taking pictures at the Booth Centre, a drop in centre for homeless adults in Manchester, and was initially going to do that. Then I went to Istanbul, came back with some nice pictures and wondered if I should put them in instead. I have been consciously trying to look more for interesting stories close to home recently though so this feels like it could be a cop-out…plumping for the exotic and all that. I know that ultimately it won’t much matter so long as I followed the brief but I am paralysed with indecision (as always. typical Libra).

Arghhh.

foundry: my verdict

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So the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is over and I’m swapping rainy Istanbul for rainy Manchester tomorrow. The River Irwell just doesn’t hold the same charm as the Bosphorus though, unfortunately.

I’ve been here for two weeks and have had a really positive experience. I managed to succeed with my first choice of story and am happy with the relationship I managed to build up with my Roma family in a very short length of time, despite our serious communication difficulties. I believe bringing the family prints of my pictures every day (see above), as well as small gifts like tea and sugar really opened a door, and is something I’d highly recommend. I got some portraits I’m satisfied with and became aware of areas I need to work on. I was less happy with the reportage shots I took but that’s something I’ve been feeling for a while now. I think the downside of doing an photography MA is that I now like very few of my pictures. I guess that’s all part of the process.

This was my second workshop and will probably be my last – in 2009 I attended a much smaller affair led by Ed Kashi. The Foundry’s a far different beast – staffed by tutors who give their time up for free, cheaper to attend and far bigger with over 100 photographers of very varied experience levels and backgrounds and nationalities, including many from central and south Asia. I expected people overall to be a bit friendlier than they were but still met some lovely people.

Last year’s workshop gave me a huge amount of direction, which for all my enthusiasm I didn’t previously have. With just six people in our group compared to 10 in my Foundry class – and no additional lectures – we got more shooting time and personal attention. It got me shooting small personal documentary projects, opened my eyes for the first time to multimedia – resulting in my doing some training with Duckrabbit a few months later – and ultimately made up my mind to apply for the LCC course that I’m now on. Without Ed’s enouragement I probably wouldn’t have applied.

What I gained from Foundry was far more subtle, probably because of where I now am as a photographer. It got me really thinking about portraiture, which is something I’m enjoying more and more. Admittedly I could have used the same money to travel independently to Istanbul and worked on a Roma story myself (and for longer), and that’s the way I’d do it next time because I feel I’ve probably got what I can out of the workshop experience. But it was great to spend a week working on a subject that interests me anyway, under the critical eye of someone who can pinpoint the holes (Rena Effendi).

Other highlights included a short portfolio review with Henrik Kastenskov of Bombay Flying Club. He had a few things to say about the outfits worn by the Appleby girls while helping me cut that set of images down to an eight picture edit but also made some useful points about ways I could improve my multimedia. Along with panel sessions on long-term projects and surviving as a freelancer, discovering the work of tutors Maggie Steber and Kael Alford – neither of whom I’ve heard of before – were other high points.

Streetfighters #16 – Goole

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TRANSCRIPT

Last month opponents of the planned demolition of two streets in Goole, a small town in East Yorkshire, were finally given a public inquiry at which they got to air their objections to the scheme, which is being financed under the last government’s Housing Market Renewal scheme. Not that it is likely to make a difference, mind – in March the man behind the national scheme admitted to me in a Big Issue in the North interview that the outcome of these hearings tend to be a foregone conclusion anyway (which residents of course already know). In any case, the results will take six weeks or more to arrive, after which the houses will probably move to council ownership and be bulldozed to make way for new build. Here former resident Gordon Crook, who opposes their clearance, gives his thoughts on the matter.

** All my work on regeneration, dating back to 2006, is now available at my Street Fighters project website **

Foundry workshop, day 4

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I’m still feeling as though I’m making slow progress with my Gypsy project in Istanbul but a few nice images are starting to emerge.

My portrait repertoire is somewhat limited, I’m learning. I feel I need to start using some different approaches to just standing straight on and sitting down and looking at the camera and to the side, but I don’t really spot the opportunities. Using doorways, windows, steps or anything like that might help.

Taking the time to get prints done every day of the previous day’s shoot has worked a treat in getting the family to open up to me though. It’s a trick I use at home sometimes but in a family with so little the gesture really seems to mean a lot.