DPOTY 2019 - Shortlist - Chris Jennings ARPS
Chris Jennings ARPS A Day At The Dogs On Wednesday afternoons a small crowd of enthusiasts gather in the stand of the Brighton and Hove Greyhound Racing Track. They are mostly ladies of a certain age, enjoying a lunch of sausages or gammon and chips, then a cup of tea. They have modest flutters and watch the dogs through big windows. A few more serious betters sit in the stand below and queue at the cashier’s window.
Although I am usually working on several long-term projects, this was executed on the spur of the moment in a single day. I had no particular photographic motivation beyond looking for possible subjects and themes. Concentrating on documenting what I saw, I tried to take different viewpoints: the dogs and their handlers; the gamblers and the bookies; the ladies in groups who have come for lunch and an afternoon flutter. I envisaged a set of seven or so, visually interesting documentary images. I now see how it could form part of a larger social documentary project, perhaps about midweek leisure pursuits, gambling and animals, or disappearing track sports. Perhaps I will develop one of these in the new year. The actual shooting is always challenging, but it is also the most stimulating part of a project; giving me a buzz out of interacting with the people I photograph. Encounters are often fleeting, but I must show a subject’s particularity somehow; I want to see and portray something insightful. I am not sure that I undertake projects, it is more that they overtake me (or take me over). They begin as an accidental set of images on a theme that interests me. At first, I don’t have an angle, or even a purpose, but then one day I discover that I am developing a coherent set of images that do have something worth showing. Then I go into my project mode, channelling insights from single images into a clear intention, and shooting accordingly. I am a bit uneasy with categories; photography people whose opinions I trust have variously described me as: a street photographer; a portrait photographer; a street (or environmental) portrait photographer; a documentary photographer. I call myself a ‘people photographer’. My most successful projects have been of elderly Aymara Indians in Bolivia; markets and the people of markets; the scavengers that live on the rubbish dumps on Central America. The last two have been shown in The Decisive Moment. I am not a professional photographer, though I have had photographs published in specialist journals, including those of international development banks. I have had my photographs accepted for group exhibitions and had my own exhibition which showed in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and a venue just outside Washington DC, USA. 86
