Photography Projects
Photography Projects
Steven Powell
To coincide with the launch of the Documentary Photographer of the Year 2019 (DPOTY) competition, we started a short series of articles on photography projects. In the series we’ve heard from some Documentary Group (DG) members about their processes and thoughts around various aspects of project work. Our regular panel for this series is: Suzi Luard ARPS, David Gleave LRPS, Lynda Morris LRPS, Ryan Hardman LRPS and Ann Chown ARPS. Ann’s project covers fishermen in Hastings. Suzi’s the funeral of a pub in London. Lynda’s focus was the horse fair in Appleby. David’s and Ryan’s both centre around the interesting people found their local area. The first two articles covered Planning and Execution. These were previously published in full in the DG Members’ Newsletter and some highlights are included here. In this edition of The Decisive Moment we finish the series with a look in detail at the difficult process of Editing.
Planning Thanks for taking the time to take part in this series everyone. What attracted you to the subject matter? Were there specific individuals or events which you wanted to include? SL: For me it was a local issue - the gentrification of an area in east London, the White Horse pub being one of the casualties. The family run pub closed due to rising rent and eventually the property was sold to be used as a restaurant with ‘high quality ingredients from small producers’. A New Orleans funeral style protest march happened to be scheduled, which I came across on Time Out online. DG: In terms of subject matter I only have one subject and that is people. The idea was that it would be about urban style or even fashion, so I knew I wanted people who had a cool look. I’d always loved Mangle Street even before I was a photographer. More recently I’d photographed a couple of bands there and then a couple of models that I borrowed from an agency of a friend. I then got the idea of using the street as the backdrop. That would be the project. It then expanded to a couple of equally interesting surrounding streets like China Lane. These places are in Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter so the project will be called ‘Mangle Street Blues – NQ Portraits’. LM: Horse Fairs looked like really interesting places to get photos of people who form a unique community in a place where they gather to share their interests. I had seen several photos taken at Horse Fairs, but it was the photos of Jo Teasdale and Dave Mason that in particular inspired me to go. They seemed to capture the character of the people, and the atmosphere and energy of the place. Can you talk us through the planning stage for your project? AC: Not being a professional photographer, but a photographer with limited experience, I didn’t do much planning, apart from setting my alarm so that I could get up early to catch my ‘victims’, 120
