5 minute read
almost) discover what theatres have in store for Christmas PHOTOGRAPHY Esther May Campbell, the kids of
“We were learning about framing, using a camera with a set exposure. He wanted to take a picture of me taking a picture of him”
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LET US PLAY
A collaboration between award-winning filmmaker Esther May Campbell and the kids of St Paul’s Adventure Playground offers a unique testament to the “infinite qualities of mucking around”
We have Bristol University to thank for bringing Esther May Campbell into our midst. Esther came here to study drama; after her course was over, rather than disappearing back to her home town of London she chose to stay on.
“I didn’t need London to hone my craft, but I did need time and space; this was possible in Bristol,” she told us when we met her back in 2017.
During her course, she found both the work and uni community very hard. “This propelled me to extend friendships and work outside propelled me to extend friendships and work outside of college and into the city and its edges. I made films based on the places I I found here. Many of my projects and ideas come from a sense of localism and community. I’m interested in liminal places and the interested in liminal places and the imagination; I look for whatever is exceptional or important about the domestic, social and environmental.”
Take her BAFTA-winning short film September, for example: a poetic 21-minute drama set in the “in-between world of flyovers, grass verges and dead-ends” of a sleepy rural corner of the West Country. Or the 2015 feature-length Light Years, which premièred at the Venice Film Festival: “a story of loss, hope and deepest human connection, in a giddy trip through England’s edge lands”.
Esther’s most recent project is Scrapbook, a photographic collaboration with the children attending the photography club at St Paul’s Adventure Playground – or ‘Ventures’, as the kids call it. The result, to quote Esther, is a glorious “testament to the infinite qualities of mucking around; a portal into the telling world of child’s play, upside-downing, risk, creation, kinship, destruction, art and story, as the world keeps on spinning.”
The images were shown at an exhibition, both at the playground and in giant posters across the city, and are now available in a book that aims to raise money for the frequently beleaguered Ventures.
clockwise: “On one of my first visits to Ventures, the kids were jumping off the playground onto a crash mat, so we decided to try and get a timed shot“
“This girl made a light reflector into a headdress, and another child later collaged a sign over the top of the image reading ‘Welcome to Ventures’
“One of the kids ran off with the camera. They took a photo that I wouldn’t have taken, because I thought it would be too dark, but it came out beautifully”
Esther, how did you first get involved with the club? Tell us a bit about how you collaborated with the children I’ve been teaching black-and-white photography to local kids in We took cameras apart, collaged, photographed, and thought and Easton around my kitchen table for a while, focusing on relationship- played like artists. We watched the light, created archetypes, froze building with community and land through art. movement. The kids led me into a more anarchic frame of the world.
Rachel at St Paul’s Adventure Playground asked me to run a similar I worked with them looking at photobooks and images from the past club, for kids aged between 3-13. It evolved to deconstruct how light, a lens, an expression from there, depending on who showed up, the direction of the wind, etc. Soon the Arts Council became involved and we were set to keep going, finally producing a street exhibition and a book. When did the project take place? “The kids led me into a more anarchic frame of the world” and much more might make us feel when we see an image. For each session I’d have a I’d have a theme, but was always prepared to run off in a new direction. Emerging from the depths of collaboration, the book and exhibition reveal the risks and joys of throwing oneself into play and imagination. Between April 2019 and March 2020, on and I took some of the photos, then they off. We had to stop because of the virus, and then collaged, then they were retaken. Or, they the playground suffered an arson attack. After this we began to design would create a character or a piece of art, and I’d take the image. So the book from home. In a way, though, Scrapbook is still taking place. the notion of authorship is much more blurred. Images have been up around the city and outside the playground, the book is being bought, and we hope to hang the work next spring once the Do you have any favourite photos? playground is up and running again. The girl with a headscarf taken against a wall. The camera has Why did you shoot in film instead of digital? expressionist painting. One of the girls took it, and whenever I see the It meant the kids felt they were handling something less usual – even image I catch my breath. n exotic. As artefacts, the old cameras we used were objects of time struggled with light and the picture has gone very grainy, like an travel. Some were a hundred years old. Some mums would see us using Some were a hundred years old. Some mums would see us using SCRAPBOOK costs £20. All profits will go to the ongoing work at St Paul’s an old Rolliflex, and recall how an uncle would come to their village Adventure Playground; buy at apeproject.co.uk and take pictures of the community. For more: esthermaycampbell.com
“This was taken on a 100-year-old camera, so the subjects had to keep still. It’s a real challenge for kids to be that still. The first chance was lost when they were distracted by what was going on in the playground. They turned back round and we were lucky enough to get this second shot.”
