Documentary ARPS Panel - Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Appleby Horse Fair

I have always been captivated by gypsies and their culture. During the last 5 years I have worked on a personal project building up a body of work on the gypsies annual gathering at Appleby Horse Fair. Starting tentatively and building an affinity allowed me to capture some more honest photographs at Appleby Horse Fair.

I began wanting my panel to record the “old guard” gypsies in their travelling wagons pulled by coloured horses, and their horse trading at the fair. But as I learned more and gained understanding of the people, I felt it important to capture the younger generation too; their “rite” to attend the fair.

I explored their connection to their culture, their close knit community, their pride and their arrogance – I have found that all generations have a strong bond to the horse and many preserve the Romany characteristic of being free spirits.

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

Simon R Leach FRPS - Chair of the Royal Photographic Society Distinctions, Documentary Genre

If you have been around documentary photography for any length of time you will, no doubt, have heard photographers talk about understanding a project, taking time to explore, to build up knowledge, and enhance their personal understanding. It is this element that I want to focus on for Fiona Willoughby’s project “Appleby Horse Fair”. It demonstrates, very clearly, how important these elements are to consider when conceptualising a potential project.

This body of work was created over a number of years. The decision to take on a narrative around an annual event is a challenge in itself; ensuring that you can maintain motivation and passion in your subject, not just a vague interest, over a period of years. You must be prepared for the potential frustration of not simply being able to head out and add a few more photographs. Fiona has not let these potential issues phase her. In addition, she has demonstrated an ability to photograph, and process, in a way that creates and maintains the cohesion which holds the work together and gives it the consistency of an individual vision.

The result is an immersion in the subject that comes through in the work. By taking a similar approach appropriate to your own subjects, gaining an understanding of the issues and beliefs involved, potentially developing relationships, will all benefit the effectiveness of your photography. In her statement, Fiona alludes to the time she invested in not being too pushy and allowing an affinity to build between herself and her subjects. This allowed her to understand the subjects, and helped her to create “honest photographs”.

Giving yourself time, as a photographer, allows for the organic growth of the initial creative concept. We are all aware of what happens through the process of creating a body of work; you start with one specific idea, but that can expand, shift and develop as your understanding grows. You may discover an equally compelling side story, that better lends itself to exploration through photographic work. In turn, your level of understanding can be demonstrated, and the communication to your viewer can also develop positively. When starting a documentary project, I feel it is important to ask who it is for, and what do I want them to take away? It is okay, though, to accept that the answers may evolve through the process of creating the work.

At the RPS, we talk a lot about the communication to the viewer. While there is nothing wrong with a project that only means something very distinct to you personally, understand that limitation, and recognise that it will probably not have the same meaning or interest for others you show your work to. The work that Fiona has created in “Appleby Horse Fair”, through that extended immersion, can clearly communicate with a viewer. It does explore the characters and characteristics of both the traditional and contemporary gypsies, providing a narrative of these two sides as well as presenting their mutual passion and connection to their Romany culture and the iconic horses.

Fiona Willoughby ARPS - interviewed by Gerry Phillipson LRPS

What first attracted you to the lives and culture of gypsies and how did you discover Appleby?

My first memory of gypsies was probably when I was 6 years old. As a child, I remember being driven between my home and Dunkeld (in Scotland) where there was often a gypsy caravan parked beside the road. We were scared to look, just in case, we caught the eye of the gypsy but it was always exciting and compulsive.

In my 20s, I was living in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, where my husband worked with horses. The area had a lot of gypsies and their Cob type horses, usually black and white or Piebald (tricolour), that had started to become fashionable with the hunting set. Consequently, he and his boss were buying these coloured horses from the gypsies, training them to go hunting, and then selling them on. We used to go to the gypsy fairs, and they would also buy traditional wagons, do them up, and sell them on.

When we went to live in Afghanistan in early 1990, my interest grew. The gypsies there are wonderfully colourful and forbidding! I took some photographs of them, and hope one day to go back and photograph more.

I knew about Appleby from my time in Gloucestershire when we went to the Stow Fair. Then, living on the border of England and Scotland, it was a local event, so I have been going to Appleby for maybe twenty years, but only documenting it for five of them.

Can you tell us something about how you developed an affinity with the people and over what period of time? Was this only done at Appleby Horse Fair?

I am interested in people and their cultures, and trained in photography in the 1990s, so I’m happy and confident to approach people to chat and take their photographs. I do also have horses, and follow national hunt racing.

I feel I am a sensitive photographer. Having worked in some difficult regions, such as Afghanistan and Angola, both during and post conflict, I trust that I can quickly judge whether people are open to being photographed or would prefer to be left alone!

Many of the gypsies I know are proud of their heritage (and are a little bit vain). They take great efforts to decorate their caravans and paint their horse drawn wagons and are, therefore, happy to have them photographed. I choose more traditional folk as subjects, and stay away from the “rougher” types who have difficulty keeping the peace. I don’t get involved in that but might well take a few shots for the record and walk away – it is not what I am looking to communicate.

Camera in hand, were there times when you were regarded with suspicion? Did you ever experience antagonism?

Yes, I guess I do get looks. Romany people have a certain strong stare that communicates a “get lost” message, so I don’t approach them! I just smile, acknowledge their wishes, and move on.

Some of the subjects, for example the assembled horses or individual shire horse shots might work well in black and white. Did you consider showing monochrome work?

I agree some of the images would look good in black and white, but I like colour images - bit of a magpie really! Certain shots, like the horse trading, would be good in black and white. My panel was colour, though, so for continuity and following feedback during an advisory day, I didn’t mix the panel.

Which photograph from your panel gives you most satisfaction? Is it for you the most successful image?

That’s difficult, but I love the man leading the horses through the meadow of buttercups. It is peaceful, and conveys a gentle side of the travellers and the care they take of their horses, which I was aiming to show in my panel. I also love the boy with his motorbike, he’s full of attitude and the envy of every other boy round him. Of course, the girl giving me the ‘Vs” too; she had attitude. I’d taken a few shots of her, but then she’d had enough - so indicated it with a sign!

Which photograph in the panel did you find the most difficult to achieve?

The image of the man in a T-shirt, leading up the horses, was risky. They don’t have a great deal of control over the horses which are moving fast. Many are young and easily spooked by the crowds, and there are horses coming from the opposite direction at speed. There are no rules, and there’s no-one controlling the “flashing” of the horses. Even if there was, I’m not convinced they would be listened to. It’s called the Flashing Road, where they show off their horses for sale; this is their road, it’s not for photographers!

So my point is, if you’re brave enough to get into the middle of the road for a shot, you have to have someone watching your back.

One that got away?

This photo didn’t make it into the panel. I already had an overview shot of the horses in the river, with the crowds looking on. It is something that is often photographed, and it was felt that going to the caravan and wagon area, with people doing other activities, was a more unusual view.

Fiona Willoughby ARPS

If you could rework the panel what changes would you now make?

I think I would have put in some more intimate images, from the evening perhaps, when the gypsies are cooking on the fires or chatting round the wagons.

Clearly you will develop this project further – can you say something about how you’ll do this? What would you most want the viewer to take away from your photographs?

I’d like to be getting closer, more detailed, more intimate shots. I want the viewer to feel the gypsies affinity for the horse; to be inspired to go to a gypsy fair; to see for themselves that they are not all bad - many are kind country folk and tell great stories. They are like every sector of society with good and bad members.

Have you any thoughts of producing a photo book documenting the Appleby Horse Fair, or the lives of gypsies more generally?

It has been suggested that I do a book documenting the fair; this was my intention. Another photographer had been doing one each year for 25 years and gave up two years ago. My friend Mala suggested that I take over, but last year Covid stopped the fair, and I don’t know if it will happen in 2021 yet, but it is something I am keen to do. I am also just starting the MA in photography at Falmouth University, and have thought that I would broaden my gypsy/Romany project to other countries – maybe revisiting Afghanistan, and studying Joseph Koudelka’s gypsies project.