12 minute read
Photography Projects
Photo Credit: 'Joy' by Rolf Kraehenbuehl
Steven Powell discusses the different stages of photography projects with members of the RPS Documentary Group.
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’,
the fishermen, coming ashore. I simply enjoyed the freedom of walking around with my camera and photographing the stories I saw. I had no preconceptions and kept an open mind, so there was little disappointment if nothing developed.
RH: Whilst studying photography, I started looking into professional photographers who inspired me. They included Diane Arbus, Dougie Wallace, Bruce Gilden, Nick Turpin and Martin Parr. They all photographed people in a candid and honest way and focused on one theme through a series of images. This is when I started seeing my Plymouth photos as connected rather than as individual images. I started to consider what I wanted to form part of my newly found series and to hunt for particular images. I researched the history of Plymouth, curious to see what made the city unique from others, so I could capture the context within my series. I wanted to include aspects of Plymouth as part of those images, such as a person with a high rise building or the University of Plymouth in the background. This would allow the audience to either recognise the location or to make more assumptions from that image. I also considered the placement of people and objects, such as what should be ‘low’ and ‘high’, drawing the eye seamlessly through the image and on to the next.
Did you have specific images in mind, or did you have the bones of a narrative you could work from?
SL: I wanted to capture the spirit of the march and hoped that the images would tell a story, so I did my best to include the banners and words on the coffin in my picture alongside the strippers who were the protestors.
AC: Watching the fishermen, lots of pictures came to mind. Photographing them working, coming ashore in their boats, cleaning nets, the possibilities seemed endless - and still are.
Execution
How long did you give yourself to make the images you needed for your narrative?
SL: It was just one day as the protest march was the only opportunity to tell the story because the White Horse pub had already closed down.
AC: I photographed the fishermen on and off for about three years, so I had a large library of pictures to draw on for my DPOTY submission.
DG: There is no plan...if you’re grabbing someone who’s on the way to work, then you have to move fast. If you organise to meet someone in advance, then it’s a little more relaxed but still no more than 15 mins.
How did you respond to opportunities to take the project in a new direction?
AC: When I achieved my ARPS, I made a photo-book and gave copies to both the Hastings Fishermen’s Protection Society and to the Hastings Fishermen’s Museum. As a result, the Museum asked me to have an exhibition of my pictures. Needless to say, I was delighted to take them up on this and the exhibition was on for a year from July 2017 to July 2018. Believe it or not, at that stage I still needed more pictures, as I hadn’t photographed all the fishermen. The Museum gave me a list of those missing, so I had to track them down to photograph them. I then republished my book to accompany the exhibition.
RH: Initially, I intended to only capture close portraits for my series, but my eyes were opened to the urban landscape as well, which helped to set and contextualise the portraits within their environment. The opportunity to work with Nick Turpin has actively encouraged me to look at my work not just as portraits, but as an entire project, which is one of the reasons I now constantly reflect on and review my images.
Editing
How do you deal with the tough decisions?
SL: I had to pretend I was a picture editor of a publication and the pictures were not mine.
DG: I don’t know, but we all have to do it. I just follow my gut instinct but of course curating your own work is so hard. I do trust myself and I do ask other people but if they tell me the best image is one I don’t like, then I stick with my decision. So, really, I guess I’m hoping they will confirm what I’m thinking.
RH: I have had meetings with Nick Turpin in order to go through my work. It has helped having open and honest discussions around whether I have produced a picture or an image. I plan to print my series of images so far, as a different way to look for more current trends and themes, and I hope that this will create a more streamlined series. I recognise that I may face more tough decisions in the future. Currently, focusing on creating images and building on my project helps me to look at my series as continually progressing.
What’s your usual discard rate?
SL: For this project it was 75% discard rate as there were more than the 5 images submitted that were useable or of good quality. They were just not required for the submission to this competition.
DG: Depends what I’m doing. On this project I may take 40 shots. I’ll only use one but on a good day they may all be actually usable. I went to India in January shooting the streets. I came back with 1,500 images that I edited down to about 60 that I would put my name to. Sometimes when I shoot gigs, and most of them have very poor lighting now, I shoot 100 images and there might be two or three I’d show. Depends on your quality control bar and where that is set, I guess. Some people I know go to gigs and shoot 150 bad photos and show them all. You’re only as good as your worst image.
RH: Due to the style in which I photograph subjects, my discard rate can be high. As I take my images relatively quickly and candidly, I take multiple images and then select the best. For my Plymouth project, I have taken nearly 200 (edited) images, I have published just 33 on my website as part of the project. I feel this shows a higher standard. It does not overwhelm viewers and keeps the project focused and specific.
AC: My discard rate is huge! If I get 1 per cent of a shoot, I consider myself lucky. But, luckily, I have been out on a shoot and come back with a higher percentage than this!
Do you typically shoot many versions of the same image to give yourself options or do you look for unique moments?
SL: Yes, particularly when taking pictures of a group of people as one could be blinking or in an awkward posture etc.
DG: Yes absolutely. I know I’m only there for a short while, so I shoot all angles, tight and wide, portrait and landscape. If I see through the viewfinder that the light is beautiful, I stick with it until I’ve exhausted all options.
LM: When I see a good subject, I get very excited. I might take a walk around and take many shots from different angles or look at crouching down and getting a view from below. I also position myself in a good place and watch for interesting compositions and passers-by. The market stalls were good, as people were intent on looking for food or goods to buy and they took little interest in me taking photos. On Sunday the muddy pathway also proved a distraction. We spent a lot of time photographing the ‘flashing’ road adjacent to the field. Here the horse riders, mostly macho young men, rode bare back at a frantic pace for a short distance, or they whipped along in a buggy and cart, without much regard for pedestrians or even perhaps the horse. Photographing them was fun and I tried to look at the background but was often taken up by the moment. If I went again, I would hope to take more care with composition and the right camera settings. So many photos were discounted because of background distractions or out of focus issues.
AC: I do shoot many versions of the same image and am always waiting for unique moments. Composition is important to me: I took multiple versions of one of my most successful images where three ‘boy ashores’ were cleaning out some nets, purely and simply to get the composition I wanted while they were working.
RH: I often find myself having one really good portrait, I feel looking for the unique moment is key for my series. Whereas, when taking landscape images of the urban environment, I tend to have multiple images in order to get the structure right.
Has the editing process ever presented a different story/angle you’d not considered before?SL: In other projects, in the past, a different angle has emerged that I did not think of before.
DG: Yes of course that’s the bit I love best. The accidents or serendipity. In all my photography I hope for the accidents. Some of my shots came that way and I had intended it to happen.
RH: I feel I have been diligent about the images I have taken, and I have learnt not to rush the series.
Have you ever just closed a project after completing the execution and finding it fell short in some way?
SL: I’m very new to the documentary genre so I have not experienced this as I have not done many projects. RPS DPOTY is the first ever documentary or story telling competition I have come across and I entered with no expectation of winning anything. I was taken by surprise to win the gold medal in the mono section and grateful for the existence of this dynamic group.
DG: Most of my projects are open ended and just part of my life so no, not really. I am photographing my life and the people and events that I encounter so it’s all still ongoing.
AC: A few years ago I started photographing the shopkeepers and pub owners in my village and found there wasn’t enough ‘meat’ in the project, so it soon floundered, and I went on to another project. However, I have recently become re-inspired and am taking it up again, but this time, photographing all the community groups (I have found around 20) and I am including some candid pictures of people going about their business. I now intend to use the images I took a few years ago and, once complete, to publish a magazine.
RH: I have created a tattoo series, which helped to build my confidence and has also been popular with local art guilds and magazines. However, I feel the formal documentary portraits of people getting tattoos clashed with what I was aiming to achieve. I do not feel this fell short, as it has been successful and I am proud of the series, but it also taught me to consider a series in a more rounded and holistic way in the future.
