Down in the depths.

Love on the Northern Line

Another week underground and I felt I made some progress. Its a strange old place down there. After a period without the sun, cold or heat or what passes for fresh air in London the body seems to become a little numb. I think this helps if you’re trying to take ‘Street’ photos. You get to the point where you just don’t care as much what other people think or feel when you stick your camera in their face.

To be honest though I haven’t had any confrontations. Some people saw me and others didn’t. If someone did see me I just gave them a smile and for most of the time I got a smile back. I actually had a couple of good laughs with the strangers around me. I’m not a person who starts up conversations with anyone, anywhere but its always so rewarding when photography brings you into the lives of people you wouldn’t have met otherwise – even if it is just for 30 seconds. Street photography is certainly a lot easier when you start to enjoy the interactions it creates rather than dreading them.

Speakers Corner was also a real help. If you ever just want to go and let off some steam then go there on a Sunday afternoon. Nobody can complain about having pictures taken considering they’ve gone especially to scream, bight and kick. Just don’t get into an argument…

I took these next few about a year ago. They’re not so sharp but its possible to see some of the fun you can have.

SLP

I have to admit not all the photos I take at the SLP give me pleasure, but I liked this one I took on Friday. Pretty simple. Ex soldier and trying actor Antony has been unemployed for 7 months despite doing everything he can to find a job. Almost had a breakdown at Christmas and lost his girlfriend. His parents gave him a cat ‘Elvis’ to calm him down and keep him company. I think he called the paper just to try and highlight the problems some people are having finding work in our booming economy.

I’m still getting used to taking portraits, having to try and relax a person and direct them. It does not feel natural. I much prefer to try and catch things as they happen but that’s not always possible. Often I’ve only got around 20-30 minutes to get a selection of at least 6 shots before going on to the next job.

The lighting class on Thursday made me think about doing this one with only natural light next to the window.

One and two halfs.

Central Line

Northern Line (spot the photographer).

Knightsbridge – ‘Kutchinsky’

3 or 4 days of watching and waiting and that’s all the images I managed. The rest were f… not worth talking about. Its been pretty tough this first week on the mean streets. With a cold shower of a tutorial – strangely refreshing in the end. Its a funny old feeling waiting, watching, following and photographing. What if they see me?! But that’s half the fun. I’m telling myself I’ll have it sorted this next time round. I’ll have to wait and see.

Back Track

We’ve already missed over a month of potential Blogsphering so I’ll try and fill-in a few of the gaps and give a little context to me being here writing this to you – the World. It must be around two years now since I decided I wanted to be on this course. I wanted to come to London and I wanted to study Photojournalism. A stepping stone to the land of my dreams. The only other MA in London offering such a course requested that applicants must have made at least a little money out of photography. The LCC didn’t mention this and it sounded perfect. So I applied and got the interview Summer 06. Nerve-racking times. I wasn’t sure whether to dress smart or casual. Should I buy one of those jackets that all the photographers seem to wear? A guy at the BT Callcentre I part-timed at advised a shirt and dress-pants and I guess Kickers. Fortunately I didn’t have any and even better nobody gave a damn. Luckily for me they seemed to like what I had to say and I got in.

That was 18 months ago and its been a long tough struggle. Money is money and in London you need a lot to scrape-by. I needed enough to live for a year without work. At a rough guess that was £15,000. More than my parents mortgaged for their house and it took them over 20 years to pay that back. I was prepared to do anything for cash but a year turned out to be a long time doing something you hate. I don’t understand how people can spend their lives in an office block chasing lager, Friday night and a fortnights holiday. At least it gave me the means to get here so I can’t complain.

So here I am.

The first five weeks have gone reasonably well. The other course-mates are great and what I was hoping for, the lecturers seem pleasant, humorous and rammed with knowledge and ideas. One of the most exciting things is to be surrounded by people with so much enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment towards photography and journalism. My own good health however hangs by the knife edge of my photography. Each day has its ups and downs not only because of what I produce but also the battle to arrange to shoot what I want to shoot. I believe Patrick when he says we’ll develop thick skins but I feel mine must have started off quite thin, or at least its thickness fluctuates day on day or even hour by hour. In any case here are a couple of images from the first 4 weeks of work, give me your critique WWW:

24 hour Burger Van Clapham Common

Palace Bingo, Elephant and Castle.

Coal Yard, Redhill

Barber Shop, Brixton.

Young’s Brewery Chiswick.

Rosa e Mamma ‘now you are the mother’

Rosa gave up her professional career in IT five years ago to care for her mother on a full-time basis. Her mother is now 92, suffers from Alzheimer’s and is almost blind due to cancer in one eye.