Introduction- The Record/ The Document

'All photographs are a document of some kind, a visual record of that was in front of the lens at the time of exposure.'

This statement unravels the start of my project well because it introduces the simple concept that any photograph is a record/ document of what it captures. While this statement unravels my project it also makes it seem like it has endless possibilities to what direction I could follow while responding to this specific but un-specific title. 

To begin I'm going to investigate the theme of documentary photography because its the subject that has the strongest connection to the title. 

The general definition of documentary photography is the photographic form used to capture both significant/ historical events and everyday life. Its arguably the oldest form of photography because when it was first invented, photography wasn't seen as an artistic form. It was only used to document happenings/ events of the everyday, it wasn't until later before photography was accepted as an artistic process. To start my project I am going investigate into different documentary photographers, which will hopefully inspire a starting point to then develop from. 

Paul Graham

Paul Graham is an English photographer born in 1956, he is within that generation of photographers who were amongst the last to engage with the medium before it became part of the broader contemporary art world. Graham much like Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Rineke Djikstra, Thomas Struth and Philip-Lorca DiCorcia engaged with the medium at a time when it was not simply a component in an artists repertoire, but unique artistic territory in its own right. This gives these artists a unique way of turning the stories they want to explore into a photographic medium which can be in-turn understood by the viewer.

His series titled 'A1- The Great North Road' was shot between 1981/2, it was a documentary project which captured the different people and scenes on the British A1 road. The series is an interesting mix between landscape and portrait based photography, I believe he uses this mix to give the series depth which then gives the viewer a more detailed view on the road itself. Out of the photographs I believe Graham's portraits are the most interesting to look at, because he uses simple 'straight on' compositions which are eerily quiet but allow the viewer to study the subject in detail. 

After analysing this Graham's project I feel that I more want to follow the portrait documentary route, where my biggest focus is on the people inside the place instead of just the place. I think what makes this project successful is Graham's choice of place to photograph, I think picking an interesting place to photograph is key to a good series and is something that I will have to think about while trying to decide my idea. 

Daniel Meadows

Daniel Meadows is an English photographer born 1952 in Great Washbourne, Gloucestershire. Meadows studied at Manchester Polytechnic along side Peter Fraser, Brian Griffin, Charlie Meecham and Martin Parr. Parr has since turned into one of Britain's most famous documentary photographers and has had world wide success from his well known photo-books.
While studying in Manchester 1973, Meadows and Parr heard about a street in Salford,Greater Manchester called June Street which was going to be demolished. The two of them began documenting the residents prior to its demolition. Something that attracted the pair to June Street was its use in the filming of ITV's Coronation Street, the street would be alive on tv but was about to be taken from existence. Manchester housing conditions were a big story at the time, with a large article being recently published condemning housing quality in Salford to a 'miserable state'. This resulted in twenty houses in June Street being put up for eminent demolition.
The two paired up with a BBC researcher who recorded the voices of the residents to be used along side their photographs in a story completed by 'Look North' a magazine programme.
Referring back to my comment made upon Paul Grahams work on the importance of choosing the correct location to produce a documentary series on, the support shown to Meadows and Parr for their series highlights how they took something that was relevant to the times and produced photographic work in response. This was then used alongside a larger article on the event and the residents affected.
Meadows images are portrait based, in which he gathered each of the residents within their homes to produce a family photo. It works well in documenting the social conditions of 1973 Manchester because the photographs wern't staged, they were taken within the individuals front rooms while they pose for the camera. Some of the photographs to me feel quite forced and fake because the families look overly happy, but others look natural for how decided the composition of the family is.

This series further highlights the importance of choosing a good location to document. After looking at Daniel Meadows and Paul Graham my initial thoughts to my project are to follow the documentary/ portraiture theme of the subject in their natural surroundings. I now need to come up with ideas of where to photograph.

Idea- Moss Side Manchester

After analysing Paul Graham and Daniel Meadows projects, I realised the importance of choosing an interesting place to focus my documentary project on. After thinking about this location I came up with the area of Moss Side in Manchester. The reason for choosing this area was because firstly its a close proximity to my house, meaning I could travel to it easily allowing me to go on multiple shoots at ease. This means the project could end up being large and well documented, which should result in a greater understanding for the viewer.
Moss Side is an inner-city area of Manchester which has been an area condemned to gang violence and drug selling for many past years. Its even renowned in England for being one of the most dangerous areas to live. These facts make the area more interesting to photograph in my opinion, because I would want to produce a project on why the area is this way and who is behind it. Recently the area has had a lot of re-development and money pumped into it to try and reduce its bad reputation.
Over the past few years gun crime statistics for the area have dropped quite substantially compared to the high numbers found in 2006. This could be due to the re-development of the area, or for other untold reasons.

There could be multiple ways of focusing my project but a few I think would work best include:

Gangs- My main focus would be on documenting the areas different gangs and if the crime is actually decreasing or if its not being reported on as heavily. Something that might attract the youth to take part is that it gives them a chance to voice themselves, which they may feel is not something that is usually offered to them. This would make a really good set of photographs, because it would let the viewer into a world that is rarely seen unless involved in the practise. The big problem with this is actually getting inside the gang as many wont want to be photographed, because it could be used as evidence against them, I could talk to other photographers who have achieved this to see what they did.

Community- My second idea would be doing a series much like 'June Street' by Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr. This would be where I photograph the families that live within the Moss Side community and document their lives. I could make my aim to show how positive the area is, which would counter its bad reputation, this would also make the residents more likely to let me photograph them because its to make the area they live in more appealing to the outside world.

For both ideas I would need to get an 'in' to the community or gang, without this it would be very difficult to produce anything with enough depth. This 'in' could be from emailing and visiting Moss Side community centres, because they know the area and its people well, also they would probably like the idea of photographing the areas positive community to counter its negative reputation. The community centres would also have young people within, which might have connections to gangs. A second idea would be the Moss Side twitter account, who may have connections for either idea.

The reason that I want to produce a documentary project where the subject is asked for consent, instead of shooting them candid, is because I have done candid series before and would prefer a change. Also it will push me out of my comfort zone because I would have to interact with my subject, this also makes it harder because many could say no to the whole idea unless they are reassured it would be used as it should be.

Adam Patterson

After thinking about my Moss Side documentary project idea I began researching photographers who had done the same idea.

Adam Patterson is a photographer and filmmaker based in Belfast who works globally for a range of international companies and clients. He has completed multiple projects on different themes, that he responds to in a documentary format, whether that be in film or photographic mediums.

'Another Lost Child' is a project he began after being impacted by the amount of teenage gun and knife crime in London 2008. Patterson felt it was important to find some of these young people and offer them a chance to voice themselves through visuals, text and moving image. While completing the series he met a man called Jean-Claude, who had the street name 'Vipoh'. The two became friends and Patterson made visits back to London to meet up with Jean-Claude to carry on documenting his life as he moved away from the gangs and into married life between the years of 2008-13. All of his images are portrait based, allowing the viewer to understand that the series is about the people involved instead of the place. I find his images really emotive, especially the one of Jean-Claude and his son. I think this is from the moment being very natural and it makes the viewer think about family life, which is completely opposite to gang orientated photos at the start of the project.

His style of work could be connected to either ideas on gangs or community because his style of documenting the subjects could be applied in both cases, because at the start he focused on gang culture but then moved more onto more family based work which could connect stronger to documenting the family based community.

Bruce Davidson

Another artist that helps inspire me for my Moss Side project is Bruce Davidson is an American photographer who has been a member of Magnum Photos agency since 1958. His photographs have been widely published, especially those taken in harlem, New York City. His artistic inspirations include Robert Frank, Eugene Smith, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, so its no surprise his work has a big social documentary theme.
Unlike Pattersons contemporary work, the series I'm focusing on for Davidson was produced in 1959 and focuses on a Brooklyn Gang. Both Patterson and Davidson have used the same technique in their work, in which they make an initial connection to the gang and then follow them around to document their everyday lives and what they get up to. The series isn't about violence or crime, its more a study of how the individuals felt within the gang. Davidson comments it captures their deep depression, anxiety and fear, but at the same time an incredible vitality. The photographs all feel so natural even though the subject knows there being taken, I think this skill in photography takes a long time to master. This could also be achieved by spending such a long time with the gang, one can see that they became incredibly comfortable with his presence, thus allowing him to photograph them honestly.
This kind of connection and comfort would come from spending a long time with the people photographed, and is evident in both Davidsons and Pattersons work. This doesn't work so well for me because I don't have the same kind of time scale these two photographers had to achieve this. This has started to made me think doing a documentary series on such a specific group in which I infiltrate would be difficult because I don't have enough time to pull it off to the same extent.

Idea Re-think

After investigating into the documentary project on Moss Side idea, I have started to realise that I would need more time to properly document the community or gangs to the extent I want. I feel that I should leave this idea until a time in which I can spend longer making connections with the groups. After looking into the work of the artists I already have, I think it is still important to choose an area that would be interesting to document. I just feel that I should approach this in a different way to a very personal documentary project, more like the style of Grahams project, because his project is less intrusive than Meadows, Patterson and Davidsons. In saying this I could re-visit my Moss Side idea later on in my project but for now I'm going to think of a new location to document.

Cultural Diversity

After ditching the Moss Side idea I began thinking about interesting areas that I could photograph in Manchester, even though I could have focused on a different area I decided to keep it to Manchester. While thinking about Manchester I began realizing how culturally diverse the city is, so I began researching into this.

I found an article online published by the Daily Mail in 2012 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248956/Europes-exotic-city-Its-Manchester-153-languages-spoken-population-500-000.html) , stating how Manchester was one of Europe's and the worlds most exotic countries. What they meant by 'exotic' was how diverse it was, they measured this diversity on how many languages were spoken within the area.  In Manchester there is at least 153 languages spoken by a population of 500,000, whereas London has over 300 languages spoken but with a population of over 8 million. This shows that relative to size, Manchester has a hugely diverse mix of population, furthermore London's large mix was also due to its passing business population, whereas Manchester's population mix was mostly residents who actually live within the area. Around two thirds of Mancunian school children are bilingual which enforces how precious its linguistic culture is.
This large mix of culture within Manchester can be accounted for a number of factors. It had rapid growth in the Industrial Revolution, in the textile industry which attracted many foreigners to the area, begining its diverse nature. Manchester's policy of employing workers from abroad for the public services and NHS also strengthened this mix. Lastly there a two huge universities, which are arguably two of the largest in population size found in the UK, which are found in the Manchester area. These universities have many foreign students which increase diversity statistics for the area.

It's obvious that cultural diversity is very important to Manchester so this would be a good thing to focus on for my project in which I'm looking at documentary portraiture. This means capturing portraits of people in the environment that they were already in, so not taking them out of their environment and shooting them in a studio surrounding. Capturing residents would be a good way of showing Manchester's diversity in a photographic medium but as I've discussed previously it would take time to get a good 'in' into this environment. Equally just capturing peoples portraits on the street isn't enough because it doesn't actually represent Manchester's population, due to the subjects may being tourists who don't live in the area.
I could focus on different shopping area's of Manchester because they all have different cultural mixes of people. Furthermore, if I focus on the actual shop owners/ workers it means that I will be representing the population of Manchester more truthfully because the subjects actually live and work in the area.
So next I will begin looking into different shopping areas of Manchester to photograph.

Chinatown Manchester

Manchester Chinatown is the second largest in the United Kingdom and third largest in Europe, inside it contains many Chinese restaurants, shops, bakeries and supermarkets.

The area began to grow rapidly in population density after the government passed the British Nationality Act 1948, which allowed easier access into the country. Most businesses at the start were restaurants, but after the influx of more residents in the 1970s, medicine shops, Chinese supermarkets, as well as financial and legal services grew rapidly to serve the growing population. Now Chinatown is a big attraction to Manchester tourism due to its apparent difference to the rest of the city, it allows tourists to have a different cultural experience from what they usually may see. This area would be a good place to start representing Manchester's cultural diversity.

After looking at the different photographers previously mentioned, I want to photograph Chinatown from a specific documentary view, i.e. what is my focus going to be on while documenting the area. I feel that photographing the workers of the area would be a good place to start because they are intrinsically linked to the area, and represent the areas diversity as I have previously mentioned. Also I have previously seen work by August Sander in which his focus was portraits of 20th century workers which I can use for inspiration to start my project.

photo by Zimin175 (http://www.neehao.co.uk/2012/06/manchester-chinatown-dragon-boat-race/)

August Sander

August Sander (1876- 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His legacy includes landscape, nature, architecture and street photography, but he is best known for his portraits. His most famous book included portraits of the German population between 1892 and 1952, and was titled 'Citizens of the 20th Century'. It was a landmark for portrait photography and is regarded as an 'archive' of twentieth century man. Sander had intended to create a rank ordered portrait collection of the German people but it remained incomplete by the time of his death. Ulrich Keller, professor of art history at the university of California, in collaboration with Gunther Sander the photographers son compressed Sanders work into this book, with Keller writing the introductory essay and Gunther Sander editing the work. There are 431 photographs which are presented in 45 portfolios each divided into seven sections on farmers, workers, women, occupations, artists, the big city, and the last people.
I am focusing on the whole of Sanders 'Citizens of the 20th Century' but specifically on the portraits of workers and famers because they are documentary photographs of people completing their everyday work tasks. For the start of my documentary project, I want to photograph the workers of the different industries found within using Sanders work as inspiration.
As you can see his portraits are straight-on and put the subject in the centre of the frame, suggesting to the viewer that they are the centre of attention, with everything surrounding the subject just being added information about their job role. Below Sanders has photographed a Baker, a master mason and a bricklayer, which were all common jobs of the period so should represent the common man. The looks on each of their faces are quite serious, possibly suggesting that Sander told them not to pose for the camera, which would hopefully show a more truthful portrait of themselves and their emotions at work. I'm definitely going to apply this technique to the portraits of workers within Chinatown that I am going to carry out, because I feel if they are smiling and posing for the camera it makes the image look quite false and thus not an accurate representation of the person and their emotions. Sander hasn't taken his subjects out of their work environment to allow the viewer to easily see what job role they are in, which is something to think about while I'm taking mine.

Chinatown Shoot 1

After looking into the work of August Sander within his book 'Citizens of the 20th Century' I went to Manchester Chinatown to complete my first shoot of the project. I became inspired by Sanders work, in particular his portraits of workers at their place of work, so photographing people with this theme was my first idea for what to shoot in Chinatown. At first it was quite difficult to get any businesses to agree to have some of their staff photographed, but eventually I successfully managed to capture two different subjects who work for different businesses. The first was a young man who worked at a cafe/ supermarket, and the second was a man who worked at a fish shop. I feel that the shoot was quite difficult because of the language barrier, as some people I asked didn't understand what I wanted or where the photographs were going to end up. This is something I'm going to have to work on for the next shoot, thus to get more subjects on board with the series. Something I should also think about for my next shoot is offering the subject something in return for being part of my project, such as a copy of the final print or offer to take photographs of their choosing. This idea came around because the young man I photographed asked for me to email him the photographs so he could make it his profile picture on Facebook, this happening made me think that more people may be on board with the project and being photographed if they received something out of it. 

The photographs directly below show the difficulties in shooting in the environments that I have chosen.   

The difficulty that I have found with this style of photography within Chinatown is the language barrier. The subject captured above spoke very little english, so actually trying to convey what my idea behind the project was and what I wanted him to do was difficult. As you can see his attention is elsewhere, thus making the portrait quite disconnected which isn't the feeling I want to portray in the series. Luckily his manager spoke good english and could explain what I wanted, this resulted in me managing to capture a good portrait of the man in which his full attention is fixed on me. This improved version can be seen below at the bottom of the post. 

 Secondly because I'm capturing portraits in a working environment I have to make do with the spaces that are already available to shoot in, which makes creating a decent composition quite difficult. The images directly above and below show the difficulty in positioning the subject under light which highlights their face, this means while photographing them I have to be thinking about where the best light is to shoot them under.

I quite liked the composition of this photograph but the waitresses kept getting in the frame every time I went to take a photograph, this is because the shoot was taken in a busy cafe within opening hours. Something to get around this problem, would be to organise with the staff to do a shoot outside of opening hours but this would be difficult to do and more time consuming. It is something I could think about for future shoots. 

Below shows my strongest images from this Chinatown shoot. 

This was the first person who allowed me to photograph them and who also asked for me to email him the best shots to be used as his profile picture on Facebook. I think the lighting works well in the image to highlight key features on the subject, I made a point of only using the lighting that is natural within the shop to keep it authentic. The composition if fine with the subject centred, but because my positioning within the shop you cant tell what its purpose is which I feel is an issue and apposes Sander's work. After spending some time at the cafe/ supermarket I felt that I had made a connection with the subject, this allowed me to photograph him in a way in which he's offering himself to the viewer and not putting up a barrier. 

This portrait was difficult to capture due to the subject not speaking any English, I was able to get his manager to tell him what I wanted him to do and what it was for. After taking a few different images of the subject I was left with this which was focused and composed better than the rest. He wanted to hold the crab for the photograph which I feel adds another dynamic, meaning that it feels like there is more going on compared to the other portrait I have chosen. Something that I feel takes away from the portrait is the white step ladder behind the subject because it complicates to composition. I'm not sure if next time I should remove objects that complicate the image from the frame because then it feels like I'm altering the authenticity of the portraits. Apart from this I feel like the others I have created a portrait which is genuine and actually portrays true emotion.

Overall I was happy with this shoot, and thought it was successful in showing part of Manchester's cultural diversity. I think focusing on the shop workers/ owners is a good idea because they actually are a part of the cities cultural dynamics, this can't be said for tourists who are just visiting. I'm confident with carrying on my project down this route, I think that next I'm going to do another shoot in Chinatown before moving onto a different shopping area within Manchester.

Chinatown Shoot 2

After my first successful shoot in Chinatown in which I created work which related to August Sander's 'Citizens of the 20th Century', I decided to go out to the same area and photograph shop workers again to add more depth to my Chinatown series. Unfortunately, many shops I went into refused to take part in my project because either they didn't understand what I was doing it for or they had to ask their boss who was always out at the time. Luckily one subject took the time to have numerous photographs taken of her, meaning the shoot wasn't a waste of time.

Below are my weaker images from the shoot:

Because I'm capturing the workers while they are at work inside the shop, it means that I have to work around the other staff and public who are walking around inside. As the image directly above shows, I found a few times that after composing my image and pressing the shutter another subject walks directly into the frame, thus ruining the shot because I want portraits to only capture the subject of my choosing without other people in the background. This allows the viewer to know the main focus on the image is the subject captured. This is subtle in the image above but you can see a figure appearing to the right of the subject, within the doorway of the supermarket. 

Again because I have a short period of time in which to photograph my subjects because they are at work, I have to make sure the images count (unlike the image above). This means that I have to work quickly but efficiently, such as moving around the shop they work in to find different compositions that work well, but also take enough photographs in each place so images in which I have messed up my focusing or the subject is blinking doesn't matter because I have the same image without these defects.


Below are my stronger images from this shoot:

This lady worked in a supermarket within Chinatown, at first she was quite reserved and dismissed the potential portrait, but soon came around after I had explained what it was for. Like before I asked if she doesn't pull her stereotypical pose for the camera that she probably usually does, and tries to give me something that is more natural. The composition is obstructed by the counter which means the viewer could feel quite attached to the image, but her intense stare and facial expression would catch the viewers eye pulling them into the frame. The image is perfectly focused on the subject with the fore and background just out of focus, highlighting to the viewer the importance of her. I like the bright colours behind her as they counter her cold facial expression, furthermore the counter naturally frames the subject nicely.   

As you can see this woman let me take the time to try out a few different angles to try and capture the best image. I like this portrait but not as much as the photographs above and below, I feel there is something lacking in the small details of her facial expression that is captured within the other two. This image does give the viewer more information about the type of shop she works in which results in them getting a deeper understanding of her job role and life. Furthermore the rail to the right of the image pulls the viewers eye to the subject which gives her significant importance. Her hand positioning gives off an innocent feeling, this then makes the photograph feel a little warmer than the frozen food section of the supermarket. 

I think this is my favourite image from this shoot because of a few different reasons. Firstly, like the first image of the subject behind the counter, the image is perfectly focused which I feel makes the subject standout from her surroundings very well. Secondly, I think the composition on this image works really well because the shops vertical lines strongly pulls the viewers eyes straight to the subjects body. Also the lighting at this composition works well to highlight her face, thus emphasising her gaze that asserts her power towards to viewer. 

This shoot was less successful than my first in getting workers to take part within my project, but because I managed to shoot this one subject multiple times in different locations inside the shop I managed to get a better photographic outcome, this being a better portrait of the subject. Next I need to photograph another area of Manchester's shopping district and carry on looking at more artists who produce work similar to mine to improve my photographic practice.  

Lewis Hine

After my Chinatown shoot I wanted to look at another photograph who captures his subjects within their working environment.

Lewis Hine was an American sociologist and photographer, who used his camera as a tool for social reform, more specifically reform of the child labor laws within the United States. After studying sociology at the University of Chicago, Columbia University and New York University, he became a teacher in New York City where he encouraged his students to use photography as an educational medium. His class would travel to Ellis Island between 1904-1909 to photograph the thousands of immigrants who arrived each day. After doing this Hine eventually realized that photography could be used as an effective tool for social reform.
In 1908, he became the photographer for the National Child labor Committee and left his teaching position. Then for the next ten years Hine documented child labor, this was to help the committee's aim to end child labor all together. This task of documenting the children's conditions was quite dangerous with him receiving many threats from the factory police and security. Photography was not allowed within the factories due to the immortality of child labor at the time being hidden from the public, this was because if found out it could impact the industry hugely. This resulted in Hine having to disguise himself in different roles included a fire inspector, post card vendor and so on.
Hine documented many other events in his time being a photographer but I'm focusing on him just for his photographs he produced capturing child labor. These photographs are relevant to my work because they capture a portrait of the subject within their place of work, which is exactly what I'm doing for my project on cultural diversity of Manchester. Something I can take from Hines work is that he has made an effort to capture the subject in such a composition where its obvious what industry the child is working in. This is something I failed with one of my last portraits in China Town, and I believe it to be very important to the effect of the portrait because it provides the viewer with more information on the person they are viewing. Something else that Hine is very good at is capturing what looks and feels like an authentic portrait, in which he shows the subjects true emotions at the time. This could be from spending time talking to the subject, or maybe in those times people weren't as fixated on poses for the camera like they are now. I think another reason which is more likely for why the portraits are authentic, is because the children are in such dire conditions they wouldn't have it in built into them to pose for a photograph.  I believe their natural look of being frightened and worried comes across heavily in these portraits, which helps Hine in the removal of child labor.

Irving Penn

Irving Penn was an American photographer known mostly for his fashion photography, portraits and still lifes. He became a very influential photographer who worked for the likes of Vogue magazine. Penn was one of the first photographers to pose his subjects against simple grey or white backdrops, which allowed to single out the subject making the photograph just about them. He technique is something I will later talk about in comparison to my own work. Something Penn was also prided for was his great attention to detail with his printing skills, including prints made onto aluminium sheets with a platinum emulsion which gave the image a warmth that typical silver prints lacked. His black and white prints are famous for their deep rich contrast that Penn managed to get out of the process.

His work in 'Small Trades' is different to my current photographs and the work I have previously talked about by August Sander and Lewis Hine. This is because Penn has taken his subjects out of their working environment and placed them inside the same moving studio that he took to the different countries he photographed. My composition of including the whole body of the subject is similar to Penn's work. Penn has made sure that his subjects reference the area/ profession they work in by keeping them in the relevant clothes and props that they use when working, this allows the viewer to instantly recognise what profession they're in. Furthermore his subjects aren't posing (smiling) like they might naturally do in front of a camera, this act of none posing leaves the viewer feeling like they are looking at a more natural portrait, which I have also done within my work and will carry on throughout my project. What makes his portraits so captivating is how natural his subjects look within, they also look very proud in the photographs which makes it easy to view. If the subjects looked uneasy and awkward, the viewer would feel both these feelings when looking at it. His lighting in these photographs is quite contrasting with strong highlights and shadows, I think this makes the portraits look more moody than they need to be as this should be quite a light hearted to shoot so I think it should be less contrasting.

I think Penn's idea is interesting in which he has used the same composition and background for each of his subjects, this creates a unified formality within his work in which they all relate to each other. It also means that it is up to Penn to make sure he represents the subjects profession just using clothes and props, whereas within my practice you can see where the viewer works from the background of the image. His compositions work well though because of the simplicity, which will be something I will have to deal with within my own work. As I will be shooting my portraits in the surroundings that the subjects work in, it could mean the composition looks very cluttered and over complicated depending on what shop they work in. This means when I do my own shoots I'll have to pick the area I photograph the subject in carefully, to represent where they work but for it not to make the photographs background to messy which would then take away from the main focus which is the portrait itself.

Northern Quarter

After researching into and photographing different shop workers in Chinatown, I then looked at Lewis Hine and Irving Penn's photography projects that relate to my photographs to improve my practice. I'm now going to shoot a different area of Manchester's shopping district which is called the 'Northern Quarter'.

The Northern Quarter is an area of Manchester city centre which is just off to the side of Piccadilly Gardens, and in the North of the city centre. It was created in the 1990's and was named as part of the gentrification of Manchester. The area is well known for being the centre of alternative and bohemian culture in Manchester where you find an array of different shops including vinyl and non-chain clothing brands along side a trendy mix of cafe's and bars which gives the area an up-coming/ lively feeling. It is also well known for a home to different creative industries, in particular fashion, with various designers, agencies and wholesalers populating the area. There is also a heavy music scene within the Northern Quarter with the music stores going alongside quite a few clubs, which help keep the area young and lively.

Unlike Chinatown, Northern Quarter isn't based on a specific theme, which allows the shops to have a large mix of different types of industries and thus the workers have lots of different backgrounds. I think photographing in the Northern Quarter will be interesting because you should be able to see many types of people from different backgrounds, thus reinforcing Manchester cultural diversity. While photographing the area I'll try and go into a different types of shops to give me a variation of people and profession, which will give my project a more diverse look.

(http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/users/21387/thm1024/1324393259_Subism%20Mural%204%20upld.jpg) 

Northern Quarter Shoot 1

After completing my two shoots in Chinatown I researched the artists of lewis Hine and Irving Penn to help improve my portrait taking skills for my project on cultural diversity in Manchester. I then thought about another individual shopping area within Manchester that I could go and photograph, which is when I thought about the Northern Quarter. 

To start the shoot I walked up and down the area looking for different kinds of businesses that I hadn't already photographed in Chinatown which included a cafe, fish shop and supermarket. The first store I photographed on this shoot was 'Holier Than Thou' which is a body piercing and modification specialist and the second place, 'The Black Sheep' is a skateboarding shop.  

Holier Than Thou

The photograph above was the first composition I captured this shop worker using, because he just came in front of the desk he was standing behind at the time. I didn't really like this framing because firstly you can't tell what profession he has/ what the shop is, secondly the lighting is quite poor meaning the subject is not highlighted and doesn't stand out from the background. Furthermore the background is quite messy, which makes the image look messy and cluttered overall. Like I said to the staff in the previous shoots in Chinatown, I told this subject not to pose and to look natural, which I think he has managed to do quite well as he has a blank expression. The only criticism I have only his pose and facial expression is that he could look too blank, which might look as unnatural as smiling. His body position in this image does look relaxed though which is a positive.   

After realising the first composition and background I began shooting with wasn't making a good portrait, I asked if I could photograph the subject in the backroom where they do the piercings. At first the subject was skeptical about letting me photograph him in the procedure room because it needs to be kept sterilised, but after speaking to him for a while he let me use it. This image directly above in my mind is a lot more successful than the first, firstly because the viewer can tell that its something to do with medical procedures. But the room itself doesn't make it completely obvious what type of procedure they do at the shop, but the subjects t-shirt with 'I AM Modified' on suggests its about body modification and piercings. Lastly the subject has stretchers in his ear and two nose rings which further highlight his profession. Although this portrait is a lot better than the first I took, I think that the lamp on the left hand side and all of the draws next to each take away from the photos simplicity. I tried to correct this in my next image. Again in this image and the image below, his facial expression is quite unnaturally blank which then makes the portrait less natural, also his body position is quite stiff and not relaxed. These points on body position and facial expression are something I need to think about improving over the course of the project. 

Best Image

This is my favourite portrait from the shoot at Holier Than Thou, and favourite out of the three I have presented on this blog post. I have taken more photographs of the subject but only have shown you these three because they're the most relevant to talk about. As previously stated, in this photograph I made sure that I angled the camera in a way to remove the lamp and drawers from the image, this makes the image look a lot more simple in my mind and cleaner. The shoot in this room was quite difficult because it was quite small, which didn't leave me much opportunities for different compositions. I also wanted to get the medical bed in the frame more, but because of the size of the room I only managed to get a small proportion of it in the photograph. I think that the image does show enough of the bed for the viewer to be able to understand what it is. This composition is quite different to most of the photographs I have taken already because part of the subjects body is obscured, but I believe that this is fine because it relates to their profession which adds to the portrait, this same concept can also be seen in Irving Penn's image of the Chestnut seller. 

Overall this shoot at Holier Than Thou was successful and I believe it shows that my portrait taking abilities are improving, because I have thought about how to represent the subjects job while out on the shoot which resulted in changing compositions to the backroom. I think my final image for this shoot was also a good result, compared to the first shot I took. This helps show another subject in a different profession, from a different area in Manchester which reinforces its cultural diversity. 

  

The Black Sheep

This shoot was quite different from my last because it was taken in a Skateboarding accessory and apparel store, this meant that I needed to find a good place to take photographs among all the clothes. The store itself was already well lit, with some areas providing the subject with more highlights on his face which pulls the viewer to them being the centre of attention. This first image works quite well but there is a lot of different objects in the background of the image which does take away from the focus of the subject. I think it would be quite a bit better if the picture wasn't above his head, because it takes the viewer gaze away from his face. These are some of the difficulties with doing portraiture in places I have no control over. The facial expression and body position of this subject is a lot more relaxed and natural compared to my pervious shoot at the body modification shoot, this makes the overall look of the portrait to be more relaxed and natural. 

I think again with this portrait it has the same problems as the first, with the staff member falling away into the cluttered background. Especially, the subjects torso area blends in with the background of jumpers on a rail, which means the subject doesn't stand out enough I feel. I like the lighting in this photograph, with half of the subjects face in light highlights and the other in dimer shadow. Again his body position and facial expression is very neutral. 

Best Image

This image is my favourite from this shoot at Black Sheep, unlike the first shoot in Northern Quarter I didn't need to worry about the body positioning and facial expression of the subject because he remained very natural throughout the shoot. This image works the best because the subject stands out from the background, as I have positioned him in front of a white door. Also how I've composed the image means that the viewer can see that it's a store that sells clothes, bags and hats, so they get an instant understanding of what place the subject works in. One downside to the image is the bench that is just coming into the frame at the bottom right hand corner of the image, which does take away from its simplicity. Also I think I should lighten the bottom of the image slightly to bring out some of the lost details, but apart from those two things Im happy with this portrait. 

Again like the first, after I moved my subject around a bit to try different compositions to find the one that worked the best, I ended up with a good result in the end. Personally I like the first 'best image' of the subject in the body modification more than I like this one. I think this is because the place I have taken the photograph is more visually interesting because of its unusual surroundings, that being in its sterile environment. 

For my first shoot in Northern Quarter I think it went well, also I've noticed my practice of taking portrait photographs improving since my first two shoots in Chinatown. This is because of looking at different photographs who have produced work similar to mine and also just out of practice. I think I'm going to look for another contemporary photographer who has photographed people similar to my work for my next post. 

Humans Of New York

Humans of New York is a photoblog, which was turned into a bestselling book which featured simple portraits of the people who live and work in New York city. The photographer behind the project is Brandon Stanton.

Brandon Stanton grew up near Atlanta and attended the University of Georgia before becoming a bond trader for three years. After these three years Stanton lost his job and decided he was going to move to New York to follow his passion for photography. He began taking candid portraits of people within the city and upload them onto his Facebook page which grew very rapidly with likes, as of now he has over 12.1 million followers on Facebook. He also later on made an Instagram account for the project 'Humans of New York' which has 2.1 million followers. A lot of Stanton's success is from his good use of social media, and also his photographs which photograph ever day people.

Stanton was first going to take 10,000 portraits of New Yorkers and plot them on a map of the city, so the viewer could click on each different area and be shown people from that area. But soon his idea evolved, because he began having conversations with the people he photographed and realised that all of them had something interesting to say. This meant his idea developed into taking portraits of people and then below or by the side, including a statement/ small story of the subjects choosing to go with it. This inclusion of text to go alongside his images made Stanton's 'Humans Of New York' even more popular than ever, this gives me ideas about how I could develop my idea to include text after I finish this project. This is because I want to keep the same formality with each area as I have already photographed. But in the future I could carry on this project and expand it to include text about the portraits, to make it more like Stanton's work. The text provides the viewer with deeper meaning behind the portrait that they would have never gotten unless it was there, because there is only so much you can take from a photograph.

He has also done a lot of charity work for different causes, as a way of giving back to the people which has received a lot of support for donations. His charity work include: Him photographing residents that were affected by Hurricane Sandy, this meant it added to his photographic portrait work but he wanted to give back to the people. He joined with Tumblr founder David Karp and launched an Indiegogo fundraiser for the victims, the original goal was $100,000, they raised $86,000 within the first 12 hours and ended up raising a total of $318,530 by the end of the campaign. He has also done other fundraisers, which meant in January 2015 his accumulated Indiegogo donations were over $1,014,000. How Stanton has given back to the communities he photographs is very inspiring, and will definitely remind me of something I can do to give back to the community of a future project I may do.

“10 years, 2 months, 7 days. It’s the only tattoo I have on my body. I was the youngest person in prison, so I withdrew into myself, and I started writing in a journal every single day. That journal became my world. I used it to figure things out, and one of the first things I realized was that I’d stopped being me. It wasn’t so much the crime that had landed me in prison. It was that I had decided to stop being me. And I needed to find that nerdy, intelligent kid that I’d once been. So I started studying in prison. Then one day I got a letter from Principal Lopez. And she told me: ‘I grew up with you. And I know that you aren’t the person they say you are. So the moment you get out of prison, you are going to come speak to my kids, because I want them to learn from your experience.’ And I immediately started crying in my cell. And sure enough, two days after I got out, she called me on the phone, and asked: ‘Why aren’t you here yet?"

“No matter how much we tried to help my brother, he wouldn’t quit. We tried being there for him. Then we tried to throw money at the problem. We tried to set him up with rehab, doctors, psychologists, even a job. Then eventually we just sort of threw up our hands and stopped associating with him, thinking that the alienation might shock him into changing. I hadn’t spoken to him for two years when he killed himself.”

"My father passed away this year, so I’ve been trying to be a dad to my eleven year old brother. I’m his emergency contact at school now, so whenever something is wrong, or if he’s sick, it’s up to me to take action. And I’m going to have to teach him about sex soon. One day he’s going to ask me why two people are on top of each other. Do I just say it, or do I lead up to it with baby steps?"









His photographs as you can see are relatively simple, but do change in format. Some of them are more close up on the subject, and others further away, I guess he changes it depending on the background around the subjects and to keep his portraits looking fresh as he has taken so many. The stories themselves also vary depending on what the subject wants to talk about, some are very serious and others not so much. I think for his series, he has kept it very casual with what they want the text to be about and also the framing and poses the subjects take. This equals in his portraits looking very natural and real, which makes the viewer feel comfortable. Something to take away from his portraits that I can use in my own work is that the subject is doing something with their arms, like they're mid gesture (last image) or in the middle image he is holding a bag. This reinforces the natural feeling, and thus creates a portrait that represents the subject well.

Northern Quarter 2

For this shoot I revisited Manchester's Northern Quarter to photograph another set of shop workers/ owners to represent Manchester's cultural diversity. For this shoot I took portraits of people from three different shops, the first was took inside 'Northern Flower' a flower shop, the second set was inside Manchester's 'Carhartt' clothing shop and the last, 'Julia' which is a hair and beauty business.

Northern Flower

This was the first shop I went to after revisiting this area, this was because I hadn't taken any portraits of a worker in anything close to a flower shop so far, so I thought I'd give it ago. The shoot inside this shop wasn't so successful and this is the reason I'm only annotating one photograph. Firstly she was about to close the shop for the day so had already put her coat and bag on, this meant that she doesn't really look like a worker, just a random lady in a flower shop. Secondly because she was ready to go, I didn't leave me with much time to the shoot so I had to work fast. Furthermore the flower shop was small which meant the only worthwhile composition was this one, which is okay, but the window in the background distracts the viewers gaze from the subject. I think her body position is relaxed which is good, but her facial expression is too close to smiling which I believe makes the portrait look a little false. Overall the shoot inside this shop didn't go very well, and I won't be using this image for a final piece. Although I could return at a later date to re-shoot this subject, to create a more skilled portrait of her.  

Carhartt

After leaving the Northern Flower I went to Carhartt, which is a designer clothing brand which has stores in lots of countries all around the world. I had longer on this shoot which meant I could move around the shop trying different compositions, to get a better outcome. The shop itself is difficult to shoot in because there a lots of patches of intense light, which means the subjects face has areas of high highlights and low shadows. The image above shows the problems I have just talked about, I have edited the photo as best I can to balance the exposure on the subjects face but because his eyes were in dark shadow they're difficult to add more light onto. This results in the photograph looking strange, because his face is awkwardly lit, also because the light distorts his face, it makes the portrait look less authentic and very unnatural. This is a shame because his stance and facial expression would've created a good portrait, if the lighting wasn't so difficult to work with. 

Best Image 

After realising my difficulties with shooting in the first spot I moved the subject to a different part of the store, unfortunately there wasn't a blank space in the Carhartt shop to stand the subject in front off to make him standout from the background. Luckily because he was wearing a bright yellow jumper, it meant that he stands out from the background quite easily, so all I needed to do was find an area with good lighting. I think that his facial expression and body position is very natural and work well to create an accurate portrait of the shop worker. Again in this image the viewer can see the same problems with the eyes being in shadow, as I talked about in the image above. I think this is because how the shop is lit creates this effect, in saying this I think I managed to put him in a position to make the most out of what I had to work with. Because the shop itself has a lot of different ornaments and clothing racks its impossible to find a blank space to photograph in, this forced me to use this composition which in itself is very cluttered but through lighting and his yellow jumper, this subject is brought to the front of the photograph. I didn't plan this but I think the cactus plant reflects the subject and both together create a link in the photograph which adds another dynamic. 

I think with the poor lighting conditions I had to work with and cluttered background I managed to create a pretty good portrait of this Carhartt worker. His natural stance and facial expression also helped to create this authentic image, but I would've liked to create a more simple composition with less things in the background if I could. 

Julia

Julia is a hair and beauty company that specialises in hair extensions. The worker in this shop was more than happy to have her photograph taken and try different positions around the shop to see which would work best, which made getting a good final result a lot easier. The first problem I had with this shoot was my camera kept adding this effect, as seen above, to every third photograph I took. I only realised this at the end of the shoot which meant there was quite a few potential best photographs which I had to get rid of straight way. This problem has now gone, so I'm not sure why it happened. I like the photograph above on accounts of the subjects body positing and facial expression look very natural, also I think the composition works well but because of the camera defect I have to forget this image. 

As you can see the previous defect doesn't exist in this photograph. Unlike a lot of my other portraits which the subject has their hands by their sides in this one, the subject has rested her hand on the shelf. This action of the subject doing something with their hands and arms reflects the work of 'Humans of New York' because he captures his subject mid way through doing something to create a natural look, my image shown above uses these same techniques but because of her pose in her facial expression the photograph looks less natural. I think composition wise, the image is very interesting because there is a lot of visual information with colours and repetition going on which creates a nice effect, and because she is dressed in black she manages to not fall into the background. The thing I don't like about this image is that it is quite difficult for the viewer to guess what type of store she works in, because the products could be selling a range of different things.

Best Image

For this image I changed to composition to make sure the viewer could better understand what kind of shop the subject worked in, also because the shop specialises in hair extensions I thought that it was important to include them in the portrait. I think he facial expression and stance are quite powerful together, which gives the photographs a very bold and important feeling. The lighting in this shop was quite easy to work with and the enthusiasm of the subject made creating a good portrait of her quite simple after I found the correct composition and made sure she acted naturally.