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.