The Photographers Project
I’ve always been a bit of a photographic geek. I’ve hoarded magazines and read hundreds of books on work that I’ve found to be both intriguing and inspiring. I didn’t grow up in a city that had access to all the museums or the culture, so my only visual ‘fix’ as a mid-teen, was found deep in the pages of The Face and NME, or whatever else was available in a small-town newsagent. At one point, I managed to obtain a fake student ID card for Staffordshire University (purely for research you understand!), and I could go into the library and read the books on David Bailey, Nick Knight, Avedon and anyone else on the shelves. It was the only way at the time, I could get this amount of in-depth information.
Essentially, this is another long-term photographic project, there is no end date as such, only the continued creation of work and discussion with like-minded individuals. I have a list, quite a long list, of photographer’s I genuinely, really love to be able to work with, from all background, art/fashion/portraiture/landscape/advertising etc..
I know what goes on behind the scenes, and what can happen on shoots, so I’m fascinated by other photographer’s thoughts and working practices, to see if it differs or tally’s up to my own. After I have shot the moving portrait of photographer ‘x’, make a pot of tea, sit down, and record an informal chat of everything including ‘the industry’, their own trials and tribulations, thoughts on the future, who they like photographically and of course, being photographers, a salacious bit of gossip thrown in for good measure (off the record, naturally).
I’m still working on the best way to add the conversation to the portrait, to make it work how I want it to. I may release parts of the conversations as transcripts to be read in the interim.