Shard End: Place and People

I have been working on my photography project of the people and places of Shard End for a few weeks now. In that time I have been invited into some of the primary schools and pre-school learning unit, the metal detectors group, the pensioners group. I have lined up further visits to the schools in the area and so far I am getting a very postive response from people. I have been invited to attend the AGM at Alysford Hall in Shard End to talk about my project and get more community groups interested in allowing me to take their photograph.

I will be outside the Shard End Community Centre on Birmingham City Councils Mobile Art Unit offering to take photos of people visiting the centre or just passing by in the street. My list of people and groups are growing and I am having to keep my diary updated!

Photographing people of all ages, either individual portraits or groups of people is outside my comfort zone. It is something that is proving to be a challenge but is producing positive results that I am pleased with. Also the feedback from people viewing my images has been positive.

For this project I have gone totally digital and have even bought the Digital SLR with lens! This has allowed me to generate a large pool of images quickly which can be edited and reviewed in a way my film SLR can not. It is also making the project economical. I am going to create an online resource of the images produced through this project to make it as accessible as possible to the people of Shard End. Hopefully it will be of interest to a global audience as well.

The exhibition I plan to have at the new Library of Shard End will take place during the middle of June. I have a lot of work to do in not only acquiring the images but also sorting, editing and getting information data. I will keep you posted on latest developments.

My photographic practice doesn’t normally focus on individuals and groups of people. I am normally comfortable documenting urban, rural and coastal subjects looking at human interaction with these places such as graffitti, litter, man made structures, town planning etc. This project builds on work I started in Bordeaux when I photographed artists, shop keepers and people. This was outside my comfort zone as I tend to shy away from doing portraits.

A central component to this project involves engaging with people who live and work in Shard End and getting their permission to take photographs. So far I have taken photo’s of the Catholic and Church of England clegy, the coffee morning group at All Saints C of E church and the pensioners group who meet at Aylesford Hall. I have permission to take photos of local police team, the sea cadets, the metal detecting club and the local primary schools. I still have a lot of groups to do as well as open public drop in sessions to organise. I have been touched by how people have been supportive of the project and who have agreed to take part.

I will also be documenting the places, buildings and public spaces in Shard End which is something that I am more familiar with. I will update you with my progress as the project develops and images are produced.