Seeing Pink

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I’ve had a few disappointments lately with setting up portraits and then people letting me down, so I have been concentrating on ‘other’ shots. I don’t want to call them street photos, as that term is so loaded these days, but they are photos that I have taken out on the street and in the shopping mall.

I have been taking my camera out and just seeing what I can find and I have been rewarded for my efforts. When I have been out and about looking for photographs I have found a pink washing line, “It’s a girl!” decorations hung all across the front of a house, a pink plastercast, scooter, head scarfs and an ice-cream van – all of which fit in well to my Generation Pink book project.

It was like being given a gift, that I then snapped up quickly with my camera. Here’s a few for you to see.

The Pop up Portrait Studio

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In a couple of weeks I’ll be starting a new project – The Pop up Portrait Studio. Fuji Cameras are letting me get my hands on their brand new X-Pro 1 digital camera. I already use the X100s, so I’m really excited to test drive this new model, which unlike the X100s comes with interchangeable lenses including a lovely portrait lens (equivalent to 90mm on 135 format) – perfect for my portrait work.

I will be setting up a makeshift portrait studio in Bristol’s city centre and inviting anyone and everyone to have their portrait taken by me for free. It’s a huge project to take on, as I am aiming to do at least 20 portraits a day over a one month period.

The photographs above were taken several years ago at the St Mark’s Rd street party in Bristol. I set up my Polaroid camera in the street and offered passersby a free Polaroid. It was a great way to work as people just assumed I was part of the festivities. These photos and this way of working created a spark in my imagination that is now becoming a reality in The Pop up Portrait studio.

Seeking Perfection

I am always trying to make a better picture. To take a perfect photograph, that has everything I wanted and no flaws.

This is a portrait I took of my daughter. I like it, but it’s not perfect. As a photograph I am happy with it but I know it could have been just a bit better. When she first sat down in the chair and looked at the camera – it was perfect. I wasn’t ready, so missed that first moment. Within a second she had moved. Her expression had changed and what results is my efforts to get her back to that initial moment – sitting up straight, posed like she thinks she should when having her picture taken and giving her full attention to the camera, without looking bored. She is a wriggly five year old and because I’m her mum I have even less influence over her in this senario, than I would with someone else’s child.

I have been trying to find other ways to photograph young children that are set apart from the family snap shot and create a more interesting photograph. I have been looking at old Victorian children’s portraits. The Victorians used back braces to keep their children still enough for the required long exposure times. I have considered concentrating on photographing older children for my Generation Pink project. It is easier to make a good portrait with an older child, as there is more of a connection between the photographer and child. The child is more aware of themselves and that someone else it looking and photographing them. Young children are so un self conscious. They know you are photographing them, but are too young to show any sense of vulnerability.

I have just edited out a lot of my earlier portraits from this project. I knew all along that there was something not quite right with them. I had told myself that as the subject matter was sugary and sweet and pretty that was what it was. They just weren’t interesting enough. I came across a quote from W. M. Hunt “Insist on engagement. Wrestle with what is difficult. Pretty is boring. Seek intensity.” So out they went and I am almost starting afresh.

It is important to include younger children in this project so I am trying a new approach. For a while I went down the road of being really flexible and almost following the child around, going with the flow with what they wanted to do and give to the camera. Lately I have taken more control over the situation . I choose a background/setting and get them to sit down more formally (without back brace) and just look at the camera. It won’t work with all children, but I think I’m now heading in the right direction.

Between Photographs

It’s been a dull week. I haven’t shot anything all week. I have spent the week emailing and calling, trying to set up some new photographs and organize a project for over the summer. It is slow work and tedious. I want to be out. I want to be photographing.

And then there’s the rain! I’m on umbrella number three. Usually if I didn’t have something set up I could go into town and just do something off the cuff – but not this week. The weather has put a stop to that.

The Guardian this week has an article on Richard Mosse’s Best Shot. He describes his moments between projects and his low points - ‘They’re like jumping out of a plane without a parachute’.

I did think about not posting this week, but photography is not all about the end result of the bright and shiny new picture. There is a lot of research and planning, writing proposals and form filling. It wouldn’t be truthful to just post my latest pictures every week.

So this week, I have for you, a couple of my photographs of Bristol. For most of May the Bristol Festival of photography is on. It is a biannual festival and only in its second year. It’s very small by photography festival standards, but it is right on my door step. I have been to see the excellent work of Zed Nelson ‘Hackney – A Tale of two Cities’. Simon Norfolk will be here doing a talk next week and tomorrow I will be going down to Stokes Croft to have my own portrait taken by the wetplate collodion process.

Now the sun has just come out so maybe I’ll just take my camera out for a walk..

What Makes a Good Photograph?

Last weekend I went on a book design course at the World Photo London, festival. The course was led my Stuart Smith of Smith design, who make around 30 photo books every year. The number one consideration of the workshop was editing, and Stuart recommends that you get someone else to edit your work. Photographers have so many other associations to their images, i.e. the experience they had when taking the photo. The important information is what can be taken from the image itself – everything else is supplementary. It helps to trust someone else who has a more neutral response to your images.

This has led me to think about what makes a good photograph and also to revaluate my own work. A lot of the photographs that I thought were going to be in my book project are now out. Some photographs that I thought were maybes are now definitely in. I have gained a new way of looking at my work and I now know that I need to strive even harder to make more interesting photographs.

What makes a good photograph? I saw a quote recently by Magnum photographer Constantine Manos “Taking good pictures is easy. Making very good pictures is difficult. Making great pictures is almost immposible.” Great photos are easy to spot. We know them when we see them, but hard to pin down and define what exactly makes them great. For me a great photo has all the elements of a good photo (composition, good light, aesthetics, expression, capturing a moment, telling a story) but then something else. That something else is hard to define and is varies depending on what you are looking for. It could be mistery, subtlty, a feeling of uneasyness or wonderment. It has to be something that sustains your interest, forces you to want to know more, and makes you keep looking – rather than flicking onto the next one. There has to be an element that causes you to remember that photo and will make you go back and look at it again and again. Something that the photographer brings to the image that is greater than the sum of all of its parts, and gives more than a depiction of a scene, or what one might have seen with the naked eye.

In this digital age where “everyone is now a photographer” (Martin Parr), is it becoming more and more difficult to take a great picture? I don’t think so. There are more good pictures, and a great deal more bad pictures, but the great ones still stand out. I am setting my own goals higher and will be striving to take better pictures.

Thanks to Ruby for giving such an open expression to my camera and helping me to get a bit closer to where i want my pictures to be.

From Pink to Purple to Black

I have been photographing and interviewing older girls for my book project Generation Pink. I had previously been concentrating on photographing young girls, as the popularity of the colour pink seems to peek at around 4-5 years old. I wanted to hear what older girls think about pink and also how and why the popularity for the colour diminishes as girls get older.

Pink is undoubtably seen as a girly colour, but as girls get older they see it as infantile. Many girls who’s favourite colour was pink then choose purple. I have seen a lot of girls mixing hot pink with black as they get a bit older and the shades of pink move away from ‘baby’ pink to fushia. Then in comes black. Perhaps it is when girls can fit into adult size clothes that black starts to feature prominently.

Thanks to Beth, a talented ballet dancer (top).

Thanks to Ella, who is into sewing her own clothes and loves ‘The Hunger Games’. (middle).

Thanks to Rosie, a great netball player (bottom).

Not just pretty faces..

Finding a Voice

From the beginning of Generation Pink I knew I didn’t want the final book to be expressing my own opinions. I have been aware that parents have been extremely generous and trusting of me. I have been invited into their houses, (sometimes as a stranger) and allowed to photograph their children. I would not want to criticise anyone’s choice of how to dress or bring up their children. My motivation has been to record the age of pink.

My opinions have driven me to explore this subject, and it is my views that have got me fully engaged in the project. Without a strong interest in the subject I would have given up long ago.

The voices and points of view within the book will come from the children themselves. This week’s blog offering is a test that I made with my daughter, talking about the pink things she has. I have started to interview and record the children I photograph. If the finished work becomes an app I will use the recordings alongside the photographs and in the final printed book they will be used as quotes.

Interviewing and sound recording is new to me. This project is taking me to new places and forcing me to learn new skills that I would not even have considered before. I hope you like..

Glasgow Style

Not many words this week, as I am at home in Glasgow with my family. Just a couple of photos of stylish Glaswegians and some shots from around the city. If you haven’t been here you might not know Glasgow is a stylish city. People like to dress up. I put this down to the influence of the many Italians that moved here over a century ago.

Sauchiehall Street

Blossom in The Carlton.

The Babyccino Generation

This week just some phone pictures and an idea that has been going around in my head for a while…

The Babyccino! Where did that come from? I’m sure it wasn’t created in Italy. Nope, apparently it is from Australia and has been around for the past 10 years. It’s certainly been in the UK for the past 5, and it has just hit the US. Over here we are just talking about some frothy milk in a small cup with a bit of chocolate on top. It the States they are serving little ones decaf coffee and frothy milk.
It’s another great marketing success aimed at the Yummy Mummy, as a way of keeping her child quite so she can spend more money in the cafe.

It may sound like I don’t approve, but I do love the Babyccino. It’s healthy and the kids love them. For me it’s the name – it just seems to sum up this new generation of little people and how we treat them. There is a project here somewhere, but for now it’s just a good title- “The Babyccino Generation”.

These photos are of my daughter who ran up to me in the park the other day asking for a Cappuccino. My first thought was ‘you are NEVER having coffee’, but she meant a Babyccino. We are both off to Glasgow tomorrow where I think they are called ‘Weanaccinos’. We’ll find out and report back.

Thanks to Ruby for her individual dress sense and for sharing many a Babyccino moment with me.

Making a Book

No new photos this week. I have been editing my book project Generation Pink. There’s now lots of advice out there, on how to make your own photo book, but I came across a great post on the Conscientious blog with some sound advice on book making and at just the exact time I needed it.

It can seem an overwhelming task at times, but as with most things once it is broken down into separate jobs becomes manageable and this week’s task is editing. Not that I will do an edit and it will be done. Editing will be an ongoing task, but at least I have made a start. I have started to pair images together that will become double page spreads. It is amazing that as soon as you start to put photographs together the work begins to feel like a book.

These images are from the middle chapter of the book, which is made up of formal portraits paired with still lives. When I have been shooting the children’s portraits I have always been very conscious that families have welcomed me into their home, and allowed me to photograph their children. I have always felt that I wanted to make positive images and not criticize anyone’s choice of how to dress or raise their children. I am there to record. I also really hope that the children gain something form working with me to make the photograph, as it is very much a collaboration.

The still lives are a different matter. I found it impossible not to let my own feelings come into these pictures. I have only photographed second hand toys, that I have either found out on the street, or bought form charity shops and from Ebay. I like the idea that these toys have already been played with, discarded and the child has already moved on to something else. I have added a bit of glitter or make up (see the unicorn above) just as little girls do when playing with their dolls. I don’t shoot still lives often, but have really enjoyed using a medium that has allowed me to add some of my own expression.

I have set up a Generation Pink Facebook page to find out what other people think about the issues raised in the project. It will follow the making of the book with weekly updates and I hope that it will also encourage discussion. I might even be able to use some of the comments in the finished book. Please support my book project by ‘liking’, commenting and sharing Generation Pink on Facebook.

Thanks to Jenny for such a strong and confident stance from such a little child. And many thanks to Jasmine and Amelia for allowing me into their magical play room.