Barnardos Project

What an exhausting week I’ve had this week! I knew that the project was due for exhibition in late March, but wasn’t sure of the exact date. I was made aware of this date last Tuesday – it is this coming Monday! Out of the ten kids that we were supposed to be photographing, we had only done six. The problem had been arranging available locations as all the kids had different aspirations, therefore different locations had to be found, a task that proved somewhat of a nightmare. Anyway, I found myself at a hairdressers on Wednesday, The Hilton Hotel on Friday and also Long Legs later in the day.

The shoot with Aaron was at a local hairdressers. He’s very fashion conscious and we wanted to show him in an environment to represent this visually. The initial idea was to put him on a catwalk with models, but his wheelchair might have made this difficult to achieve in a short space of time. He loved being at the hairdressers and had so much gel in his hair by the end of the night that his mother would have had a nightmare getting it all out before school the next day! I took some photos of him sat on a leather chair looking cool, surrounded by hair products. I was pleased with the photos and did not need to make any adjustments with them at all.

The shoot the following day took place at the Hilton hotel with Jack, who yearned for independence. We set up on The Cloud Bar on the 23rd floor and sat Jack in a corner with a computer and a drink in order to replicate a bachelor pad. He came with his parents and was pretty loath to leave at the end of the shoot! He obviously loved the location but I surmise it was more a case of avoiding having to return to school afterwards! The location was incredible and we completed the shoot pretty quickly.

Julian, the curator at See Gallery and coordinator of the project, asked if I wanted to attend the next shoot which was going to be at Long Legs in central Manchester as it was going to be shot by a professional photographer, Andy Farrington. A lecturer at Blackburn, I am sure he is known to staff at Preston. I would not have wanted to attempt this shoot anyway, as I knew it to be a lap dancing club and was not familiar with the layout so wasn’t sure if I would be confident enough. I was however, keen to watch a professional at work. The location was really nice, and we were able to set up in the VIP lounge. The interior was very contemporary and the staff really friendly and accommodating. Andy had an assistant called Neil, one of his second year students and between them they set up the lighting really quickly. The kit was tungsten rather than flash, which has inspired me to be more experimental with my tungsten kit. The lighting was set up before Dan, the subject of this shoot arrived. We had originally decided on this shoot as Dan loved the ladies and though nineteen, his parents were initially consulted and gave the go ahead. It was however decided that this particular shoot would not be representative of Barnardos but would be used for a future project. The experience however was really useful and the use of strobe lights and smoke machines to create a sultry atmosphere was something that I will consider using myself for future shoots. I do want to practice photographing in such locations - maintaining the dark atmosphere whilst enhancing the subject. His shots looked stunning and having checked out his website, he is obviously good at what he does. His website is http://www.andrewfphotography.com/ or http://andrewfphoto.deviantart.com/. Dan loved his experience at the club and I am glad that I attended the shoot. Afterwards, myself and Julian the curator, went through the photographs to get an idea of possible final images. That decision however will be made once Jackie, the other curator at the Gallery has looked at the images herself.