Influences

Met up with the Manchester photographer Clement Cooper and found him a very interesting guy. He was most insightful on his practice and helpful with ideas for my intended project.Preferring to use natural lighting he uses a relatively wide aperture for his portraits. I am familiar with his work having seen it several times at the photographic archives in Manchester. To really appreciate his work you have to see the quality of his prints which is not always transferred into printed matter. The earlier books don't do his photos justice which is probably more to do with the printers rather than anything else. In later books however he has taken control if his own printing and it shows.

He gave me an interesting insight into the politics behind how work, particularly issue-based documentary work, is curated and in some cases, the context totally misconstrued. I suppose that this is an inevitable over time but must be incredibly frustrating with more recent work. He also advised me to familiarise myself with the copyright law, particularly when it comes to the internet. I also found it interesting to be aware of the logistics of how much control the artist retains over his work when dealing with publishing companies. Obviously different organisations have different regulations but it pays to have prior insight into how things work.

He also offered personal insight into my Irish project whereby he remembered the Irish and Caribbean communities sharing communal venues such as pubs and community centres  in the 1970s, but that they fell out at some stage and went their separate ways. I had been unaware of this previously but it makes sense really as both the Irish and the Caribbean immigrants came over post-war in order to work in Britain and formed close communal groups on settling.

It was very beneficial to speak to someone who had previously created a series of projects similar to my intended one. Definitely food for thought...

The Darkroom

I have been practising in the darkroom using 120 films as I need to brush on my skills if I am to complete my final project with a medium format camera. I have been taking a couple of films every few weeks so that I can continue to work on ensuring that my exposure is correct and that I process the film correctly. I prefer my images to have a strong contrast where possible, though admittedly I do not always achieve this. I need to ensure that when I take my final photos that they are spot on as I don't want to have to work excessively on them post-production. I also aim to ensure that I don't have to re-shoot at all as I know that in some cases it will be impossible anyway, which is why I get to get it right first time. I intend to practice at least on a weekly basis.

The National Archives

I was browsing the site and came across some podcasts such as Family history resources at The National Archives, New Britons-Immigration to the United Kingdom, Researching the British Empire and Commonwealth. I scrolled through and found a couple that seemed appropriate to both my final project and dissertation. I listened to them and came across one entitled Tracing your Irish ancestors at The National Archives. by Audrey Collins who I met when I visited the National Archives over the summer. She is the expert on Irish history and was really helpful when I spoke to her. I was planning to contact her again in the near future but in the meantime listened to her talk on Tracing your Irish ancestors at The National Archives which I found very interesting. One site that was recommended was ‘Moving On’, a very informative site on migration. I found some very useful articles regarding Irish immigration and diaspora, work, politics, culture and leisure.


This in turn inspired me to go onto the archive site of the National Media Museum in Bradford in order to book an appointment to visit the research department. I spoke to Ruth Kitchin with the intention of visiting them next week, but she informed me that the photographic archives were closed until the 17^th January so I will have to ring and book an appointment in the very near future

Bronica ETRS

I have been using my Bronica ETRS camera over the break to practice photographing in a setting similar to that of my final project. I have been practising using models - both human and non-human, in a variety of settings and will continue to do so until I feel satisfied that I will achieve the best possible outcome. I am still undecided on the lighting source though am tempted to use a single light in order to create more of an atmosphere. Here are some of the photographs that I took on the day. I have only done a contact sheet so I cannot assess them accurately, but at least it gives me an idea until I can print them properly.