Square 1

I emailed my boss to see if it would be possible to photograph the men that I wanted to from the club that I work in. as it’s an old man’s club they have something called a committee. They have to vote on things such as this so I have been waiting to hear back. Sadly it’s not good news and I am going to have to start from scratch and find something else to do. Maybe this is a blessing or some kind of way of the universe telling me not to do it because I was really unsure about it. This has confirmed my doubts. 

Searching For An Idea

So I had my sight and hopes set on creating these wonderful contact sheets that in my head looked like they had just fallen out of the pages of Magnum. But when I presented this, it seem to fall flat. The final outcome and how it would be presented was all there, but how can you have a contact sheet if you don’t have a subject to photograph? THAT’S where my problem seemed to be. I had no subject. So at that point no project at all.

Then I came to the conclusion that all my problems will be solved if I just chose a subject. So that’s what I did. I decided that I wanted to photograph men, real born and bred English men. The type I wanted to capture most of all members of the far-right group known as the EDL (English Defence League). All though I am completely against what the stand for and their views, after witnessing for my self ELD demonstrations in the town that I live in, and also talking to some members in the bar that I work, it came to my attention that when speaking to these people they don’t seem like the evil narrow minded members that I thought them to be. So my idea was to capture portraits of these people.

New problem. I don’t know enough about the subject, I don’t know enough people involved with the far right group, and most of all I don’t know if I have the balls to go ahead with the project. I don’t want my photography to portray anyone in a bad light, I want to capture the person, the detail, and the story in there face. But portraying them as ‘nice’ ‘loving’ people wouldn't be doing what I initially set out to do…

…Its hard!