This has been a good week photographically I was awarded my Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society this week with a panel made up of images from my “The Other Side of the Track’ project based at the Talyllyn Railway. Having only achieve my Licentiateship in October 2020 It is a sign that I am improving as a photographer and capable of producing a high quality of work. It also suggests that my ability to pull together coherent bodies of work which tell a story is improving.

The ethical triangle of Author-Subject-Audience is again something I have never consciously thought about whilst I have produced commercial work to a specific brief when I am shooting personal projects I tend to focus on the first two elements, what do I the author want out of the image, I do consider the subject and especially when there is an ethical consideration around the subject such as photographing children whose family are not a part of my circle of friends and also whilst recently shooting a series of test images that will be used for a homeless campaign by a local charity I am working with. 

This summer I spent a day at the Appleby Horse fair in (in)famous gathering of the Travelling community I took a combination of posed and candid shots but was extremely conscious of the need to keep my audience in mind, to seek approval wherever possible and to engage in conversation. There are ethical considerations when shooting at an event of this nature and I deliberately set out to present a positive image of the travelling community meeting and enjoying the occasion rather than seeking out images which may reinforce a particular stereotype of that community. 

This week’s image was taken at a Peaky Blinders photoshoot at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley