DOCUMENTING BRITAIN: TIM WILLCOCKS - GRACE

Grace after Surgery, Tim Willcocks. Single image feature over on www.documentingbritain.com “I’ve photographed Grace a few times, her remarkable story is best learned by visiting https://www.almostamazinggrace.co.uk Grace asked me to photograph her immediately after surgery to cosmetically improve the outcome of earlier surgery, which was to remove a brain tumour”

www.timwillcocks.com

#documentingbritain - thank you to all of you who continue to submit.

Documenting Britain is a creative response to the British Isles by a group of documentary photographers whose collective purpose is to deliver a critical record of the islands on which we live.

Our Instagram feed features your work - we are looking for photo stories, long-term projects and in-depth observations of life in Britain. Please Inbox if you have a submission.

Documenting Britain

run by @alastairkcook and @chloejuno #documentinglife

Copyright Tim Willcocks

PHOTO SPARKS: DAVE by DVO: ELEPHANT GUN COLLECTIVE

Photo sparks, photographs I love!

Dave vs. The Blue Plate by DVO Elephant Gun Collective Member. Blue-plate special  is a term used in the United States and Canada by restaurants, especially diners and cafes. It refers to a low-priced meal that usually changes daily.

International Story Telling Photography Collective https://www.instagram.com/elephantguncollective/

#elephantguncollective #ricohgr #streetphotography #streetphotographer #food #themajesticdineratlanta #majesticdiner

Food (Dave vs. The Blue Plate, revised) © dvo #elephantguncollective

ELEPHANT GUN COLLECTIVE: PORTRAITS JOHN JOHNSON

I am featuring JOHN JOHNSON over on Elephant Gun International Collective https://www.instagram.com/p/B7HCcYUn0f5/
I love researching photography, I recently found some great portraits by John. Football Supporters, Anfield, England.
CJ: what drives you to make the work you do, it was so good to find your ongoing project.
JJ: “ I love that cradle to grave tribalism that gets passed down the generations with football supporters.
The unwavering loyalty through thick and thin that these men, women and children show week in week out, season after season. Some proudly displaying their colours others smart but casually dressed, all singing their hearts out helping in no small way to push that ball over the line” ———————————————————————————
@chloejuno sharing work I love from Britain and around the globe, documentary projects/street photography! passionate about both. Thank you John! johnjohnson-photography.com
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7HCcYUn0f5/

#elephantguncollective #documentary #liverpool #britain #england #uk #america

Copyright JOHN JOHNSON

ELEPHANT GUN COLLECTIVE: Street Photography Rui Pina

@gothic_porto  on Instagram #porto #portugal  I have been following Rui Pina for a few years now and love his eye for the streets and people of Porto. So it’s a joy to be able to curate and feature his work on a global storytelling page Elephant Gun Collective My first share is this wonderful image of Maria da Conceição.

TeixeiraMaria da Conceição Teixeira, 85 years old. Natural of Braga (Portugal). She came to Oporto at the age of five. Lives in st. Ildefonso, she never went to school but the school of life taught her everything.

"I climb 108 stairs every day to get in and out of the house, I live alone with God and the doves" She feeds the doves every day on the roof of her little castle. "I live in heaven," she says. Her husband committed suicide and years later found his son hanging by a rope at home. " I was a mother at 15 "  She always Carries a photo of her husband and another photo of her taken in Faro on July 30, 1956!!! she was 18 years old.

Copyright Rui Pina

DOCUMENTING BRITAIN : TOM WESTBURY

ARCHIVE FEATURE @tom_westbury

One of my passions is to research documentary photography, I select and curate work over on www.documentingbritain.com . We feature documentary stories, landscape photography and street photography. I loved finding Tom’s work, I get an energy rush when I find a cohesive body of work that I really like, and you can sense the photographer’s vision. Whilst I was editing Tom’s submission, I could really feel the time and effort he spends walking and really looking, documenting everyday life, our built-up environment, the houses and streets, areas that seem mundane, but show us how life looks now. If you are not familiar with Tom’s work, seek him out!

‘New Build’

https://www.tomwestbury.com/new-build

‘Peripheries’

https://www.tomwestbury.com/peripheries

“'I’m a documentary landscape photographer based in Hampshire, UK. Kent. 20.08.2017
I struggle to articulate exactly why I photograph. The best I can say is that I’m fascinated by what ‘place’ reveals about us: the way we live and where things might be heading.
On an aesthetic level, photographs have an uncanny ability to render beauty in the mundane. I find this endlessly intriguing.
I tend to be drawn to the outskirts and the edges; to overlooked and unmanaged places; or to the identikit new developments which spring up in these zones. I also have a soft spot for fading concrete modernism.“www.tomwestbury.com

Documenting Britain Run by Chloe and Alastair founded by Alastair Cook

A creative response to the British Isles by documentary photographers whose collective purpose is to deliver a critical record of the islands on which we live.

© Tom Westbury

www.tomwestbury.com © Tom Westbury

CASE STUDY: BRUISED LANDS - PHOTOGRAPHER ALAN GIGNOUX

Chloe Juno - Working with photographers -creative direction, branding and curating exhibitions.  

www.gignouxphotos.com

One of my favorite things, about my work, is coming up with ideas and developing them into an outcome, spending time with a photographer/client where we brainstorm different creative concepts. I absolutely love it, this summer 2019, I developed a concept and curated an exhibition for documentary photographer Alan Gignoux, he wanted to showcase three bodies of work, we reviewed his environmental stories, Oil Sands, Appalachia: Mountain Tops to Moonscapes and Forests of Latvia.

My task was to think of a concept that would pull the work together and we could then present them as a whole, so people gained an insight into the depth and breadth of Alan’s long-term projects.  I thought about how different industries are mining and drilling the land for oil and coal, felling trees, destroying the natural landscape. Cutting, ripping and smashing into the land and in turn creating barren landscapes, destroyed areas of land that go on for miles, some areas are irreparable whilst other areas are being reclaimed, patched up and possibly fixed.

After creative meetings and reviewing Alan’s photography, soaking up all the images of destroyed forests and exposed mountains I came up with the idea and title ‘Bruised Lands’, some of the images from ‘Oil Sands’ actually look like bruises.  

Working with Stanley James Press on the graphic design, I was thinking of bruises and medical emergencies and the red cross logo. The idea that environmental destruction is an emergency.  My aim was to convey a sense of urgency. We created exhibition posters, graphics for social media and enlarged images combining text and then printed on to vinyl. All font was bold and loud, we wanted to shout about the issues at hand.

I really enjoyed working on the creative concepts for this exhibition. Alan will be using this branding moving forward, combining other environmental projects, watch this space for the next exhibition and possible photo book!  

I also made OIL SANDS photo book with Alan which I will post about soon! Beyond Words Books

Working with www.stanleyjamespress.com

SOMEONES RUBBISH: Chloe Juno, Brighton and Hove, England.

Six recent photographs that I have recently shared over on Instagram

I love exploring and really looking! finding the things people chuck out. The unwanted items tossed into the street, the things discreetly dropped, the traces of life that people leave behind, sometimes giving away clues to themselves.

I have been taking daily photos for five years, and the rubbish pile is growing in size, the images together are creating patterns and stories, forming a visual representation of our life now in Brighton and Hove, England. The objects we use and then discard. I seem to be addicted to making this work, the more I see the bigger the pile gets. I also wonder what it will be like to look back at this work 50 years from now. It feels like an archaeology project, a study of human activity and analysis of material culture. A field study of a section of Brighton and Hove.

Found objects: a question, a paint pot, plug instructions, unopened rice pudding, a suitcase, body glitter, a cushion, caffeine pills, shower cap.

#costofliving #money

#someonesrubbish #streetmuseum

PHOTO SPARKS: BROS by HONEY SALVADORI September 1989

A single image by a photographer that sparks and ignites something within me.

It’s a great moment for a photo editor when an image comes in that nails a certain mood and embodies the story.

BROS 1980’s BRITISH BOY BAND “when will I will I be famous, when will I see my picture in the papers”

CJ: Honey and I have followed each other for a while now on social media and I have loved learning about all the work, she has done, her street photography and music/band photography for Q magazine and Vox magazine. After five years of covering bands on tour for those magazines, she went on to work with Picture Publicity at the BBC and Channel 4 as well as producing documentary features for magazines including Elle, Marie Claire and Moda (Italy).  Her work is represented in numerous collections including the National Portrait Gallery who acquired this photograph of Bros as well as some other portraits for the permanent collection.

A set of images that stood out personally to me, are photos backstage with Bros. When I was a teenager I saw Bros at The Dome in Brighton, it was totally bonkers crazy nuts, girls screaming we love you Matt, Luke, and Craig (not me! but I was there) and I did have ripped jeans and a bomber jacket, so enough said!  I think at the time it may have been my dream to be in Honey's shoes. 

Honey how did this great image happen? I love it!

Limo Life, Bros on Tour, USA, September, 1989 Copyright Honey Salvadori

HS: The job photographing Bros for Q magazine was initially a routine commission.  I was working on a regular basis for the magazine, mostly taking pictures in hotel rooms, where an artist would be installed for Press and PR sessions.  Most people wouldn’t have expected to see Bros in the pages of Q, least of all the people who worked at Q.  But they accepted the invitation from Bros’ management to photograph them in Minneapolis on a US tour where they were being introduced to the American market by pop star Debbie Gibson. 

When I was asked to do the pictures, my immediate reaction was to question what sort of pictures Q wanted.  “You’ll think of something” was their reply!  So I packed my sense of humour in my camera bag.  We spent a couple of days with them, during which I tried to blend into the background, so that they’d accept me avoiding posed clichés, and concentrated on reportage photographs.  This proved easier to do with Luke than Matt, but I persevered. 

This photograph happened by chance.  We met them in the hotel lobby as they were going to do a radio interview and I just invited myself along for the ride to the Radio station.  I took a few predictable snaps, then they both spontaneously yawned…I quickly snapped the picture.  I couldn’t believe my luck!!  They were a bit surprised when I took this but didn’t react much at all.  Until it was published.  Then they expressed their shock live on Saturday morning TV!!  This was of course very good for me…I woke up on Monday morning discovering that I had a career!! So I’ll always be grateful to Bros for having a sleepy car journey and for over-reacting to the result!

Contact Sheet; BROS, Honey Salvadori #fimsnotdead #honeysalvadori

CJ : Honey has two ‘vintage’ prints of this picture made in 1989/90.  Hand printed on Silver Gelatin paper.  One is 10x8 and one is 12x16. 

Please email honey@honeysalvadori.com if you are interested in purchasing one of the prints.

More pictures from the backstage sessions with Bros are available as un-editioned Giclee prints from her Etsy shop:

 https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/HoneySalvadori

Feature by #chloejuno

OPEN CALL BLOG PHOTO FEATURE

Documentary Photography and Street Photography

Calling out to photo people who deal with dyslexia, and the anxiety it creates around writing and putting oneself out there.

I would like to create a space which inspires other creatives that struggle with dyslexia.

On this blog I feature photographers and the work I do. I am dyslexic and have struggled with writing, presenting and a whole heap of anxiety around remembering information under pressure. Support can be found within the educational system, but as an adult in the working world, there are still obstacles and challenges.

If you would like to write a feature on photography, maybe your photography or an issue that you are passionate about, submit an idea to me.

All you have to do at first is submit the visuals (images, screenshots or weblinks to work) and write a very simple outline about your story / feature. If the visuals and idea fit with my blog, then we can then speak on the phone about it or whichever way you feel most comfortable with.  I will help along the way so don’t worry about that and I am sure I will learn from you.  The features will live on the blog and then maybe move into photo zine.

 Submit to chloejunocj@gmail.com

Crossword Book, Someone’s Rubbish, Brighton and Hove, 2018, Chloe Juno

Someone’s Rubbish - I have spent 5 years taking photographs everyday, looking at life now via the objects we discard. This is ongoing work and the rubbish pile is growing in size. https://www.instagram.com/chloejuno/

WOMEN IN STREET

#InYourFace: Up Close and Personal, gallery now live!

medium.com/her-side-of-the-street/inyourface-up-close-and-personal

I had the best invite to be a guest curator for a month with this wonderful supportive street photography collective Women In Street. I set the theme In Your Face: Up close and Personal. Images that take you in Close and pop!

I love street photography, most countries have the freedom for street photography to thrive, some people do not enjoy this freedom. I feel street photography is really important, people out there are creating a daily record of life now, the good times, the bad times and the richness of human existence.  

I have led social history projects where we researched historical images of street life. The images street photographers are making now are showing us how we live and will be our windows to the past.

Massive thank you to all who submitted images, I really enjoyed looking over the work, it was a really inspiring experience, all the women across the world engaging in street photography.

Women in Street is a multi-platform social media collaborative, a global network established in 2016, which provides a blogzine and several social media platforms. It provides a community forum, and showcases the work of emerging talent and seasoned artists. WiS functions somewhat as a “collective,” where collaborators come and go, these “members” may be short or long term contributors, handling a special project, curating, or contributing guest material for the blog.

Run by Julia Coddington Casey Meshbesher

Thank you Casey and Julia for the invitation.

Renata Filippi

Women In Street

@chloejuno

Anne J. Gibson

Claire Brinberg

DOCUMENTING BRITAIN

Over the past 4 years, I have been busy selecting, editing, curating features and sharing photographers work onto the www.documentingbritain.com Instagram account, working with photographers who are creating work/stories all over Britain. I love doing this work, I seem to have fire in my belly to share real-life stories. I really enjoy talking to the photographers, some new to the game, some self-taught and others more established. It’s something I have always wanted to do since studying photography, to somehow build a picture of how we live, even before I joined my photography course back in 2000 I collected old issues of LIFE and PICTURE POST

We are looking at ways to develop Documenting Britain, maybe into something to have and hold.

Watch this space and our Instagram. A massive thank you to all the photographers who agree to be featured and to all who continue to submit to DB. Also all the followers, there is the best community out there who are loving the documentary work being made. I want to be able to share so much but have limited resources, this may change. There are so many people out there making wonderful work looking at real life and this fills me with more passion to keep on sharing. I think we need to see real-life in photography more than ever.

#lifenow #photospark #chloejuno #document #urgent #photofeatures

#documentingbritain #documentary #photography #alastaircook

PHOTOGRAD BREXIT ZINE

I selected and interviewed photographer DEIVIDAS BUIVYDAS for Photograd about his work F(L)IGHT for their #brexit zine, which I really enjoyed, Deividas is making some great work in #bostonengland Boston had one of the highest leave votes when the referendum was called in 2016. Money made from this zine goes right back into the work PHOTOGRAD are doing. They are very busy creating a wonderful platform for photography graduates to showcase work. The zine has a great group of contributors, its a really interesting read including some great photographers out and about creating stories about life now.

http://www.davidphos.com/

https://www.photograd.co.uk/shop/brexitpgz

LIFE NOW Robert Law

Robert Law: documentary photographer based in Wales in the UK #lifenow #lifenowchloejuno

CJ: I have followed Rob’s work for a while and when I saw this image by Rob right away I was smitten, I loved the feelings coming out of the photograph. I have a book Field Studies Stephen Gill and there is a whole series on ‘Trolley Women’. It’s a set of photos that has always stayed within my visual memory. When I saw Rob’s portrait from Holyhead the work came to mind. Many photographers find it hard to approach people and then to ask, to take their photograph, I knew Rob was rising to the challenge, here’s what he had to say.

RL: I met Mary as she was talking to a friend near a row of terraced houses in the coastal town of Holyhead, Anglesey. I'm currently documenting the town as part of a project that examines a very overlooked community that continues to be economically challenged. In common with many other seaside communities, Holyhead voted to leave the EU, despite being in receipt of generous grants and being a major gateway to the Republic of Ireland. Maybe by taking an honest look at the town we can start to decode the paradox?

So much of my work looks to portray the beauty in the everyday, the banal, even. I also look for anything remotely quirky and Mary’s large, flowery trolley really caught my eye. Before my visit to the town that day I’d already made a firm decision to get out of my comfort zone and include more people in my project. I’m so glad I did and quickly realised that by engaging with people, the rewards were amazing, offering great insight and revealing interesting lives and history. As a photographer, I’ve got back at least ten times what I’ve put in by overcoming my trepidation and meeting people. It’s so enriching. And how could a serious documentary project not include the local people in its scope?

I approached Mary and told her a little bit about my project and would it be alright to take her portrait? She happily accepted straight away, but on condition she could tell me a little about herself first.

A chat with Mary revealed an interesting life. She’d left nursing in London and felt a religious calling. Among her adventures was a trip she’d decided to make of her own volition to Albania when it was effectively a closed country, to bring children’s books to schools. She did this completely alone, with some initial difficulty in getting there, but once there was warmly welcomed by local families who took her in.

We never got around to talking about what had led her to Holyhead, but she told me how active she was with her local church. Her friend told me how active Mary was in charitable work in the area.

I’m still inexperienced and slightly awkward when it comes to portraiture. I feel an embarrassed urge to hurry. Looking back, I’d have preferred to separate Mary a little from the background, but you can’t get away from the ubiquitous pebbledash in Holyhead and I guess that’s part of the narrative. I’ve since sent a brief letter and a small print to thank her for her time.

And just what was in that large, flowery trolley? Food for the local food bank.

To see how Rob’s work develops follow him with_the_grain_photo

aCurator 'Someone's Rubbish'

aCurator magazine is edited and published by images industry veteran Julie Grahame, and is designed to show off great photography in a clean, elegant environment. The aCurator audience includes editors, curators, art directors, and photographers. Launched in 2009, the magazine continues to fill a need for diverse, curated, quality content.

FEATURES, CHLOE JUNO: SOMEONE'S RUBBISH

A mere handful of images from the ever-increasing archive of photographs of rubbish seen on Chloe Juno's wanderings through Brighton and Hove, on England's south east coast. aCurator

Avocado, Someone’s Rubbish, 2017. Looking at life now via the objects we discard. 4 years of photographs taken daily can be found on Chloe Juno Instagram

Elephant Gun Collective

I am spending some time as a guest curator with the guys at ELEPHANT GUN COLLECTIVE I was really pleased to be asked as I have been a fan of the work that they do since I found them on instagram. I have a very real passion for images of everyday people and thats something they love to share as well. So I have been busy scouting some of my favourite work being made across the globe. The portrait below is by Lorcan Finnegan - I think its just simply wonderful. I trained to be a hairdresser in my teens; I really was not good at the cutting side of things but loved colouring hair and spent hours making the foils for hair, used like the lady below. Back then you could smoke in the salon, and I remember sitting with the ladies and chatting away with them untill it was time to wash the foils off. This image just hits the nail on the head, with character, colour and compostion. I will share more about Elephant Gun soon!

‘DUBLIN FACES’
Street Photography by @lorcanfinnegan copyright Lorcan Finnegan filmmaker / #dublinfaces series a set of characters from the city of Dublin, Ireland.

Top Right - Gav Robinson ‘The Corner’ Hyde Park London

Middle Right - Andrew Johnston Street Photography Belfast

Bottom Right - Greame Oxby ‘The Kings of England’ https://www.graemeoxby.com/ Book Blue Coat Press

PHOTOGRAD

PHOTOGRAD SELECTIONS

Last year I was invited to select work by graduates that resonated with me, work that PHOTOGRAD had already featured on their page. I found some wonderful work https://www.photograd.co.uk/chloe-juno/ Clear Cut by Christoph Soeder was a body of work I was already familiar with having featured on Documenting Britain Instagram Thank you PHOTOGRAD for asking me.

These selections were made by Chloe Juno, creative consultant, artist, curator, co-lead Documenting Britain, curator Fishing Quarter Gallery in Brighton.

Clear Cut by christophsoeder.com/ttsgalerie/clear-cut/

Christoph’s portraits just pop and jump out at you. I am a big fan of old Benetton colours magazines at the time when Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin were the photographers and Creative Directors. I can see this work sitting well within those publications. I love the use of the bright red background to bring out the faces of people after their haircuts. A simple approach that just works. I also enjoy the sense that something new has just finished and the anticipation of maybe wanting to get the cloak off and enjoy the new feeling of a haircut. The strategies that Christoph has employed enables the viewer to really focus in on the different styles portrayed in much more detail. It is an intriguing approach that encourages us to look at an everyday task such as going to the barbers, in a more graphic way.

Commonmcr Photo feature on Instagram

Thank you Luke Saxon and Stefan Byrom for featuring ‘ Someone’s Rubbish’ Brighton and Hove, 2015- 2019 on your brilliant page!

Trip Magazine

A feature from 2016, I love the work Trip shows and was so excited to feature the rubbish. I was just getting into the flow of making the images, walking and exploring. It was so good to see them up as a whole feature. Thank you Dean Davies.

Someone’s Rubbish

Photographer and creative consultant, Chloe Juno documents discarded litter on the streets, parks and alleyways of Brighton, exploring the life experience of strangers in the detritus they leave behind http://tripmag.co.uk/someones-rubbish/

Curated by Dean Davies

Fable & Folk interview

This was my first interview in 2018, talking about me and ‘Someone’s Rubbish’ and the work I do. It was really good to reflect and see all the images sit alongside my words. Thank you Charlotte.

IN CONVERSATION WITH CHLOE JUNO | DECEMBER 2018 Our next Fable & Folk interview is with Brighton based documentary photographer Chloe Juno. Her most iconic photographic work is “Someone’s Rubbish” – a long-term project documenting life in the UK through the objects people discard, specifically focusing on Brighton and Hove. As the images build, it paints a picture of a city, what people use to live, to work, for health, for food, for love, for money and then, throw away. Chloe is also known for her curation skills for both the “Documenting Britain” Instagram and the “Fishing Quarter Gallery” based in Brighton.

We wanted to interview Chloe as we think she is a fantastic example of one of the many strong female voices in the documentary photography industry and has many invaluable skills and indispensable experience to pass on to our audience.

 Fable and Folk Curated by Charlotte Cooper

Acurator Feature: Wild Flowers, Cornwall, Britain.

I spend so much time working with documentary photography, my flowers and plants are a visual escape for me. soaking up all the colours of nature. Thank you Julie for giving the flowers a platform on www.acurator.com

Wild Flowers, Cornwall, Britain featured on acurator.com Over the past few years I have spent holiday time in a remote location in Cornwall.  Staying in an old chalet with rough paths down to secluded wild beaches.  On my walks up and down I started to photograph the flowers and plants with just my black scarf, a few hair clips and a swiss army knife.  I spend so much time working with documentary photography and living in a city that completely zoning in to the flowers is total escapism, noticing every bit of detail.  Taking photographs, surrounded by just nature. The sun, the wind, the sound of the crickets and birds and waves crashing down below. 

aCurator magazine is edited and published by images industry veteran Julie Grahame, and is designed to show off great photography in a clean, elegant environment. The aCurator audience includes editors, curators, art directors, and photographers. Launched in 2009, the magazine continues to fill a need for diverse, curated, quality content.