Assignment 1 - Stories from Cheltenham - Nicola Barz

To begin this story, I made contacts with Nicola via the internet. This shoot to begin with was quite difficult to nail down to a date as it was clear Nicola was quite apprehensive to allow me into her home to take photos. This is incredibly understandable as it's not everyday you allow a random teenager you have never met come to your home to take photos of you. Nicola was shot, petite build and was a stay at home mum with a baby. her house was bright and held perfect ambient light to get some good portraits. For this shoot I decided to really take control and ask her where to stand, for the portraits and tell her that through out the day I will be following her and taking photos of her as she goes. Our most communications came through her daughter Betsy and in this story it was clear how close the two of them were. Although there were pictures of the father about the house mostly of their wedding, he was barely spoken of. She was careful not to divulge too much information about her life but I knew from her decor and attitude that she was a happy and lively lady. 'I don't know if I am that interesting' she explained. 'I just look after Betsy really.' Here is her daily routine:

This is Nicola Barz

her lively cushions and clothes complimented her bubbly personality

As she spoke of her daughters sleeping patterns, she looked out of the window into her large garden.

It is clear how close the two are.

This shot of her wedding ring whilst she made a cake stood out to me as she barely spoke of any partner the whole time I was there. Her help came entirely from her mother who took little Betsy for a walk when I arrived. It left me wondering that perhaps there was more to her than what meets the eye.

Assignment 1 - Stories from Cheltenham - Helen Stephens

This is Helen Stephens. I knew Helen back in my home, the Isle of Wight, and was thrilled when I bumped into her along Cheltenham high street one morning. She was here visiting her father. She has lived here the greater part of her life. Helen is a single mother of a 15 year old girl, and an 18 year old boy. She has manic depression and a severe nerve and back problem which restricts her everyday movement greatly. I would like to tell you her story through my pictures, as I will do this with others living in cheltenham. I met Helen on an average day for her, bringing chocolates and croissants to, if you like, say a silent thank you for letting me stalk her on her normal day. She spent most of her time sitting in her chair wincing every so often in pain and describing to me her mixture of medication prescribed to her to numb her pain. 'Zapain, diazipam, dihydrocodiene...' the list went on. At first she was frantic describing these pills as I could understand how she felt with my re-occuring back pain also. 'Those doctors just don't understand, being in pain constantly is going to make you fucking depressed' from this she went quite calm as we made tea she sat gazing out the window whilst her friend sat opposite her talking to her about news headlines he seemed to disagree with. Then you will see further on her complete change from this to a happy laughter. The photos I have taken I hope will help communicate how her mood changes.

The establishing portrait will run throughout this assignment in my work, to show you like a headline in a paper, what the story is about.

She relaxed in her chair as her friend talked about his views.

Her son Kabe came home from college and sat directly opposite her and began to 'banter' both her and myself, explaining it was awkward with a camera in the room, I found it quite fun.

This shot of the living room I liked. It's cluttered state I could relate to.

After cracking a not so funny, quite serious joke about her back and depression being interlinked, she laughed with a degree of pain.

Stow Gypsy Horse Fair

This was a STRANGE experience. Something I enjoyed none the less. I have always been interested in the way travelers live and have been interested in their values and life style for quite some time. You got the nice ones, you got the nasty ones, but all in all, they all made good photo opportunities. After the hour long bus journey to stow, and the frantic panic buy of some wellies for the trek around the fields, we all got some good shots to take home. Here are a few of mine:

'Hang on love, let me put my sun glasses on so I look extra posh'

Sheila, Elsley and Sharon

Overly friendly red bull guzzlers

charming young gents

Tewksbury Mop Fair

Tewksbury Mop fair was a great experience taking us all back to our childhoods when the fair came to town! This event shoot however presented a challenge for me as night shooting isn't my strongest area in the photography field. I did find however, experimenting with slow shutter speed on fair ground rides really enjoyable as it was relatively new to me also. My idea was to go in with the mind set of a press photographer, looking for shots that would fit within a paper/magazine. Overall in my opinion I don't feel this was the best shoot for me and came out of it feeling slightly deflated.

Before I got here

This is a series of most portrait shots I took at home before I came to this course as well as some street photography I took too!

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