Brief Two: Interior Location: The Residents of Broughton House: A Proposal

I work as a Care/Support Worker in various homes and independent hospitals around Manchester. The Service Users range from the elderly with/without dementia through to those with severe learning disabilities. The work is challenging, requiring patience and empathy. I won't say something cheesy like "I feel I make a difference", but I will say that I do make connections with some of the clients, and the whole experience of providing personal care gets me 'out of self' and prevents me from disappearing up my own arse with what's going on for me.

This gift I have (OK, calling it a gift is ostensibly me disappearing up my own arse, but I'm not at work now)- the gift of understanding and putting people at ease- is akin to portrait photography for me. The same rules apply. The people I work with are basically giving themselves over to me as a carer and a photographer; the former to get their own needs met, the latter to meet my own. In both, I am in a position of trust. The photographer is also a conduit for his subjects, enabling them to express certain parts of themselves, before recording this in the digital image. This- and the fact I am becoming more confident around asking what I want from my subjects- is the core reason for choosing to photograph the residents of Broughton House.

Broughton House is a 50-bed Residential Care Home for Ex-Servicemen personnel funded by the charities  Seafarers UK, The Army Benevolent Fund and The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. The building is one of the biggest I've ever worked in; a huge place opened in 1916 by Colonel Sir William Coates of the East Lancashire Red Cross as a response to the amount of people injured in the Great War. The place itself is like a museum- its walls adorned with pictures of old war heroes; its reception area holding a glass cabinet containing the many medals won in that war. Both the building and its residents are rich with history, which is the main impetus for me wanting to record said history photographically.

This is not a new thing for me. On the City & Guilds Level One course two years ago, I decided to do a similar thing, inspired as I was by the Social Documentary photographer Ian Beesley, who- at the time- had a few of his images exhibited at Gallery Oldham (where I was working as a gallery assistant). This was part of an exhibition called 'Women of Oldham', and featured black and white images of women who'd lived through the second world war, shot in their own environments. At the time I was also a volunteer befriender to an old man in Openshaw, so I approached the organisation I worked for in the hope they could set me up with so more old people to photograph in their own homes. I was put in touch with Auden Court, Clayton, and so was the start of a working relationship lasting a few months (I ended-up doing a calendar for them, assisted by my friend Trevor). Below are some of the images from the time:

f5.3, 1/10th, ISO400, 45mm.
I used a tripod for these. Back then I didn't know what I was doing like I do now. Its not a bad shot, and it was purely intentional that Brenda was looking away from camera (these portraits sometimes work). The colours are rich enough too. The main criticism from my tutor at the time was the subject's double chins. I think I can achieve a lot more this time round.

f5.6, 1/13, ISO1600, 55mm.
I must have really messed around with the settings two years ago. That being said, this is more within keeping to today's brief: Roy looks cerebral and contemplative. This time I will attempt to include more of the actual environment, though.

f5.6, 1/20, ISO1600, 55mm.
This is even closer to what I want from the Broughton House shoot, helped by the fact there are plenty of characters that look just like Albert. I shot him in several poses, both wide and close-up like this. The problem I had with the wider ones were the bits of tat in his room. I think I am experienced enough to remove any extraneous items now, though.

I think you can see what I was striving for here, but with the Broughton shoot I want to achieve a little more with it (if only to reassure myself that I've improved as a photographer). This time I want to make best use of the ambience of the surrounding area, making best use of all available light. This is based a rather pithy thing I read in a booklet I got free with Amateur Photographer magazine last year: "while normal people photograph objects, advanced photographers are photographing the light that is falling on the object" (1). As stated in my post on metering modes and exposure, for most subject types I use Spot Metering, but because of the importance of the environment here, I plan to use Matrix Metering. 

I assumed  the use of flash was prohibited in this brief, but have since been told it is acceptable providing it is used alongside natural light sources, not instead of. Of course, the problem I would encounter by using my flash in the TTL mode (I'd be lost without this mode), is that its sole purpose is to sync with the camera's settings to override all ambient light, thus eradicating any subtle changes in natural lights and darks. No good for focussing on the environment then.

The obvious idea was to shoot the residents in their own rooms, but Broughton has its own smoking room and library, offering me the opportunity to take full advantage of different moods and lighting scenarios. I've been inspecting both of these rooms for a while now, and both have potential. The only issue I see here is one of continuity (would I be able to get away with a mixture of shots from their own rooms and the communal areas?). In the rooms themselves, I aim to be more creative with the use of light than last time, and will try my best not to be afraid of shooting using a high ISO.

Gaining Access

My tutor, Richard Gaskill, has mentioned a few times how "access is the key" no matter what the project. This became all the more apparent at Broughton when it was made evident from the first time I mentioned the idea to the Manager. Of course, he wanted to know all about my intentions and where the images would be shown (I mentioned this blog). The manager of the home informed me he would need to speak to the Colonel (the big boss), but the upshot was a "yes", based on the following conditions: a) I could provide a letter of confirmation from one of my tutors explaining what I would be doing; b) I had my college pass with me at all times, c) I would also shoot some images for the benefit of their own website and newsletter (this was their main bargaining chip) and d) every person features in my images would have to sign a model release form (printed from Moodle). During the following shift, I was introduced to the colonel himself. Behind his stern demeanour, I found him generally interested in what I was trying to achieve (I sold myself as an up and coming social documentary photographer)- very accommodating. What I will stress here, mind, is that both manager and the colonel were more than adamant I produced some pictures that would be of benefit to the home itself. I had no reservations about this arrangement.

I also sent an email to Ian Beesley, asking whether he had the portraits of the old Women of Oldham in digital form, that I could use as part of the research part of this brief. I have yet to have a reply. 


1)  Demolder, D (2011), Advanced Photography: Camera Skills, p36, free with Amateur Photographer, October 22nd 2011.