Specialist Location: Presentation & Planning

Once I had finally decided that I was to shoot a series of environmental portraits in a launderette (or more than one), I made a Powerpoint presentation to convey my plans to my tutor and my classmates, the slides of which are below (NB: at a later date I revisited this to add more depth to it).

You will notice from the above slides reference to studio and atmospheric lighting. This is because my initial intention was to borrow the college's studio lights and take them to my selected to launderette(s), thus combining my passion for social portraits with what I now know about lighting. At one point- after seeing some of Richard Gaskill's portraits at Bolton Wanderers Football Club- I also considered borrowing one of the Medium Format cameras for extra detail and tonal range when shooting in Black and White (I mean converting to black and white). At this point, I really did need to have words with myself, and tell myself not to bite off more than I can chew for the last unit, especially since John kiely urged us to "stick to what we know". Neverthless, the plans to shoot with lights is still part of the process.

Next up was to contact a local Launderette and ask if I could go down and do the shoot. I knew it had to be a traditional; one similar to the Barbican one in London (above), with coin-op machines and tiled floor, and large windows for light; not one of these new-aged ones like the one in the Northern Quarter (below), that appear more like community centres, than launderettes. Why? Well, I want my shots to have a grittiness about them, harking back in the days when people couldn't afford their own machines; sense of the old Britain, where people visited such places, and spoke to one another; shared time with one another. This was just one thing I could do to ensure I was in keeping with the British tradition of Bulmer and Mortram et al in exploring everyday customs.

Laundrette or Internet Cafe? Make your mind up please!

I knew I'd seen one somewhere, but I couldn't remember where this was. At this point Richard told me of one in Levenhulme (near where he lives), so I endeavoured to call them there and then (during Friday's class). I spoke to an assistant, who said to call back the following day (Saturday being the busiest time?), and speak to the "manager", Jose (1). Being a shy man, I always have a sense of trepidation about making such calls, but it turns out there was no need to be fearful of Jose: she was lovely, very amenable, and said there have been a few occasions that photographers and film crews have used the launderette for their own projects (she seemed very proud at mentioning this). I would go on the following Tuesday at around lunchtime.

1) One thing I would later learn about the organisational structure of the local launderette (the ones I visited, at least): the premises are often owned by a man of about mid-forties, and managed by a middle-aged woman, who knows all and sundry from the locale. The man will  pop-in now and again to carry-out any maintenance, drink tea and crack jokes of questionable taste with said middle-aged women.