presentation notes

1- about MASH (established in 1991) situated on fairfield street in MCR They offer health services, counseling and a safe environment for female sex workers of all ages and from a variety of backgrounds. They also run workshops - giving the women something positive to focus on as most of their lives are quite destructive

2 - First few sessions, didn’t take pictures. Being aware of the sensitivity of the nature of the work I took the time to get involved with the activities and sat down and spoke to staff and the service users also, drank a lot of coffee and ate biscuits. This allowed me to establish friendships if you like - and gain trust from the service users making photographing during the following weeks easier and ensured the women were relaxed around me.

Also used this time to gather what i needed in order to create a new timetable for the site which is currently being built. Got access to the new site (Work in progress) in order to collect colour swatches in photoshop to ensure all colours were consistent with their official colour scheme and branding

Received a brief to create poster templates which the staff could use a a background to add additional info on top of for special day events and one off activities or general notices. Was good working to a set brief and having to discuss and meet a ‘client’ to negotiate ideas and designs.

good learning curve realising that sometimes in the creative field you have to produce stuff that you don’t always particularly like/wouldn’t do of your own accord. In particular the one on the right which they specifically asked to be made from an image I had taken

6. documentary images - felt I was in a position where I was responsible for how these women would be portrayed as they were being represented by my images. Was quite sensitive with this and also protective of the material where the identity of the women was revealed (for that reason none of those images are not included in my presentation

7- interesting as it was food for thought for me, made me re-evaluate why I take images. in this sense many have a very limited audience and will serve no future purpose outside of the center. however there are many others that will be widely viewed in publications and on the website ect.

8.For these images I had to challenge my creativity to come up with a way that meant I could capture informative images that were visually interesting to view, yet I was unable to reveal identity of any service users. decided to put some images into photogrid like structures to tell stories.

9. I was intrigued by the normality of the surroundings on initial visits. In a way the day to day is quite mundane. There were spouts of aggression where the girls would argue and get a bit heated, and times when service users were extremely intoxicated (often having taken lots of drugs) it’s quite an unsettling environment at times...

10.generally I was inspired by the normality of the women's lives. very often it is hard to distinguish who is a service user, who is a staff member and who is a volunteer. This informed my practice and I decided to approach the images in a way that illustrated the repetition of the day to day, yet informed outsiders of the positive activities that occurred.

11 - I also concentrated on capturing detail shots which I thought would be good for use on the website and flyers ect. In terms of collecting images in general I made a conscious decision early on to not use flash.

12 - This was mainly influenced from previous projects where I was capturing whilst wanting to remain fairly inconspicuous. I thought that the use of flash would mean too much of a presence resulting in images which weren’t authentic and felt staged, I had to consider the women and the fact that they often get quite distressed by the presence of a camera. Not to mention that often they are easily irritated and can snap instantly. I definitely wanted to be as camouflaged as possible.

13 -  There are many members of staff and over 100 volunteers at MASH so from day one both I and they knew i wouldn’t get them all, mainly as some staff members attend sporadically IE the interpreters. however i will be continuing work there over summer when i will no doubt collect them all

14 - I have given a mixture of formats to suit all the diverse needs MASH has for them. getting them was a pain as many of the staff - being women and image concious didn’t want them taking. In the end I had to be relatively forceful

15 - Trustee photo’s - not all available to be photographed. Had to use photoshop and existing images for three - not ideal but only a temporary measure as they needed a set ASAP for some report that goes out encouraging people to get involved and fund them.

16 - Art Therapy - got really involved in this. learnt alot - contacts with start manchester
made - plans to do some work experience over there during the summer - more work came from it. taking photo’s of the art therapists textile work for her website. also invited to derbyshire open arts event 25th, 26th and 27th this month to network and photograph the event.

17. As previously mentioned. there is much I still want to accomplish at MASH and my placement will run into summer where I will collect the rest of the staff portraits. and also collect a series of fun portraits which will be framed and displayed permanently in reception

18. currently working with one of the organisers to put on a fashion photo shoot type of day where there will be a lady doing hair and make up and I will have a portable studio set up with props ect did some test shots to see how the service users responded to the idea - they are all really excited about it.

19. I will then edit - slightly airbrush the images and provide prints which will be framed during friday morning’s session with they guy who does photo framing with the girls. The idea is to then have a mini exhibition before the girls take the prints home or to give to loved ones (many of which are in prison)

20. I have also proposed a future workshop ran by myself, inspired by the boyle family - one sessions will involve throwing darts at a map of the area. another will involve groups going out to photograph the location they got on the map.
Overall an invaluable experience for me, meeting challenges of photographing sensitively, working to meet set briefs for clients. being self motivated and demanding enough to ensure I got the material I needed ( short reference on screen)