This is the first time I have put together a panel of images for a submission.  In this case it was the ICC competition but its the sort of thing that you put together for awards or accreditation with the photographic bodies in the UK.

The brief is to submit 5 images that stand on their own as a strong image but can also be seen as a panel that tells a bigger story.  Then you had to write out your brief and explanation so here is mine:

“A study of my childhood from a distance”

I wanted to create a set of images that encapsulated my childhood up until I was 13 years old in the village of Shalford, Surrey.  The ‘distance’ element to the project was particularly important, as I wanted it to work on different levels. 

The ‘distance’ refers to the restrictions I placed upon myself when setting out the project.

1.      Memory – The photo taken had to represent a strong memory for myself as well as create a strong image.

2.      Age – I am a long way in years from when I used to live here, with all that entails.

3.      Miles – I now live in Scotland, 425 miles from Shalford where I grew up, having travelled many thousands of miles and having lived in many places in order to get here.

4.     Lens – All the images were shot at 200mm, the longest lens I have.  This was done on purpose so that there was a considerable distance between myself and the subject.

5.     Black and White - I wanted the images to work in black and white to give them a timeless feel’

6.      Style - I wanted to explore the styles that interest me namely landscape, abstract and story-telling.

When I set out I wasn’t sure what I was going to learn but it made me think a lot about photography - why we use it, why we enjoy it, why it is important.  

Here is what I discovered:

The lens choice, which I felt was an important element did cause problems with angles and finding shoot locations that would work or were safe.  Many images didn’t work simply because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get far enough away from the subject. 

This seems to me to be similar to our relationship with memory - some memories we can never get far enough away from, others we try and remain close to and hold onto as they are so important to us. All memories feel like they are at different distances from us.  Time seems to be irrelevant in the equation which is a different conversation altogether. 

So the connection to photography and memory is revealed.  Other than taking snapshots to show friends, don’t we all take photo’s to help us remember, to stop us forgetting things, the details of the event, to extend the comfort we get from our memories?

The shoot took place on Thursday 26th January 2023. 

I only had two hours in bad light and weather to get the shots.

I passed through Shalford in the middle of a 1000 mile round trip to the area.

The Panel

The Panel breaks many traditional rules and caused the judge in his comments to say that he swung between “No! No! No!” and “Actually that’s quite clever!”  I designed it to be read from bottom to top and it was meant to represent a tree/time/a journey.  He saw it as if it was a grandfather clock, so a similar theme idea to mine which was great that he saw what I was trying to do.  I’m looking forward to doing this kind of project again soon.