Photographic training at the Polytechnic of Central London in the 1980s was as much about the politics and content of the images we make as about technique -  our choice of subjects and of how we frame and design our images.

 

For instance, what does a viewer make of the inherent contradiction of an aesthetically framed black and white image of a beggar, or beautiful colour images indicating poverty in a tropical landscape? How does one make an ‘honest’ representation that is also a good picture?

 

These are issues that have concerned me and informed my own photographic style. 

 

The photo above was of a group of older, and ageing women who had published a book of their own thoughts and observations called Growing Old Disgracefully (1993). I knew them and was commissioned to take a photograph for the book-cover. The images we made together, deliberately contradicting conventional notions of ageing, or prim elderly women. 

 

Council Housing is consistently denigrated, often with the implicit denigration of the people it houses. I love my council estate which accommodates a kaleidoscope of interesting people. When photographing them, I deliberately did not instruct them how to arrange themselves. How they stood, alone or with others, was entirely their decision. I had encouraged them to bring something that was of significance to them if they wished.

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