Final Evaluation

Photography And Narrative

North East Stories






Initially in this project, coming to terms with photography as a narrative was something which i found difficult to grasp. I seemed to find myself pondering over what chosen narrative I wanted to portray through my images rather than just capturing photographs. little did I know that all images have a narrative to some degree, whether it be intentional or none intentional. 

For the first part of this project, I found inspiration from the narrative photographer Cig Harvey. Her narrative photography was produced in relation to her own emotions, feelings and life experiences. Whatever emotion or experience she would currently be dealing with at that time in her life, she would portray it in a photograph. One particular image by Cig Harvey i was most influenced by was an image which was made to represent the hard time a close friend of hers had been going through, and the way in which she had to support that friend through it. This was a relatable subject to my own life experiences as I was currently dealing with comforting my  own friend, after the loss of her grandfather. This experience had lead me to think a lot about my own grandfather. Because my grandfather was the most significant thing on my mind at this time, i chose to capture an image of him. 

The group critique in which we presented our single images was something which I found extremely helpful. I came to find that almost every member of the class had done the same as myself; thinking too much into the concept of narrative. Rather than producing successful photographs, we all had seemed to let that aspect go, in the need of creating an engaging narrative. 

Following the group critique I had now learnt to just go and capture whatever I felt was of interest to me, knowing that no matter what I’d capture would have a narrative. My initial idea was to capture the industry side of the North East, as well as the run down houses and areas which we see every day. However this project happened fall upon Shrove Tuesday. This is a day which is celebrated rather uniquely in my village. I chose to study the work of Homer Sykes and Tony Ray Jones, who have both captured strange English traditions in series of images during their careers. 

Sedgefield’s Shrove tuesday ballgame is a North East village tradition that many struggle to understand, I therefore feel capturing it in a photographic story is a really interesting thing to do. My digital slide show and choice of images is something which i therefore believe is successful as it not only tells the story of the ball game but tells it in a interesting light. 

If i were to do anything differently in this project I would have possibly looked more into the techniques and skills needed to capture a fast moving sport like this, as I found a lot of my images were blurred or inaccurate. As I found my most interesting images were of the people watching the ball game and small details such as their reactions, I would have liked to capture more images like these, rather than focusing purely on the game itself.

Final Edits

Final Selection


Narrative North East images


Sedgefield Shrove Tuesday Ball game. 

Video From Which i ripped the Audio from for my presentation.

This video of the ball game means quite a lot to me as it was filmed by one of my brothers close friends, it was also the year in which another one of my brothers close friends won the ball. My grandfather is seen in this video setting the ball game off, as he was a former ball game winner many years ago. My brother and Dad also star in this video, so it really goes to show the way the ball game is and always has been involved with many generations in my family.

Hartlepool shoot

Hartlepool






Following taking images at Seaton Carew i wanted to capture some images in hartlepool of the more run down buildings and some images of some of the industrial parts of hartlepool. I began by taking images in the town of run down buildings, this is something id like to explore more in this project, not just of hartlepool town but maybe some of the colliery villages near to where I live?

I really like the retro style of this building and how run down it now looks. The shape of the building is unusual, even the colour of the bricks makes it stand out. there is so much detail on this building to look at. I took a photo of this because its a building i drive past every day on the bus on my way from from university and i just can't believe just a big building like this is just left to be so run down.

Moving from Hartlepool town i then went on to Seal Sands where i photographed some of the industry here. I then travelled further to port tyne side where i was able to get close to the tyne bridge. There were people bunji jumping off the bridge but i chose not to present any of those images because that wasn't really the way i was wanting to portray the bridge and the area surrounding it.

Although this image is extremely similar to a previous image here i wanted to leave it as this image showed the train tracks a lot clearer. I think this train track really adds interest to the image and draws the eye across the bottom of the image into the distance in the direction of the tracks.

What i like most about this image is the contrasts of bright reds and blues in more that just one area of the image. 

I found this image worked best in monochrome. What i think really adds interest to this image is the unusual tree in the background, i feel it adds an eery feel to the desolate run down cafe.

This is probably my favourite image of the bridge. i feel the use of black and white really works well and the angle which I've taken the image at does too. The bridge looks pretty impressive and in my opinion looks to be shown in a positive light. 

I was really taken back by the housing literally yards away from the famous transporter bridge. I couldn't quite believe full streets of houses were stood completely empty like this, it felt like such a shame. What would have added to the interest of this series of images of the houses would have been if id of walked down the street and captured an image of the street face on, as it was really interesting and quite strange to see that bang in the middle of this street, one house was still in use. 

Teeside and Hartlepool Industry

Flickr finds of local industry..

Next in my project i have chosen to look at hartlepool and its famous industry following on from the photos I've taken at the coastal town of SeaTon Carew. I think the industry around hartlepool is amazing and something which the town is so well known for. I chose to look at several different local photographers who've captured images of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough's famous Industry, and the famous Transporter Bridge. 

I found some bits of inspiring work on Flickr, by amateur and professional photographers who work locally photographing this area of the North east. 


http://www.flickr.com/groups/657383@N22/





Simon McRoyal: http://www.flickr.com/photos/si_mac/

I really like the detail within this image of the numerous wires and horizontal lines. theres so many layers creating depth in this image. 

Mike Fellows; http://www.flickr.com/photos/72489861@N05/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32859789@N02/

I mainly like these two images because of the style colour and quality of the images. The contrast of warm colours on the ground and building with the pale blue sky looks so interesting! i don't think these are the kind of colours one would think of when thinking of industry. 

I chose to present images by photographers which i felt would mostly be similar to the images id produce. 

Shrove Tuesday Ball Game

Sedgefields Shrove Tuesday Ball Game




A tradition which has gone for centuries in the North East village of Sedgefield. After looking into the work of Homer Sykes i decided it would be a great opportunity with shrove tuesday coming up to capture the day which is known in our village as, ball game day. I found it difficult to capture images of the rough and fast moving game, I can understand why i didn't think the images taken by Homer Sykes of games like this were so great. 

Pint in one hand, the ball in the other.

The boarded up front street  

An on looker stood outside the pub 

From inside the Co-op. "Automatic doors out of use during ball game, please pull to open"

The ball up a hieght 

Cheers! To almost all those who aren't taking part, this is what the ball game is about!

At the bull ring, the final part!

We have a winner!

Better luck next year lad.

The ball game is over, time to hit the pub.