Tom Hunter

First post; Narrative Photography

So, I'll be honest, at the moment I'm struggling to come to terms with what narrative photography is? Before i am going to be able to come up with my own idea or direction to take this project in i am going to have to research into as many photographers who create narrative imagery as i can. 

Here the first photographer I have researched is Tom Hunter.
After looking at his work I've come to realize he captures series of images which tell a story, or have a story behind them. For me, it was really helpful to read the story or motives behind the images before looking through the series. I've chosen just one of his series to present here, this one series of images along with the background story or reasons behind the images is enough to allow you to understand his way of photography. 

The series I've chosen by Tom Hunter is called "Travellers"

Tom Hunter 

"TRAVELLERS:

The Travellers series was taken over a two-year period in which time I was living and travelling in Double Decker bus I had bought with a friend. During this time we travelled in Europe from Portugal in the West to The Czech Republic in the East. At this time there was an underground techno sound system movement travelling in Europe putting on free parties and festivals.

The pictures I took during this period are of my friends and fellow travellers, in different parts of Europe as they travelled between festivals and raves. The spaces are their homes, vehicles recycled into new travelling homes, old lorries, buses and coaches. They were meant to be an antidote to all the very negative images that were being published in the press, who like the Government were very anti this D.I.Y. culture. The images in the press at that time were nearly always in black and white and very grainy, making the subjects into victims of society or criminals and other than the viewer.

My pictures are very colourful and try to show the humanity and the dignity of the subjects. By working with a large format camera and tripod, my subjects become collaborators in the artistic process. They had a say in the way they were viewed by the outside world, hopefully changing the way they are perceived in society. "

I like how the child is slightly blurred in this image causing a feeling of movement in the image, obviously not something which has been done intentionally but it works well in emphasising that concept of just capturing a real moment. 

These images are interesting in the way that i guess they could be classed as documentary photography as Tom Hunter is documenting this travelling experience capturing images of real people in their real living conditions, however in almost all the images, the images haven't been taken of the people going about their natural behavior unaware of the camera which is what a lot of documentary photography can look like. Instead, the people look to have been positions especially for the photograph to be taken, with some, even looking into the camera.

My favourite aspect of this series of images probably isn't even the ideas behind them or what is within the images, but the effect of the images which has been created by the chosen large format camera. I think this almost vintage or not so incredibly high quality type of image is amazing for this form of photography; where the photographer is capturing real life, even more so when those real life moments arnt so glamorous and high market. 

Its also interesting to note from the information about the images that the photographer has purposely captured and emphasised the bright colours in his images to put a certain message across. These images were not just taken to capture these peoples lives, they were captured to actually show travelling in a more positive light to others.