Matthew Finn

Matt Finn


We have been lucky enough for the professional photographer Matt Finn to pay us a visit and give us a lecture on his work and his career over the years. Matt Finn is a British documentary photographer who actually went to university with one of my tutors, Jamie. Matt's work seems to focus most upon documentary portraiture. The majority of his work is on black and white film however he has produced some colour work, however this is also on film. Matt explained to us that when he was a student, film photography is what was used and he has carried on to do that through his career as film is what he knows and feels comfortable with using.

What I enjoyed most about Matt's talk with us other than his brilliant photography, was the fact I felt he was very realistic in terms of when he was speaking about leaving university and the concept of find a job or making a living off photography. As I am in my final year now and due to soon graduate from Uni, the fear of finding a job when I leave is constantly growing. Matt was honest with us and said its natural to be worried about leaving and worried about what we will do next, as he said he too was like this. He explaind how from leaving university he went on to work at an arts school to make some money. While working there he created his own work just for his own personal use at the time. this particular project is one of the only projects he has present on his site. The project was called 'Students'. In this project Matt simply captured portrait style images of students where he was working.

http://www.mattfinn.com/g-20-mother.html?p=7

It's really interesting to see Matt's very early work. He explained he still felt after leaving university he didn't know much about the technical side of photography, he just liked to take photographs. I really liked this honesty as i felt its inspired me just go out and make images, as appose to thinking I'm not up to a certain standard or level and letting that hold me back. The images of students I find are really interesting. I like the relaxed poses of the girls and how when they are presented as a collective, each individual person makes every image so very different, in terms of the variations in looks and style/fashion.



Matt's next two projects which are on his website which he showed us and spoke about was the documentation of his mother and his uncle. Matt explained how upon graduating and being a young photographer in the world of work, he chose to photograph something he knew he was comfortable with photographing. Something that was easily accessed and two people he knew he could easily photograph was his mother and uncle. He explained how by photographing his mother and uncle he could build his confidence with a camera and build his experience and technique. The project ended up lasting for years, Matt photographed his uncle for many years up to the last stages of his life in the house. The same goes for his mother.

What really makes Matt's work, work so well, besides the brilliant skill he evidently had to take these images, is how the images work so well as a collective. It is amazing to watch his home and his mother change over the years. As she ages and fashion changes, the viewer is taken through that journey. Matt's closeness with his mother is also very much so felt through the images as she looks so natural and used to him taking photographs of her.

As Matt explained, he created these bodies of work over a span of about 20 years. He explained how his wife entered his work into a competition without him knowing, he then won the competition which was in 2014, meaning from then on his career has really taken off. With many different agencies or companies wanting to publish his work. Matt explained how creating projects that span over many years are great but not exactly ideal if you want to make a living from your photography straight away. I personally think having other jobs on the side would be ideal whilst creating a project that spans over time. I felt his work was incredibly interesting and it really has inspired me to keep in mind creating a documentary project which spans over a period of time.


Portfolio Review

After hearing Matt speak about his own work, I was lucky enough to get Matts opinion on my own work. I showed him my Machete book which I've made for my major project and some A4 sized prints I had done. The images I used for this were black and white. Despite the fact the images I took for my Major project were documentary style coloured images, I changed the images to black and white as I personally felt the images had more of an impact in this form. However when showing my work to my class previous to Matt visiting University, my class suggested I keep the images in colour. Matts opinion was to go with my instinct and said he liked my images in black and white and felt they worked well. He particularly liked the handmade book I had made, as a way of visually telling the story of the days events I had photographed. It was really useful to have his opinion on my work as he gave me confidence to carry on the path I had been going on with the work.

Matt then encouraged me to think about how I would present the work in my final exhibition rather than just focusing on the project itself. This was good as I found I hadn't even began to think about how I would present the work in an exhibition in terms of what photographs Id choose, how many Id use and what size I would like them.

Sedgefield Ball game

Sedgefield Ball game

Photographing the event of Sedgefield Ball game which took place on Shrove Tuesday 2016 went really well and I felt the day was very successful.  I am extremely happy with the shots I managed to get and feel using the amount of images I took that day, I can create a brilliant visual narrative and I will be able to follow my intentions in creating a photo book to tell the days events. Although I am very happy with these images and feel these would work best as being what I use to produce a book with, I still aim to photograph regularly whether that be of different events or just documentary style images as these too could create an interesting project. I aim to keep on working photographing events of the everyday life of people as I understand these too could create a great narrative and be something which I could use to create a similar outcome. 

I also do not want to restrict myself in this project just to the work of Sedgefield Ball game as I understand I must take other shoots into consideration in order to make sure the final book and documentary story I choose to use as my outcome for my final project must be the strongest and most interesting.


Contact Sheets

These contact like sheet pages I have produced give an idea of just how many images I actually captured this day. In order to help myself narrow these images down I intend on printing the contact sheets out and highlighting the images I feel work best. I do not intend to narrow the images down too much, as when it comes to making the book I may find some images that are not maybe as strong as the others will need to be included in order to clearly tell the story of the day to outside viewers. 

Initially I simple scored through and circled individual images. The circled images are the ones I wanted to keep and the scored through images were the ones I wasn't happy with. I then edited the selected images and placed then in their own separate file.

Although I could have edited down the images by simply dragging and dropping the images I liked into a separate file I often find it very useful in my own practice to have printed out contact sheets. 

Sedgefield Ball Game

Sedgefield Ball Game

I felt the photographing of sedgefield ball game went really well. As can be seen in my previous research, I was able to capture a vast amount of photographs that day. I have a lot of great photographs to work with and the event itself is deffinately the most interesting event I have managed to photograph during my major project. This is therefore the reasons I want to use this particular event as the one I make a book out of. Here are some of my most favourite images from the shoot. 

 These images are only a select few from the day. I shot the day beginning from end paying attention to everything from documenting the actual playing of the game to the locals watching, socialising and celebrating. This can be seen in the above images I have presented. There is evidently a vast range of subject matter within the images. 

Sedgefield Shrove Tuesday Ball Game.

Orignal plan

Prior to Sedgefield Ball game when I was planning my shoot, I took time to sit and discuss my work and my intentions with my tutor. When looking back over my previous work which has always naturally followed a documentary style, I started to notice traits within my images which reoccurred throughout different shoots. I came to notice that majority of my work focus' heavily on people. I also noticed that when photographing events I appear to naturally be drawn to the concept of people socialising and being caught off guard at such events.

Picking up on this trait was vital in helping me move forward with my photography. With these traits in mind which I feel define my own personal work as a photographer, I wanted to make sure I carry on to emphasise and focus on these aspects which my eye often seems to be naturally drawn to. I feel these aspects in my documentary style photography are what could be what make me different and unique to many other photographers.

With the main focus of Durham Miners gala being a march to remember the Miners and any trade unions of today, large banners are marched through the city. 

An example of my own work can be seen below. I feel my own work tends to be more lighthearted and focus' on people and the social aspect of the day. This wasn't something I actually intended to do, or something I went out with the intuitions to capture. It was in fact just what I was naturally drawn tho. This is therefore what I intend to carry on capturing in future projects. 

New Camera

When photographing past events or even when just photographing on the streets, I've only really ever used a Cannon 1100D SLR. Other than this the only other camera I have used other than my mobile phone is a 35mm camera. I have always found taking images on my 35mm camera much easier as the camera is much smaller and more compact in comparison to my Cannon DSLR. The smaller and more compact the camera, results in less people being aware of the fact I have a camera or are taking photographs go them.

In preparation and in order to help me achieve the best images possible for the documentation of Sedgefield Ball game I have set out to purchase myself a new camera. I want to capture the days events in colour on a digital format, therefore meaning I can not use my small 35mm camera which I often feel more comfortable using when capturing documentary style images such as these. 

Before going to actually purchase a camera I did some online research around what would best be suitable for my own photography needs.

I would need something small and compact, something suitable for capturing street scenes and people, and something which could allow me to shoot in RAW format to ensure Id get the best image quality and something with a decent sensor size, again to ensure the quality of my images were of a high enough standard to enlarge.

Once researching several different cameras, such as SONY, Fuji and Cannon I was able to come to a decision quickly and easily once going into PC world and having a look at the cameras I had in mind. Despite the brilliant qualities Cannon cameras had over many of the other makes, something which also drew me toward choosing a Cannon camera was the fact I am familiar with the layout and how to use cannon cameras as I already own one, as I previously mentioned. 

The decision I came down to when researching online can be seen in the print screens below. My budget was around £300. 

Although sony cameras have all the qualities a photographer could need and at the moment really do seem to be up there with recreating cameras equally as good as trust photography makes, I still felt quite reluctant to trust in the brand and purchase a camera. 

This Nikon was great and would of been quite suitable for the street photography style images I aim to shoot, however I wasn't all too keen on the lens which came with the camera. The brilliant thing about this camera however was that the lens was interchangeable. Because I needed a compact camera as soon as possible, I didn't want to have to spend the £300 on a camera then a further amount of money of buying another lens to go on the camera. As I discovered, there would have been more suitable lenses with a wider focal length for example which would have benefited myself and my photography more. One other factor that made me sway away from this camera and choose the camera I did, was the fact the cannon camera had a larger sensor size meaning the quality of the images would be better. 

This was the camera I chose to settle with. The most appealing factors to me were that the quality of the images is brilliant, its got a good sensor size. Its a Canon camera so it is a make I am familiar with, which was incredibly important as buying a camera so close to photographing a particular event could have been made quite difficult if I had all knew settings or layouts to try and familiarise myself with in time. The camera is small, and very compact, which again is important as I wanted something I could hold in my hand comfortably in order to snap images of people without them being aware. 

Sedgefield Ball game

The Ball Game photography

The majority of photography seen of Sedgefield ball game focus' upon the main event which is of men running around the village brawling with each other over the small leather ball in which they have to chase.  Because the event is such a unique event in terms of what it is and in the terms that it only happens once a year, many news reports come to capture the days events.

The game does not tend to be captured by many documentary photographers, maybe because it is so unique it is not known about by many or maybe it is because it is such a tough event to photograph. Either way, this means that the only photography that is really captured on this day is by news reporters, meaning the style of photography is very photojournalistic and is captured to serve only one purpose, to inform people.

As can be seen with one simple google search of the game, the majority of photographs taken appear to be exactly the same. These images which appear on google are taken from several different years and by several different photographers yet they all look cry similar. In a previous post where I researched the photographer Stephen Curry, a slightly different approach to photographing the game or days events can be seen.

Because of this heavy focus upon a more photojournalistic style approach to capturing the days events, I wanted to try and capture the day in a different style. With being from Sedgfield myself and knowing this game and the people who get involved fairly well, I wanted to use this to my advantage and capture not only images of the men playing the actual game but what goes on in the background of the game itself. Whether I was coming to photograph this days events or not, it is an event I would have been attending regardless. With the aim to watch the game myself, social with my friends and cheer on my relatives who are also taking part in the event. I understand the game and have attended it almost every year I have been able to, however I understand that to anyone who is not from this area, it can be an event which is difficult to grasp or understand. With the documentation of this event only really ever being of the men brawling with each other and chasing the ball, and these images only ever really being exposed in the news, to any outsiders who may not be familiar with this game, what the news shows or google searches such as this, are all they can really go on to try and get an understanding.

Throuhg being a local to the village and regular attender of the game however, I understand that there is much more to the game that what photographers or photojournalists seem to portray. While the men fight, the less fit or able who can't take part in the game such as the elderly, young children or often women come to watch the game while socialising by drinking in the local pubs and whiting the game from the side of the road or from the comfort of the pubs. The day really is a day of celebration in the village and it is something so many of the people who live here look forward to every year. 

I therefore wanted to try and capture this in my images as many of the photographers and new reporters who attend the days events do not have the access I do to the locals or culture/ social aspect of the day. Many of the local who I know feel comfortable with me being around them with a camera so I knew this would be a great opportunity to try and capture a more interesting and honest portrayal of the days events from someone who actually live in Sedgefield.

Other photographers

Shrove Tuesday
Sedgefield Ball Game photography

Edge of humanity

http://edgeofhumanity.com/2016/02/07/ball/

In the lead up to the event Sedgefield Ball game this year I have came across this article by 'Edge of humanity magazine'. The article explains a bit about Sedgefield Ball game and presents some brilliant black and white images by the photographer Stephen Curry.

Stephen Curry is a documentary photographer who has captured images of Sedgefield Ball game for many years. His images are black and white and mix between a range of close up action shots and more intimate portrait pictures of the players themselves. His images tell the story of the ball game over a range of years and show a sense of the enjoyment and happy spirits the men who take part in the game have as well as showing the rough and dangerous side of the days events.

http://www.futureproofphotography.co.uk/sedgefield-shrove-tuesday-ball-game.html

These images were taken this year at Sedgefield's Shrove tuesday ball game on 9th February 2016. His full archive of images from Sedgefield Ball Game which span over the years are all in monochrome. I like the way the images are in black and white as this seems to add more to the feel of narrative in the images. Making all the images the same tonal colours help the images as a collective flow better. I feel the viewer is more focused on the story throughout that the images are portraying as a whole for the event as appose to just focusing upon one particular image. I feel the black and white adds to the idea of this being a traditional narrative. The black and white gives a more traditional feel to the images. The pain, blood, sweat, tears and laughter I feel can also be felt more when viewing the images in black and white as this makes the images more serious and there is no distraction with bright colours caused. What I really like about this photographers work when capturing Sedgefield Ball game is the fact its different to other photographs that are produced from this day each year as most other photographers are not there to produce personal projects such as Stephen Curry, but they are more so there so to produce journalistic style images ready for the use of informing people in newspapers and on online articles. 

From looking at Stephen Curry's work you can tell photographing this game is something he has mastered over the years. These images are great up close and personal shots. I don't feel someone photographing this game for their very first time or someone who is not confident with what the ball game is about could capture images such as these. The raw emotion and struggle which the men go through in order to win the game is evidently captured here. Being able to get this close to the men is something I know i would struggle with myself. 

Shrove Tuesday Event

Sedgefield Ball Game, previous work:



As february approaches, following my trips to various locations during January, a unique yearly event in my home town of Sedgfeild, in county durham is about to commence. Each year on shrove tuesday an event called 'Sedgefield ball game' takes place. This event is something which i a familiar with and is something I have attended every year for almost all my life. This event is the perfect interesting and busy kind of event I have been looking for photograph since starting my major project. I have photographed the event before and I am familiar with the days events and the majority who attend. 

To try and best explain what 'Sedgefield ball game' really is, here is a brief explanation...


http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/watch-mayhem-madness-annual-sedgefield-10863643

"It’s a game of few rules which has been around for more than 900 years but it is definitely not going out of fashion. The annual Sedgefield ball game - played every Shrove Tuesday - was under way today with dozens of locals taking part. The ball game started at 1pm, when a four inch diameter leather ball is passed through a metal ring on the village green. The players then kick the ball through the village to the streams where it must be placed three times then back through the ring before sundown. The free-for all battle attracted scores of onlookers who enjoyed the chaotic spectacle."

The event is unique to Sedgefield and is therefore seen as a very intereting event and tradition to anyone not from the area. Many photographers and journalists come to the village to also photograph the event. As I found when photographic Durham miners gala, I found I felt more at ease when photographing an event when a person with a camera was not seen as unusual. 

Here are some of the images I produced from Sedgefield shrove tuesday ball game 2016.

There is a vast range of shots which I produced from this day however upon reflection, this images above and the image below work very well in my opinion. The focus of the images are of the people watching the event. The audience or the passers by. I like the way I have managed to capture the drama of the day by capturing the people viewing the game as appose to focusing my images on the games itself. 

The style of these images are exactly what I would hope to produce again at this years event. However I understand that in order to tell a visual story of the days events, especially in a photo book, I think it will be quite vital to include at least some images of the actual game itself being played in order to make the visual narrative make sense to people viewing the book or images with no knowledge of this game or event. 

What I have always really enjoyed about covering an event by taking images is the way at the end the images can be put together to tell a story. I used these particular images to create a presentation for my peers in which i edited the images down and presented a selection in order from beginning of the day to the end, telling the story of my version of the days events. I felt these images worked really well in colour so when coming to photograph this years shrove tuesday ballgame I aim to do the same. 

junior doctors

Junior Doctors


Once deciding after experimenting with capturing various documentary shots that I would stick to the concept of photographing events for my final Major project I then discussed with my tutor and class what events I could possibly go and photograph. When in class trying to think of events I could go and photograph for my major project, one suggestion made by my class mates and tutor was to try photographing a strike. When in London in January 2016, I managed to stumble across a small demonstration related to the Junior doctors strike. I caught a few photographs of the event, however the demonstration was only small and this helped me to realise the events I wanted and needed to photograph for my major project would need to be busier, more packed events such as my previous Durham Miner's gala work. As these images show, there isn't much going on at the event. However something that could be interesting is capturing several Junior Doctors strikes with my photography and using the images from several of these strikes to create a visual narrative. The only down fall with this idea would be that I would be relying on the Junoir Doctors to keep on striking, which is something I can not guarantee. It would also mean not knowing exactly when the Junior Doctors would strike. Although this would create an interesting body of work it would be hard to be able to rely on this idea for my major project as I am limited time and need to be able to keep producing work. 

If this demonstration had been much bigger I can imagine I would have come out with some really interesting shots and obviously a lot more images I could work with. I will definitely keep an eye out for future strikes such as these. I am glad I was able to capture some images of this small demonstration. Getting to speak to one of the supporters and capture the above image was great for my confidence in taking photos on the streets. I feel the images that work best however are the ones which are more action shots of people caught off guard, as the viewer looking at these should hopefully feel like they too are among the strike and get a more real feeling of what its like to actually be there as appose to looking at these more posed images.