Workshops on Clifton Estate

For the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of working with staff and pupils from The Farnborough Academy, Nottingham to explore the area around their school using photography.

The 22 students are studying for GCSE Fine Art and Photography. Each week, I’ve spent two hours with them. We’ve got out into the community and either pre-arranged shoots with local people or approached people in the street to ask to photograph them.

Photographing strangers can be daunting when you’re an adult and have done it for many years, so the students have been particularly impressive. They’ve explained the project that we’re doing to the potential subject, been respectful and directed them well. I’m in awe of how well they have done.

The aim of working with them is to teach them about social documentary photography at the same time as exploring their locality. Their images will be part of their GCSE coursework as well as an ambitious exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary in July 2017 and National Portrait Gallery in autumn this year.