Photojournalism-initial ideas.

Photojournalism has never been my strongest point.  After our assignment briefing, to which I made many notes and sketched out lots of ideas.  I eventually decided to try and do something that meant as much to me as possible-something that would make the viewer think, feel, and even face things they might not want to think about.


My initial ideas included photographing the birth of a child, which I have already been invited to do, but I decided that it would be too risky given the short timescale of the assignment, I couldnt guarantee that the person/s I had discussed it with would have their baby before the hand-in date.  

(in hindsight it is a very good job that I didn't go with this idea, as out of the 4 women who I had in mind for this project, not a single one of them has had their baby, the day before the hand-in date!)

Then I thought about visiting Woodhead Brothers, an abbatoir very near to my home.  Apart from being a visual blot on the landscape, the smell that eminates from the building is disgusting, all pervasive and very distracting when you are doing your shopping at the Asda store next door.  I eventually discarded the idea after discussing it with someone who used to work there who said that it would be difficult if not impossible to get permission to photograph inside the premises as the owners are notoriously hard-faced and disapproving of such things.

So finally I came to my final idea, which was photographing Derian House Childrens Hospice.   I had been planning on doing some photography at Derian House for a short while anyway, I have a close friend who had a baby that passed away in the care of Derian and its become a bit of a personal cause, but the photography I was planning was more beautiful and pretty portraits of the families for their own personal use, more what I do as a paid photographer but donating it to these families for free.  After discussing this with my friend, she put me in touch with Jean, the bereavement counsellor at Derian and they kindly agreed to let me photograph there for a few days, with the permission of the parents.  I was a bit concerned that they would be hesitant as the photographs might show the sadder side to life at Derian but they were incredibly enthusiastic about it and the prospect of using the photographs to help raise awareness and funds.  Derian House costs upwards of £1.8 million PER YEAR to run, but only get £40,000 worth of funding from the government.  I'm very pleased with the progress of this, and don't think I could have come up with a more moving and personal idea.   

http://www.derianhouse.co.uk/
http://www.justgiving.com/derianhouse/