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Shawn Pridgen is our 59th In Focus interview. A documentary photographer who owns a small business that focuses on the racial equality, Shawn actively contributes his work to local nonprofits, activist organizations and corporate entities whose mission statements align with his own.
Section 1 - Background
Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you?
I haven't shot it yet....
Just in case anyone doesn’t know who you are or what you do can you give us the over...
This is a story about serendipity, generosity, community, and several rolls of Ilford FP4 film. It begins in April 2020, during our first Covid-19 lockdown when a request from a sibling for an old family photo led me to dig around in my messy 35mm archive. I discovered quite a few forgotten negatives and slides from my life during the 1970’s, when I was young and single. They had been randomly stored and dragged around in house moves whilst I focussed on marriage, motherhood and a career in Social Work. E...
My love of black and white photography started back in college processing and printing images. The film of choice being FP4. and printing fibre based prints. In the beginning as a photographer most of my work was B/W. Spending much time in the dark room printing. Unfortunately time was something that was running out. As a professional you have the the funds but you don’t have the time. So I moved away from printing for a while and concentrated on shooting.
Another-day-in-the-office
One thing I learne...
I have not ever owned a digital still photography camera; therefore, my entire life as a photographer centers on 25 years of loading & unloading film cameras, processing & developing film while embracing a love that taught me how to listen to the harmonious sounds of a darkroom. My volition to stay with film does not have anything to do with being against or disliking digital & everything to do with loving the process of film ever since I was a teenager. At the age of 44, this is a tangible pro...
Waves Of raw Emotion
The pandemic hit me in the same sudden and devastating way as most people I knew. Without warning, the world as we knew it came to a screeching halt and there was nothing anyone could do about it. During the first few weeks my friends and I rode waves of raw emotion. We cooked extravagant dinners and drank way too much wine. We cried, laughed until we started crying again, and tried to make light of a dark situation that we were convinced would be over soon. And on it went, day after d...
Distractions To A Minimum
Whether I’m taking pictures of friends, my dogs, travel, a model, or a movie star, my goal is to make the process as simple as possible, and to keep my distractions to a minimum. While on set of a campaign shoot a few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with the talent, and he asked me how I got into photography. A question I’ve been asked before but never really gave serious thought to.
Andrew Garfield. Vanity Fair - Oscars - Beverly Hills.
First Meaningful Interacti...
Jamal Martin
My name is Jamal Martin, and I am a 24 year old documentary photographer/filmmaker based in Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana. I started shooting film and in the style of documenting when I came across the work of Andre Wagner. I had never seen this style of photography let alone a black man thriving while doing it. Instantly I was hooked and my journey began in the summer of 2020.
Freeze In the Frame
This set of images has to be one of my favourites from a roll. These images were shot ...
British Culture Archive
If you go to the Refuge in Manchester, you’ll find an exhibition of photographs by the renowned photographer, Tish Murtha, and a selection of my work from East Manchester. This is the latest exhibition from the British Culture Archive, but there’s more than photographs on show. It’s a commentary that began forty years ago when Tish Murtha took photographs in Elswick, Newcastle. It was taken up twenty years later when I took these photographs in East Manchester and the story ca...
Always watchful
As a woman, out and about taking photographs on my own, I try to take care not to put myself at any unnecessary risk. I’m always watchful of anyone taking the wrong kind of interest in me or my gear. I shouldn’t have to worry about things like that but sadly, that’s how life is.
When I go out, I don’t have any expectations of what I’m going to shoot that day because I never know what, or who, will turn up.
Blending In
Through my passion for street photography, I am very inter...
How It Began
When Covid-19 started, I had just made plans to follow the Bristol Roller Derby team around the UK to shoot their games. I suddenly had no focus for my photography and I wanted to make sure that I had a project to work on. I also wanted to do something with the LGBTQ+ community. In Bristol and had been photographing a friend during their transition. I thought, maybe as lockdown lifts people will want to get out and have their portraits taken. And that is how the idea for the project came about...