When receiving this editorial brief i was really excited to get started, the brief left it open to us to decide what we wanted to base it on, although this left us with the problem of narrowing down our idea to something that was achievable and feasible. To start off with i wanted to aim my editorial at a niche magazine, a local free weekly magazine in my village called 'Lymm Life' attracted my attention, and as we were getting into the colder months i thought it would be nice to do an article on 'A day out in Dunham'. I would take photographs to compliment the text on things to do on a cold day in the Dunham area, i would take pictures of Dunham Park, the lavender barn tea room etc.
After a couple of shoots i felt i wasn't pushing myself enough and to be honest was bored with the idea. I then had to rack my brain, quickly, for another idea as hand in date was approaching. For the previous idea i visited the Lavender Barn tea room in Dunham, i decided i would like to base my project on tea rooms although add something different rather than just general tea rooms. I started to research into tea rooms in cities and as i live and go to university close by to Manchester i felt this was the best place to look. When researching i realised there were actually tea rooms all over Manchester, in the Northern Quarter, Spinningfields, Piccadilly, Didsbury and Canal street. Firstly i had to email all of the tea rooms to get their permission for me to go in a photograph. My aim was to get three images for each tea room i photographed, one of the shop front, a staff member portrait and a product shot. The day after i had sent the emails i had a couple of positive replies, so i started to arrange dates and times with the tea rooms.
I wanted the portraits of the staff members to be the main images throughout my series of work so i wanted to look for some inspiration into portrait photography, i have done portraits previously although it is not my strongest area. When researching i came across Joel Sternfelds work which i became really fond of, i liked how his subjects were the main focus although the background played a major part in the image aswell. I wanted to take this concept and apply it to my shoot. I also came across an image which was taken by a fellow peer on the course, it was taken for a previous brief although the whole composition of the image really inspired me and i wanted to apply the same relationship of shop to worker in my images.
The first tea room i photographed was AiryFairy Cupcakes in Didsbury, this was a small, rather quite tea room which was good for me, as it was my first one i was a little nervous and wanted to make sure i got enough images as i didn't have time to go back to reshoot. Thankfully the shoot went really well and this gave me the confidence to carry on with the project and visit the next four tea rooms.
I chose five tea rooms to photograph in a variety of locations around Manchster, i produced model release forms for the staff members to fill in to make sure i had their written permission. The tea rooms i chose to photograph were AiryFairy Cupcakes, Didsbury, Teacup and Cakes and Sugar Junction, Nothern Quarter, Richmond Tea Rooms, Canal Street and Hey Little Cupcake, Spinningfields. All of the tea rooms had a different style or theme which made them individual and this shows in the images. I have edited the images in the same way so that they look like a series of work.
If i was able to do this project again i would like to do it in another city or maybe expand on the tea rooms i visited in Manchester, I have gained a lot of confidence doing this project at shooting portraits, getting in contact with businesses and being professional about it, working with the public and people who are not used to having their picture taken. I have strengthened my skills throughout a variety of areas and will definitely carry on with this project if i visit another city as i have really enjoyed it. By doing this project i have also made connections with many businesses who i have emailed the images i took in their business and hopefully if they like the images they will contact me if they need any photography in the future.
