Rethinking...

After doing a few shoots at Dunham Massey, i felt i wasn't pushing myself enough and to be quite honest i was getting a little bored by it. I wanted to do something different and something not so ordinary.

I have always wanted to photograph shop/cafe owners in the surrounding in which they work in. I have been to a large number of 'tea rooms' little cafes around the cheshire area and love how unique they each are, not one is like another. So i am thinking of contacting various of the tea rooms and asking their permission to come into their place of work and photograph them. Obviously this will be a challenge as a lot of people are not fond of having their picture taken, although i feel many of these tea rooms are family businesses and the people that work there are within the family and are very proud of their tea rooms and want to show them off.

The photographer who inspired me for the composition of these images was Joel Sternfeld, the composition of his portraits is so striking and i think it will work really well with my concept. I would like the subject in the foreground and the tea shop setting as the background, i will also take images of the shop front and their special and beautiful products.

Sternfelds images that inspired me...

The subject is in the foreground and also centre of the images, with the background slightly blurred but complementing the subject and adding an extra narrative to the image which viewers can form their impressions of the subject using the background to aid their initial ideas.

The tea rooms which i want to focus on are:

The Lavender Barn Tea Room - Dunham
Dingle Farm Tea Room - Appleton
Wisteria Tea Room - Knutsford
Grooms Cottage - Frodsham
Blakemere - Northwich
Davenports Tea Room - Northwich
Church Walk tea shop - Tarpoley
Home sweet home - Manchester
Richmond Tea Rooms - Manchester
Sugar Junction - Manchester
Teacup and cakes - Manchester
Hey Little Cupcake - Manchester
And the dish ran away with the spoon - Manchester

As you can see the majority of the tea rooms i have found are in Manchester so i am considering naming my images 'Tea Rooms of the North' or something along those lines.

I have emailed as many of the tea rooms which had an available email address and i am waiting for replies from the following...

Richmond Tea Rooms
Home sweet home
Sugar Junction
Teacup and cakes
Hey Little Cupcake
And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon
AiryFairy Cupcakes

A copy of the email can be seen underneath...

Hello!

I am a student at The University of Salford studying Photography, for my current brief i had to come up with an idea for an editorial in a magazine. I have chosen to capture the hidden beauties of Manchester, mainly focusing on tea rooms. When looking at your website i see you have a beautiful business and wondered if you wouldn't mind me coming in and taking a few pictures including, if possible, an image of the manager/senior staff member in the business surrounding. I will not be using these images anywhere but to submit at university and i am happy to email you the images afterwards.

Thank you for your time,

Amelia Johnson