John Londei is a British photographer. He mainly focuses on portraiture and commercial photography. His 'Shutting Up Shop' series features independent shops and businesses. The series began in the 70s and was cultivated over fifteen years as a tribute to this lost era of business. He was influenced by pharmacy in London as it wasn't just a local business, people went there for advice. This inspired him to focus on photographing these gems within our society.
TOM HUNTER
Tom Hunter photographed this series in Bethnal Green and Hackney in East London. He wanted to 'capture the diversity in the capital'. This was as he believed shops are a reflection of their community, they show the stability and relationships within that area. By capturing the shops, in essence, you're capturing the community with a photo.
OUR RESPONSE
We went around Muswell Hill to photograph shop owners and workers. We tried to get portraits so they'd be looking straight at the camera but some were when they were working which meant you couldn't see their faces. Most people said no but these are the photos of the people who said yes.
Second try
The second time we went out we wanted to focus more on details within the shop. These are the photos of the insides of shops and a couple more shop workers let us take photos.
People in North London
MARCUS LYON
'Somos Brasil' is a multimedia exhibition and book. The project looks at the diversity within Brazilian cultures and identities through portraits of people, apps and DNA tests. Lyon travelled across Brazil for 6 months, trying to travel to the most diverse parts of Brazil and DNA tested the subjects of the photos so they could see their heritage, to show the diversity of Brazilian identities. This series aims to capture genetic, visual and audio diversity within a person. This has now been developed into an app where you can look at the people in the photos and see their heritage.
RICHARD AVEDON
Avedon photographed this series 'In the American Midwest'. He photographed these portraits against a white background, this was so any cultural club about surroundings or the world have been removed so the sole focus is the person and the way they're portraying themselves.
My response
I tried to get more photos of people but my camera focus kept spinning and wouldn't focus own people so when they were in a rush I wasn't able to get good photos them. Also as we had to work in pairs, sometimes the people weren't able to be in photos for both of us so I didn't get as many as I would like to. Im going to try again to take some more photos.
My Edited Response
As a further response to Richard Avedon, I edited my photos to be black and white and used the levels tool on photoshop to sharpen the features of the photo as black and white can sometimes make the photo look a lot more two dimensional.
I wanted to centre the portraits more on the person by lightening the background, to do this I used the magic wand tool to select the background completely and use the levels tool to turn the brightness up. I wasn't able to do this for all of my portraits as the last portrait wouldn't select the background evenly due to the shadow her head made on the back sheet of paper. In the first photo, due to her white hair, thematic tool wouldn't just select the background it was selecting her hair as well. However in the middle photo, due to natural light and darker hair I was able to select just the background making it whiter, this is the result. It didn't really change the photo much but it isolated the people within the photo more.
Second try
I found that I got more photos of people this time round because we had gained more confidence and knew how to ask people in a better way. We also found this time round, it was better to ask people who had something distinctive about them. Like crazy hair or a bright piece of clothing so that they stood out in the photo more. We found that this also meant they were more likely to be in a photo because they wanted to show their individuality. I think we found some great people.
Edited versions
THE ALLOTMENT
PAUL TUCKER
Tucker is a London based photographer. He works with galleries and artists and designers. He photographs personal projects and has had many exhibitions of his work.
MY RESPONSE
We went to the local allotment to photograph the structures and plants. We were lucky with the weather so the photos are evenly bright with blue skies. These are the results of my shoot.