This month I’ve mostly been…

I thought I might begin a series of regular blog posts that highlight my cultural highlights of the past month. Some musical and visual delights I’ve come across that you might be interested in checking out (or be reminded of if they aren’t new to you). Some links will be affiliated so I’ll earn a bit of cash if you follow the link and make a purchase but remember that “stuff” doesn’t define us ;)

So let’s get to it, this month….

I’ve mostly been reading…

‘Significant Wow’ by Emily Cotterill

I often struggle with poetry, I find a lot impenetrable and unrelatable and difficult to understand but every now and then I’ll read a collection that really speaks to me. Emily Cotterill grew up in Alfreton, Derbyshire, not too far from my own birthplace of Sutton-in-Ashfield. 'Significant Wow’ contains many references specific to place and experience that are familiar to me growing up in a similar environment but expands to include cultural references and the experiences of growing up and navigating the world that would be familiar to most. It’s a beautiful collection, I absolutely devoured it and I’ll definitely pick this up again and again.

'Chris Killip’

I’ve been revisiting this absolutely stunning photo book this month, it accompanied the first major retrospective of Killip’s work held at The Photographers Gallery in 2022-2023 and is an absolute gem, presenting photographs from each of his major series alongside lesser-known works. I absolutely adore the work of Chris Killip, I don’t make work like him but I admire his approach to project work and the beauty of the reality presented in his images.

I’ve mostly been listening to…

'Dog Eared’ by Billie Marten

New track’s from Billie’s forthcoming album are sounding brilliant and are a great soundtrack to the (currently) warm Spring.

'Priestess’ by Cass McCombs

Cass McCombs has been a long time favourite thanks to hearing him on John Peel’s radio show back when I had less grey hair and back pain! 'Priestess’ sounds so effortlessly cool, the sort of music I’d love to make if I was still in bands.

I’ve mostly been viewing…

'Tripping with Nils Frahm’ (2020) Benoit Toulemonde

Tripping with Nils Frahm is a concert film that captures the renowned German composer and musician Nils Frahm performing live at Berlin’s iconic Funkhaus venue. Filmed in December 2018, the documentary presents a series of mesmerizing performances that showcase Frahm’s blend of classical and electronic music, utilizing grand, upright, and Rhodes pianos alongside synthesizers and drum machines.

'Robot Dreams’ (2023) Pablo Berger

A hand-drawn animated film which interestingly contains no dialogue. Set in 1980s Manhattan, the story centres on Dog, who lives alone in the city. Seeking companionship, Dog orders a build-it-yourself robot through the mail. The two quickly form a deep bond, spending a joyful summer together exploring New York, roller-skating in Central Park to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,”.

Both films are streaming on Mubi and if you subscribe using this link we’ll both get 30 days free!

Thanks for reading, check back at the end of next month for more things that have piqued my interest.

Image Set: Last week I was invited to produce images for TMC at the ‘Creative Futures: Voices’ celebration event at the Highfields Centre, Leicester. Wonderful to see and experience the amazing creative work made by the young people involved.

I was recently asked to provide production images for Wreake Valley Academy’s performance of ‘Made in Dagenham’. It was a lot of fun photographing theatre again, the show was brilliant!

An image set from a recent shoot for the ‘Home Truths’ heritage weekend commissioned by Greater Creative/Platform Thirty1

Some images from a recent event I photographed for First Art at the ‘Clay Cross Games’ in Derbyshire.

An image spread from a recent shoot for Buzzing Roots’ ‘Sing What You Mean, Mean What You Play’ project celebration day. It was a pleasure to document the groups of young people from Queensmead Primary Academy and Folville Junior School as they shared and performed the music they’d created alongside music professionals Mr Shay and Tatenda Chitsamba.

Project funded by Youth Music

Image spread from Platform Thirty1’s ‘Black Shale: Shaping Our Cultural Offer’ development day.

Creative Mentoring Refelctions

I initially had a brief stint as a freelance mentor on a project run by Leicester education charity Pedestrian in 2014 after completing a Level 2 training qualification with them as part of a CPD programme. During that time I focussed mainly on working with young people who had a strong interest in photography and developing their own pathways into careers in the creative sector. Fast forward some years to 2024 and I’m currently into my second year of of involvement in The Mighty Creatives ‘Creative Mentoring’ programme which is a service that ”provides one-to-one support, empowering young people who are care-experienced, facing adversity, disadvantage or challenges to discover their sense of self, belonging, and a world of opportunities.”

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There are obviously a multitude of benefits that arise from the work that I carry out in this role, not just for the young people that I am paired with but it’s a very rewarding experience for me too. I mainly see confidence rise over the weeks I spend with each mentee. A large amount of the young people I’ve been involved with have lives that present very challenging circumstances and as a result display very low confidence and self esteem, in some cases this leads to an unwillingness to communicate fully in our early sessions, quite tricky when you’re trying to find out a bit more about their interests! Over a few sessions together I’ve found that the barriers come down and slowly the mentees open up a bit more, become more talkative and confident during their sessions. I try to give them space to be able to direct the way the sessions will run and the sorts of creative activities they would like to get involved with and I’ve found that this only comes when the young person is given plenty of time and space to think. Sometimes I’ve barely said anything in a two hour session and just allowed the activity to take over, choosing to simply let the young person make and do, rather than bombarding them with chat. This will usually allow them to lead the session more as I simply start to respond to things they feel comfortable talking about, and to the creative things they are making/doing rather than me coaching them through an activity.

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This more autonomous approach, allowing the young person to be the decision maker, presents to me the most exciting aspect of my mentoring work. Obviously I feel most comfortable working with photographic processes (digital, analogue even stop motion animation and film) but creative mentoring pushes me out of that comfort zone and really gets me thinking about the wide variety of activities I can do with my mentees. Sometimes through discussions or simply playing with the materials we have in a session another idea will be sparked and I’ll be forced to think about ways we can bring that idea to life. One such experience was the creation of a shadow puppet theatre with a six year old boy I work with in a primary school setting. For a few of our sessions he’d been building 3D structures using wooden blocks and some sheets of A4 card and had noticed that dependent on how the light was falling on the structures different shadow shapes would fall on the table. We developed this by using torch light to strengthen the shadows and take photographs of the results. Whilst he was shining the light on the card from different angles he noticed and became quite excited by the way he could backlight the card and see shadows coming through. This led to a discussion about whether he’d seen a shadow puppet theatre before which he hadn’t (or at least couldn’t remember) and so I showed him a quick example. This idea developed over a series of weeks culminating in the both of us making characters and a basic theatre design for him to act out stories that he’d created.

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Another instance saw me responding to a young person’s interest in photographing objects reflected in surfaces, so glass or mirrors in this case. This led me to recall a simple way of creating a kaleidoscope that I’d seen another practitioner use in an SEND based workshop. I thought that this would be a perfect activity, so the young person could not only construct but also use the kaleidoscope to take photographs through.

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His excitement in this session was infectious and really brought home to me how much we both benefit from the mentoring relationship that we have. I get to develop and push my practice in areas I’d never really considered before and for my mentees I hope they have space to play, experiment and think, away from the more difficult experiences in their lives. It’s been an absolute privilege to work with such an interesting group of young people, and to play a small, hopefully positive, part in their life journey’s so far.

Image spread from a recent shoot for The Mighty Creatives in Leicester. Providing images from their Youth Board event ‘Connect, Create, Converse’ held at De Montfort University campus.

I was asked recently to create a series of images to document the day to day goings on at Mayflower Primary School in Leicester. The school was recently turned upside down due to the discovery of RAAC concrete in large parts of the schools buildings. This ultimately led to the need for an entirely new school to be built on a new site. In the mean time the school had to be split over two sites to ensure that none of the classes were housed in unsafe parts of the building.

My images will be used to document the last few weeks in the old school and the temporary site and will be displayed on the walls of the corridors of the new school building when completed.