A Vote for Ruth
A Vote for Ruth is my four week photo-documentary of Ruth Smeeth the prospective Labour candidate for Burton Upon Trent, during the General Election of 2010. My aim was to give a behind the scenes look at the General Election campaign on a local scale.
Thirty of the images have been selected to be shown at Free Range, the graduate exhibition show in London. There will also be a solo exhibition more locally at Burton Upon Trent library. I’m also in the process of self publishing the work as a book.
In terms of photographic research for the project, I looked at a variety of work by photographers such as Elliott Erwitt, David Hurn, Martin Parr, Alec Soth, Chris-Steele Perkins, Simon Roberts and Robert Frank. Certainly, towards the end of shooting, I think I mostly had Martin Parr’s Cost of Living at the back of my head.
As I had little idea of what to expect when I started photographing, I knew that I would just have to remain alert and react quickly to a situation and see the image I wanted to create. Admittedly, I wasn’t quite sure where I was going with the project when it started. But after a while I managed to focus down on what I wanted visually and it seemed to come together more.
I began photographing the week prior to the announcement of the General Election. Planning was often difficult, typically because of the hectic nature of the campaigning and I had to build up a relationship of trust with Ruth and the Burton Labour Party.
Door to door campaigning made up most of the Party’s activities. This would roughly take place everyday, three sessions across the day. I would either spend the entire day with them or pick and choose which slots I attended depending on what was happening, where they were going and other things I may need to be doing.
I arranged with my employer to change my working days, sometimes at short notice and booked time off as holiday so that I could spend as much time as possible with the Labour Party. Sometimes this was not always possible and I missed some events that I would’ve preferred to have photographed. The Labour Party would typically arrange permission for me to photograph at events.
Otherwise, the Campaign Manager would let me know about anything happening, often at last minute. I would ensure daily that I had stored any previous images on my computer, that batteries were charged and my camera bag packed ready to go at any point.
Early on I decided that I would photograph digitally. I expected to be taking a lot of photos over the four week shooting period, so this was a good way to keep costs down and make it relatively easy when selecting and editing images.
I had set myself some rules when shooting and for post –processing. I didn’t use a flash, feeling that it would be too intrusive. In low light conditions, I relied upon faster prime lenses and a higher ISO setting. I abandoned the idea of using a tripod as it was too cumbersome in such a fast paced environment.
For the most part I wanted to get the photos just right in camera. However, I gave myself some leeway with post-processing, only allowing myself to straighten and crop images, but not excessively. I could trim the edges so to speak, but I could not crop out major elements of an image. Additionally, I would only adjust the exposure and white balance of an image.
In the first week I pulled a muscle in my neck and had to be driven about by the end of the week. I realized I was going to have to be a lot fitter if I was to continue doing this, or invest in lighter kit! For someone who is relatively shy and lacking in confidence, I had to put myself out there, talk to people, stand on a stage in front of audiences and take photos of them. Technically, I was pushed, having to deal with awkward lighting conditions and fast moving subjects, much different to my usual slower paced photography of spaces. I needed to be organised, fit and healthy, positive and constantly alert to possible images and situations.
The photos are perhaps a little distant, some intentionally, some from the view of somebody observing from the edge. I don’t think that necessarily makes the image less relevant, but it does reflect at times how confident I was in doing this. In truth, I don’t think it was until the latter part of the project that I began to get closer. In fact, I would say that there were a few times I perhaps became too involved and the line between photographic observer and honorary Labour Party member became blurred.
I became fixated with what I was doing. All I would talk about was the General Election and the Labour Party, all I would think about was how I was going to photograph it all. It became an obsession, in a good way.
In short, the whole process was one of learning. I did miss and mess up images, but I think overall, I got good photos. I think I achieved a somewhat coherent series of photographs that give an account of a local prospective Parliamentary candidate in the run up to a General Election. And I enjoyed it, I think with this photo-documentary, I found the path I want to take within photography.
There is still work to be done. I need to further promote the work and I intend to crystalize the imagery in the form of a self-published book, hopefully in time for the Free Range exhibition. Some of the photography will also be entered into competitions.
Like many other photographers have experienced, I hope this project will be successful and prove to be a natural stepping stone to my next project.
More images can be seen on my website.
