St Oswalds Church do a lot more than just the food bank for the community, as well as that they also provide a weekly advice centre which anyone can come to for advice on legal proceedings, depts/benefits and also to help fill in those complex forms. This is incredibly helpful for the local community, because some people don't have the knowledge or money to seek advice on certain circumstances they might be in. Also there advice centre acts as a referral agent for Coventry Foodbank, meaning they can actually give out the vouchers as well as just giving out the food. Another service they provide is unpaid work experience for anyone who wants it, and then help with writing cv's and job interviews. Again, this is a un-replaceable service for the community which helps lots of people each year. What's good about St Oswalds, is they provide support in all the different ways which would help stop people having to use the food banks in the first place, so they are trying to provide a solution to the problem before it becomes a problem.
Below are my favourites from the shoot.
Their food bank supply room was the smallest I had seen so far, but it was well stocked which meant they could cope with larger numbers of clients. It turned out that only four people came to the food bank while I was there, which was why they were so well stocked. The numbers vary each week, but averagely St Oswalds get lower numbers than the last two I visited.
After looking at Dennis DeHarts project, I wanted to begin focusing more highly on landscapes instead of a candid documentary style. I think its interesting to document the entrance to the church, because this is what the clients are faced with when walking in to ask for support. The 'FoodBank Open' sign draws the viewer into this image, and the bright sunny weather makes it look like an appealing place even though the building itself is quite dull looking.
The church hall was very impressive in size which was something that I definitely had to photograph, this helps give the viewer a wider sense of place and meaning while they are looking at the food bank images. It also highlights the religious support side of my project, and reminds the viewer that without their free support projects like the food bank wouldn't be running.
This image is composed closer than the one before, but I prefer the look of it because the natural lighting casts really interesting shadows and highlights on the Alter's and tables in the middle. Also I think the colours in this image are more vibrant than the one above so it catches the viewers eye easier.
This image isn't as good as the one above because the composition looks a bit cramped and you don't get a sense of the scale of the hall.
This image shoes all the different leaflets for advice and other charities that the church is part of and supports. Its good to see all the other things the church does for the community.
I like this close up photograph of Mary and Jesus, because the blue cloak behind casts an interesting light on the two which sets a warm blue cast on the image. I think Jesus' stance draws the viewer in because they probably haven't seen him doing that before either.
This image connects back with the work of Luisa Whitton. It captures the empty and cold waiting room that greats the clients when they arrive. This space is very unusual when you remove the people from the subject because it gives you a sense that there is something missing from the image.
This image is something I wanted to try, to create an interesting composition which is framed by the religious stain glass windows. I think it creates the feeling like the church is looking out for the community, because I've taken the image from the inside and through the 'cross' shape windows you can see community buildings in the distance. I think it doesn't fit with my previous techniques or artist research though.
Again, I think this image is interesting because it gives the viewer enough information for them to know what they are in a church. But the composition makes the image look quite unusual, meaning the only living thing in the photograph is the plant in the middle of the image.
This is one of my favourites from the shoot, and I feel that I have used the development learnt from Dennis DeHart to produce this image. If I hadn't looked into him and his landscapes as an artist, I wouldn't have tried to take this kind of a photograph. This image is visually pleasing because one gets to see the scale of the building and there is a lot of visual information going on, but everything draws the viewers eye into the middle background of the image and the alter. Again, the lighting creates very nice highlights and shadows throughout the image which creates movement.
I began speaking to Tim who was the church Custodian which meant he kept the church and its grounds tidy, as well as organising events and sorting out repairs. He was very proud of his church which is why I got him to stand at the front of the main hall. I used the developments that I have been talking about to make sure that I composed enough objects in the background so the viewer would be able to guess where we were standing. Also we worked slowly into the shoot, so he felt comfortable, which I think shows in the final result of the portrait. Although, where he was standing go a lot of highlights from the sun, so half of his face is in very bright light and the rest dark, which has meant that the portrait doesn't look as good as I would have hoped.
Anthony was another one of the volunteers who ran the check in desk for the food bank every week and also helped out with the advice centre once a week. As I have explained before, he would be the first person the client meets at this food bank and he would process their voucher for them. Because this food bank was smaller than the others, there was only one volunteer working at a time, after checking their voucher he would get their food bag ready just behind him. Again, I think I have remembered my own portrait development because I have photographed him with enough in the background to provide the viewer with a large reference to where he is and what he's doing. Also because I spoke to him for a while before taking the photograph he was comfortable for it, which shows in the final portrait.
I prefer this image of the stock room compared to the one I spoke about at the start of this post. The reason for this being, I have stepped back a few paces for this image which means the viewer can actually see how small the room actually is, compared to objects like the chair. The '2 white banquet' sign draws the viewer into the space, which feels very small and cramped which is accurate because it is. Also I think the image is nice and vibrant, including lots of different colours and contrasts.
This was another outside photograph which shows the churches tower which they are currently trying to have re-stored. The lighting in this image is what makes it so visually interesting, because the tree's are nicely highlighted by the light and also the plane cloud is in line with the tree line which makes it an interesting but equal composition.
Im not sure which image I prefer, between the one above and below. Both I think are in-between landscape and documentary which is why the image works well. The building, lighting and sign all welcome the viewer into the Church, which is then being cleaned by one of the staff on the right hand side of the image. Which shows the viewer what a welcoming/ supporting this place is in one image.
This was the last image I took at St Oswalds Church. It shows where Anthony sat weighing the items in and out of the food bank stores, he then gave the information back to the central distribution point in Coventry city centre. This made sure they knew how much food was going in and out of their food bank, and if the clients were receiving the right amount of food or not.
After the shoot I was speaking to Anthony who ran the food bank at St Oswalds, and was speaking about how I could go to the central food bank distribution point for Coventry because I had heard a few people speaking about it and had even met one of the people who worked there at the first food bank shoot I did. I wanted to go to this place because I knew that I had photographed a few different food banks, and shown the variety of places which run them and the different kinds of support these places offer, but I wanted to document where all the food was processed for the Coventry area, to then be sent out to the different food banks around the city. Anthony gave me a number for Giles who was the warehouse manager at the central food bank in Coventry, which I am going to call to see if I would be able to photograph it for my project.
In conclusion of the shoot, I think that my technique of capturing the different food banks has improved a lot. And now I focus my photographic eye to producing landscapes and portraits, instead of trying to capture action documentary shots. I think this technique which has been inspired by Luisa Whitton and Dennis DeHart, means the I am showing the viewer the wider story of how these food banks are connected to faith as well as the community, instead of just showing them how the food bank functions at each different place. I think I am thinking about each picture I take a lot more and my portraits are improving each shoot, with me trying to think about what is photographed in the background/ foreground to give the viewer extra context with the image.
I'm not sure if I'm going to photograph another food bank or try and capture something new for my next shoot, but I will try and get in contact with Giles to go to the central distribution point because this will tell another side to the food bank support story.