Parting shots
Election time is looming, and this reminded me of the last time the country went to the polls. To many people in regular employment, it doesn’t usually make a great deal of difference who forms the government of the day, but to those working in the public sector back in 2010 there were some serious repercussions when the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition came into being. Thousands of jobs & departments which were deemed unnecessary were axed almost immediately, and the consequences filtered down to suppliers who provided services to those departments. I was one of those suppliers – having built a PR photography business based on supplying the public sector with promotional and advertising imagery.
Northumberland Tourism was a quango which had been formed to promote the region’s tourism industry throughout the UK & beyond. A region with very little industry, poor transport infrastructure, & devoid of significant investment despite years of decline following the destruction of the mining industry. I worked regularly, on projects throughout the area – mostly covering events to provide press imagery for tourism publications and the national press. Austerity pulled the plug on funding, and therefore one of my main sources of income.
Before the curtain came down however, I had one last big project to work on. The promotion of the food and hospitality aspect of the region was a major part of their portfolio, and the development of a “toolkit” for catering providers using local produce was being rolled out region-wide. This was a plan to use local stuff to produce a menu within a certain budget, generating a certain profit margin. Local chef Richard Sim was the creator of the toolkit plan.
My role was to travel to 4 different locations, and capture four chefs who had successfully adopted the plan. I could take my time with these portraits, and they needed to be distinct, as they were to be featured in various newspaper & magazine food supplements nationwide. My task took me to Berwick, Haltwhistle, Alnwick, & Holy Island, with half a day allocated to each assignment. The lighting setup was standard in each location – a key light flash with a big softbox to the side of the main subject, with a bounce ceiling flash to give some general illumination, and one or two spotlights directed to the background scene to highlight a particular part of it.
The most challenging place was the Black Bull pub in Haltwhistle, as the place was fully open with paying customers sitting down for meals etc. Next time you’re in a country pub, imagine a stressed out geezer with four studio strobes trying to take a picture of the stressed out chef.
Having completed the portraits, it was a case of doing some basic post production, and delivering the images to the clients by hand. The chefs in question all received framed prints of the shots as a thank you. My work here was done. Northumberland Tourism as an entity was dissolved shortly thereafter, and a big part of my working life disappeared forever. Lovely people, and a bunch of great experiences (which may well turn up on this blog at some point).
