Paul came to talk to us last Tuesday about his Northern Portraits. His talk was entertaining as he took us through his thinking behind his approach to his pictures.  Paul primarily uses a Hasselblad 500C/M film camera.He also occasionally uses a Canon. Most of his pictures are taken with an 85mm lens and he uses a maximum of F1.2. His pictures are virtually all in square format and black and white. His project started with 10 iconic Northerners including people such as Fred Dibner, Alan Bennett and Bernard Manning.  On completing the first 10 pictures, Paul met Ian Beasley (the artist and photographer; see his work here) who encouraged him to continue with the project. Paul has now taken over 200 portraits of iconic Northerners. His approach to getting the photographs involves contacting the person and asking to take their photo for his project.  Most people respond positively to this. He takes their picture primarily in their home or work environment.

Paul showed us over 60 photos of a variety of people born in the North and told the story behind each one.  You can see his photos here. Overall it was a very interesting talk, and the images he showed demonstrated diversity in approach and an experimental use of composition and focus. They gave us all something to think about!