Preston is my resting place

This project requires us to "Consider what Preston means to you and how you can communicate this within a location shoot." 

As someone with generations of family going back into Preston, who were born here, and died here, so Preston to me is a resting place, it’s a place of friends and family so I want to try and communicate this through the cemeteries near where I live. 

My family owns a house about 500 yards down from the cemetery, on Blackpool Road that seven generations of my family have known even though it was a council house initially (my aunt lives in it now). My Great Great Grandparents were the first to live in it with my Great Grandmother and her siblings. Before this, they lived in a terraced house in Miller Road, just 200 yards from the side entrance to the cemetery. The tenancy for the house on Blackpool Road was passed through family member to family member until my Grandmother and Grandfather, along with my Great Grandmother, bought it in the 1980's. 

My family have lived and worked near the cemetery for generations. My Great Great Grandfather and two of his sons were gravediggers. My Great Great Great Grandfather was a tenant farmer and worked the land that is now a housing estate at the back of the cemetery. My father is a retired firefighter – the fire station is half a mile from the cemetery, my mother is a retired teacher and she worked half a mile away from the cemetery too. We live 300 yards from the cemetery gates. My parents and their families and friends grew up within half a mile of the cemetery. So did my brother and I!

This is the grave of my great, great, great grandfather and grandmother.

My family has a history with this resting place. 

My Great Great Grandfather was a war hero, and as well as being a gravedigger in the cemetery, he is also buried there. 

The cemetery is a beautiful, peaceful and calming place. I walk the dogs frequently and 'visit' and search for family graves around the walk. It’s a calm and easy place to be.

There are some notable gravestones in this last resting place. One of these is a memorial to Private William Young who was a soldier in the First World War. He was wounded in battle but his heroism caused him to be awarded the Victoria Cross, which is displayed in the Museum of Lancashire. Private William Young came home from the war, but his injuries caused him to be weakened and he sadly died. His grave/memorial is in a prominent site in the cemetery - his last resting place. Reverend George Smith, the Chaplain to the forces at the battle of Rorkes Drift, 22nd and 23rd January 1879 (immortalised in the film ‘Zulu’) is also laid to rest here. The architect of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery is also resting in Preston Cemetery. The first interment was a five year old child on 1^st July, 1855.

There are many official War Graves here too. Preston is the last resting place for our Heroes.

My ‘departure’ for this project is rooted in my family history, its connection to the specific local landscape, the cemetery itself. 

There's a sort of morbid, artistic curiosity in my head when I think about this project, so I'm going to try and keep an open mind with this project and see how it develops.

The technical side of this project is tricky, I have to think about how I’m going to frame each shot, adding and removing just enough in each image so there are minimal distractions in each image. With how close each of the headstones are to each other, I will need to think about how to frame each shot as to try and capture one grave at a time. 

Natural light is important when considering outside locations. The light changes during the day as do weather conditions. This means that to achieve the lighting conditions I want, I basically have to get lucky. Using a cemetery as a location means that whilst there are few people around and shots can be still and quiet, the light conditions through a day can change a photo shoot from soft and easy to dark and menacing. 

Atmosphere in outside locations is an important part of the aesthetic. 

Since my project is going to mostly be outdoors, I need to think about different types of lighting I might run into outside, there are a couple of artificial light sources I might run into, but its more likely that I’m going to run into natural light than anything else. That being said, I still need to keep an eye out for lighting such as:

·      Street lights

·      Floodlights

·      Security lights

While floodlights and security lights are possible, it’s most likely that the lights I’m going to have to deal with most, if at all, are Streetlights. Streetlights are harsh lights, often orange and are built to give good lighting conditions in the dark, not for their artistic value. To make everything easier for myself, I’m going to just work in the daylight, so all I have to contend with is natural light in all its glory.

The “H-artcollective” have taken modern “location” photography to a new level, using cameras built into mobile phones and other such devices, to capture everyday life, creating a whole new sub-culture of experimental photography, while mobile phones offer cameras to the masses, it also allows for more ‘human’ moments to be captured easier, than if someone was pointing a DSLR at someone, because of how comfortable people are with mobile phones, almost everyone has one, it is much easier to take pictures, and share them with the world. The H-artcollective is using this form of image capture, to have unparalleled creative freedom compared to most other digital photography means. One of their most recent projects ‘Street Stories’ includes black and white images, as well as a few colour photographs, the wide ranging results are truly an impressive thing to behold, are unique and awe-inspiring. Their work can be found on their Instagram here. 

This is where photographers need to have courtesy, listen to clients, Complete risk assessments, know about lone working practices, legal requirements, have responsibility for yourself, equipment and anyone you employ, have integrity, avoid and resolve conflicts of interest, Keep objective and work confidentially. All of these make for good working practices. When talking about working practices, it seems to be how a photographer acts on a job, how they deal with clients and how they carry out their job. Working practices can be about being professional, and taking responsibility for yourself, anyone you have hired as part of the job, and any equipment you are using but beyond that too, it also seems be talking about keeping focused, resolving issues as they arise and working with a professional attitude.

this is the December garden at the preston crematorium, where many of my family members were laid to rest.