Introduction
In my book "Thrice Removed" 2009, there is an image called 'Five Girls, Four Cartons, Three Cups' featuring teens in a social situation in a fast food restaurant. They are disconnected from each other but united by their hair.
Following on from this I decided to explore the world of teenagers.
Being surrounded by my teenage sons, daughter and their friends, I had noticed some interesting things about them that seemed to be related to the current time and culture. The world is changing very fast around us at the moment, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to capture and document these thoughts, seeing as within the next 5-10 years things may be very different.
Teenage Pre-occupation is a document of teenagers and their preoccupations today.
It is essentially a British point of view as the observations are drawn from the everyday life that goes on around me.
Different tribes of teens were photographed covering subjects ranging from fashion to food, technology to socialising. They all posed in their own clothes, but ultimately they have been chosen to be photographed because they fit into the subject matter I am dealing with in this project.
They appear insecure, looking for something to follow or not, to fit in or not, weighed down by technology, antisocial networkers, obsessed with what other people are doing.
I am presenting my observations of certain aspects of Teenage life from the outside. The teenagers in the pictures think they are just getting on with their normal lives, but when photographed certain things become more visible. Sometimes it may come across as quite a dark place to be, but there is an underlying British humour to the images found in the details. There is little that is gratuitous about the images and the deadpan nature of the expressions of the sitters allows the viewer to have their own interpretation.
I shoot on a large format camera (8 x10 film) and this can bring a heightened sense of reality to the images. This becomes even more apparent when printed large scale for exhibition. The details are clearer and become more important.
Shooting on Large Format is the way I have always worked. It involves thinking more about what you are about to shoot and then trusting your instinct. With no Polaroid or instant digital image to work with, the pre planning and thought leading up to the shoot is transmitted to the first shot. Although these shooting methods normally produce a more staged result in "Teenage Pre-occupation", it is subject matter that gives the resulting images a more naturalistic style that from the outside can even feel like documentary.
There are also moving image pieces in the project that have been shot at the same time, and therefore work on the web as moving portraits.
4 images from the project have been exhibited in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
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