Photo by Holly Webb

 

Throughout my research of artists and types of photojournalism, I have slowly been compiling a list of first ideas for my final photojournalism project.

The next stage of my development process it to start contacting certain people over the next couple of days.

Sending out feelers and beginning to form relationships with potential subjects will enable me to find out which of these ideas are going to produce stronger images with the most interesting subjects.

Starting to contact people will also show me which ideas are more plausible or realistic.

 

1) Magic Majid: the final thirty days

Inspiration:

This is the first idea I got while doing my further research into types of photojournalism and looking at the work of particular photographers in more depth. It is mainly inspired by Pete Souza‘s work with Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama (see my research here).

Because I love his work so much, I knew that I would enjoy and be passionate about a similar idea for my project. I started thinking of notable people that I could spend some time with, and document the day-to-day experiences of – also hopefully showing their true nature in a series of candid shots.

I thought of the Lord Mayor of Sheffield straight away, as he is not only a notable person that I would love to portray in a series of portraits, but I thought that there is a solid peg and doing a documentary profile of him would be very relevant and timely.

Firstly, he is seen as quite a controversial face in UK politics, for his highly liberal and casual approach. In my opinion I love how he has started to change the formal and exclusive nature of politics, however some people disagree. For this reason, I think he would be a person of interest for a lot of people if I were given the chance to see this plan through.

Secondly, he has recently announced that he won’t be running again for re-election as he has plans to focus on other things next year. This means that in early May he will be coming to his last few days as Lord Mayor. I thought that this was another good reason to do this story, as it would be commemorative of his time in office and hopefully something people could look back on and remember his positive impact with.

Plan:

I would like to shoot similar candid pictures, like these Souza shots of Obama:

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If I were to carry out this project, I would want to portray who he really is as a person, as well as what he is doing for the city of Sheffield.

I think that because it will also be his last few days I could capture some really emotional shots like Souza did frequently with Obama.

I could include quotes and fact and figures from his time in office, and use the photographs to accompany this text. I could even expand the project to include shots of the people of Sheffield and what they think of him, however with my project only including 8-12 pictures, this may not be possible.

Contacts:

I know that this idea seems to be a little out-of-reach and that I’m possibly being unrealistic in getting this opportunity, however Magid Magid is known for reaching out to students and young people, and is very active on social media in engaging with his followers.

Because of this, I decided that there was no harm in reaching out and contacting him, because even though he is known for taking up opportunities like this to work with young people and encourages projects like this, I thought that even if he did say no, there was no harm in asking.

With this in mind, I have already sent emails to his press team and to his personal email as well as contacting him on social media.

I do understand that it may be unrealistic to do something so high-profile for my project, so I am prepared to undertake another idea if I do not get a reply soon.

 

This being said, it is still an idea that I am really, really passionate about. I think it would be so interesting to cover and there is potential for some really good shots too. If the opportunity does arise by some miracle, I will be sure to take on the challenge and hopefully produce a project to do it justice.

 

UPDATE: To see my other ideas and my final project pitch, click here.