David Severn

This Wednesday we had a guest talker come in and talk about himself and projects he has worked on. Also he was talking to us about how the internet can be used to inspire us by looking at particular photographic websites and the great quality of images they contain which can help us as photographers with any future projects of our own.

David Severn is a social documentary photographer from Nottingham whose work is based on the relationship between people and place. Most particularly photographs the working class, how they interact and are affected by the environment they’re living in.

He first talked about a project he had been working on a called 'thanks Maggie'. This series of photographs explores the reinvented uses of ex colliery sites in and around the former coal mining stronghold of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

As he grew up in the town and like so many from Mansfield, come from a mining family, so this project was particular special to him and  he mentioned how he thoroughly enjoyed it, despite having the odd difficulties here and there throughout the project. His Father worked at the pits all his life and his Grandfather a Deputy at nearby Sutton Colliery during his time. Taking a dip into his memories, cultural background and skilled perception of Mansfield, he had talked about how a very personal the project was and how that it speaks of his own roots and sense of belonging. He also spoke about the wide range of people and their unique backgrounds, he encountered throughout and how moved he was by the stories of ex miners and inspired by the work of young people in Newstead, as well as telling the great stories of his adventures getting the photographs he wanted.

His work is part of a wider project involving 8 artists of varying different practices inquiring into Mansfield’s current socioeconomic climate given the prolonged period of volatility sparked by the withdrawal of its primary industry in the early 1990’s.

David also then talked about some of his older work, such as the project looking at the British travelling showmen community. He said his aim was to involve the public with the fairground on another level, to help them understand the people behind the fair and suppress common preconceived misconceptions about travelling show people. All this was done at the goose fair in Nottingham.

David throughout presenting his work, mentioned how he likes to present it too, which I thought was quite intriguing. For every portrait, he would complement with a landscape type image. This was particular done when showing the project ‘Thanks Maggie’.

Overall I thought is presentation and talk was very interesting, if a little long winded. I really enjoyed some of images they were very suited to what they were photographed for. 
below are a couple of images from the series of images 'Thanks maggie'.

image from the series was taken in Boothy's Working Mens Club in Mansfield where the people in the photo are playing Bingo. The Main focus of this image is the man playing bingo by himself at the front. David said that once he got talking to this man, which he then told David that his wife had recently passed away and he continued to play bingo every week to carry on the tradition that he and his wife had.

 image below is of of David Severn's father, Jack Daniels, preparing to go on stage where he is an Elvis Presley impersonator. He told us that this image was special to him as he never saw his father getting ready to do what he does best. 

below is my personal favourite from the collection. A man David met while on the project told him a story about a man and his life and mining experiences that turned out to be himself. this image really captures all that emotion of the moving story about himself and is nicely shot and lit, which is why this is my favourite image.