Topic: Colleagues

[CarlRadford]

I started the project about two years ago but become unwell and this was put aside. I was looking for a new project. A colleague reminded me of the images recently and so I have  started to make more images in an effort to finish this project by the end of the year. I am pretty much restricted to lunch times and many of the images are made of those that stop by my desk – or try to pass by without being noticed. I work in the addictions field for the Social Work Department of Glasgow City Council. I am based in the Twomax Building in the Gorbals area of Glasgow and all the images have been made within 1/2 mile of it – most have been made in my office, those around it or when the light is particularly low in the immediate area outside. All the images have been made on film using natural light or flourescent light.

As many now people are my thing. Tim Soar once said to me that “people are your landscape” when discussing my feelings of a lack of any real connection with landscape photography.

More can be found on my new website in the http://carlradford.co.uk/?page_id=96.

[CarlRadford]

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[LT]

great stuff Carl - some wonderful expressions - I'm wondering how much you are trying to say with the pictures other than "here is someone I work with", which of course is good reason enough, but are you looking for an alternative narrative in the pictures? Is this about colleagues, pure and simple or colleagues working in a specific environment carrying on a with a specific task/purpose/intention/shared philosophy etc? If it's the latter, I'm not sure it comes across, unless maybe it is about dispelling myths about social work stereotypes ... I see no tweed jackets with leather elbow patches Actually, they look like every other SW team I've ever worked in, I'm glad to say.

Re your website - I love the new design, but the pictures won't load for me on safari 5.1.1 on Mac OSX 10.7.2 - well, I say won't load, I mean the first picture in each set loads, but when I click on the next arrow, or wait for the slide transition, I get a blank space where the photo should be. I just tried it on google chrome and firefox and it works fine ... must be an issue with Safari?  

[LT]

Actually, it only works on Firefox, it won't work for me on google chrome 15 on mac osx lion either.

[CarlRadford]

Leon - I am not really trying to say anything about what my colleagues do.  Far from it - I have needed to be extremely careful about ensuring no confidential info can be seen anywhere - confidentiality rules ok.  I am just trying to capture personalities that mean something to the folk that come into contact with them but will mean little to anyone else.  Can one get a feel from the images who does what and at what level - who are the psychs, GPs, RMNs and sw's - or what personalities exist? 

In essence this probably isn't an essay as it does not set out to tell a story - I more or less can't.  Maybe it should be moved and just be a series of images.

Thanks for the heads up about it not loading in some browsers.  I have chrome so will check but I am on lion.

[CarlRadford]

Thats odd - it works for me in chrome on lion! Try going straight to www.carls-gallery.co.uk - www.carlradford.co.uk points at the same space too. Anyone else using chrome that can check for me would be appreciated.

[LT]

Still getting the same issue in safari and chrome with the carl's gallery site.  Sometimes the firs image shows, but others it doesn't.  I can see the thumbnails underneath changing in sequence, but no large picture shows .... I'll try it on my windows bootcamp partition on chrome and let you know if that's the same.

[CarlRadford]

I think the error lies in the fact that carls-gallery.co.uk link is forwarded to carlradford.co.uk which is where the site is sitting.  Need to think about it some more

[CarlRadford]

Still trying to resolve the error - it is something to do with the redirect.  If any issues just click the home button and that will sort it out for now.

[f6point3]

I like the ones of Ali and Liz, because they're showing a bit of the work environment in the background.  The OOF is perfect because you don't want the computer to be the main focus, but it's nice to see it there.  The others perhaps should have included something to identify them to their jobs: the desk top, a notebook, instead of being a close-up portrait.  Uzma is a stunner, and her folded arms show some personality, so I like this one as well.

Don't get me wrong, they're all very nice portraits -- but I think a little of their environment in the picture would have made them better for this series.