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22) Artist Research: Matthew Smith - 3/4/18

Alice Lock
Apr 3, 2018
3 min read

After researching the Battle of the Beanfield, I found that previous guest speaker, Matthew Smith, documented a lot of the rave and protest scene of the 80s and 90s which stemmed from Britain's traveler community involved in Beanfield.

I found a really interesting article on Vice which highlights the link between them, with the excerpt below:

Below are some notes and reflections I made from the guest talk, which can be seen below.

"

I’ve never really seen any work like this before but I really like it, and I love how this is still recent history to us, even though some of his photographs seem like a world away nowadays. I learnt a lot about rave and protest through his photographs, and this is exactly what Matt is set out to be doing, especially with the soon release of his first photobook. I can’t wait to see a copy in print and I’m definitely considering buying it.

One of the key things I took away from this talk was the element of time in photography. Matt had been shooting this topic for over 20 years, and it took him 4 years digitalise all the work – it just shows that spending that much time on a project you’re passionate about definitely pays off, and it inspires me to find my own long term project to get started with!"

After over a year on from the guest talk, I've now started a project which could be documented over a long period of time, and after previously being inspired by Matt I decided to look back at some of my favourite images from 'Exist to Resist' to potentially inspire my shooting further, considering how the two projects link together through history.

I really like this first image because it tells a story of what these people were living in and where they were, and he has achieved this by having a shot which encompasses the environment the travelers are in, as well as their means of living and themselves. I like how you can see the individual in their natural setting while also looking at the camera, making the image not look posed but also engaging. This is what I'd like to achieve within my own images through wider documentary shots like this and environmental portraits with more of a close up focus.

I was drawn to this image from his book because it represents the written views of the individuals he was with, and I see this similarly with my own work. Greenbank community puts up a lot of signs about rubbish, free food and free clothes around the area, and I feel it's important to document these signs as another way of showing their story. I feel this is also what Matt was trying to do with this image, and it inspires me further to keep my eyes out for other ways of documenting and representing the van dwellers.

The final image I picked out from his series was this portrait above. I really love the framing of the image, only focusing on the upper body of the subject, allowing you to engage closer with his face. I think this gives the viewer a stronger connection to the image and allows them to wonder what the subject is thinking and feeling, and how the viewer portrays the subject in general. This portrait inspires me to try different ways of framing a portrait, such as in this upper body way as well as full body shots. In terms of technicality, I also want to shoot with the same style of having a shallow depth of field, with the focus being purely on the subject to make them the first attention of the viewer.

Overall I feel that researching into the photography of Matthew Smith and the contextual meaning behind his project has spurred me on further to document this community in the best way I can. This is because I have found that the two projects are part of a long line of history of a group of people, with my project showing much more recent history of how some of these people are living today. It makes me feel the project has more importance than I thought, making me want to photograph more and get to know these people more. Smith's photographs have also inspired me in terms of elements to focus on capturing and the style he shoots in.