I am writing this review of week five somewhat late. The reasons however, are not altogether negative. Having solidified my ideas for the research project; namely to explore the individuals who both run and volunteer at foodbanks as well as to shoot and interview a number of their clients, I have been able to make substantial progress.
With a fairly rounded idea of what the project might entail, I decided to contact Jesse and present a formalised idea for my research project. Jesse was supportive and provided a number of pointers for further research. We discussed the shape of the project as well as the executional style of potential images and how they might be designed to strip away the social cues that would encourage class stereotypes. We agreed that access would be a major challenge within the project as well as the gaining of access to the foodbanks themselves.
Although I had made some progress with Sharon Goodyear and her Margate-based foodbank project, I was also keen to gain access to a London-based foodbank or soup kitchen. Following my meeting with Jesse, I was able to make contact with the CEO (Alex) of The Soup Kitchen based in Tottenham Court Road and received a highly encouraging response. Unfortunately, they were already in the midst of a similar project. My second call however to the founder of Charity Begins at Home Saleem Aswan resulted in a positive outcome. I was able to secure both a personal meeting as well as being able to visit the group’s Friday regular foodbank initiative in Agar Street just off the Strand.
By the end of the week, I had attended an introductory dinner with Saleem as well as working with the volunteers on Friday evening. It was a moving experience and solidified my desire to follow this path for the research project as well as maintain close links with the charity and its founder going forward.
At the same time, I heard from Sharon Goodyear that she felt that it would be too much of a personal time burden to undertake a collaboration. We therefore agreed not to take our discussions any further. The lesson from this as in any new business initiative is to be cognisant of the funnel effect when looking to create new charity partners for the project.
The Photography of David Rosen 