I first got news that Gotton Farm was to be sold in the summer of 2018. I was devastated and extremely worried for the future of my family

Gotton has been with us for a hundred years and my cousin Ted is the last of the three generations to live and work there. I've grown up with him and spent many a summer day on the farm and the long nights by the fire. The fear of change was overwhelming for us all.

It was later that I learned that there was a way to keep the farm in the family, but to do this meant selling the entire herd and changing the structure of the farm buildings.

I decided I wanted to capture the life of the farm and the enormous changes it was undergoing I later discovered that the history of the farm has never been recorded so this will be the only document of Gotton as a working farm.

The final months of the herd were witness to mv uncle Mike suffering from significant illness, a trusted farm hand suddenly losing his life, deaths in the herd and failed TB tests. All the while, Ted and his father remained upbeat, showing smiles that hid the tension and anxiety they were facing every day.

The following is my initial set from an ongoing project. The photos are a mixture of digital and medium format film, which was taken on my Bronica.

by em

The following is an extract from one of my photography projects. The theme was titled ‘Obsession’ and for this I chose to focus on the use of mobile phones.

During my course I have been lucky enough to borrow the college’s Yashica Mat 24 Medium format twin lens reflex camera. I have wanted to experiment with medium format since starting this course and this particular project presented the perfect opportunity.

I have carried it with me to a number of locations on my travels, which is no small feat as it’s quite heavy! I suspect that medium format might be my ideal format – I love processing film and the slowed down process of analogue photography, and medium format gives me the huge high quality SQUARE negative. There’s everything to like about it. And 120 roll film only has 12 square shots to a roll, so I don’t spend ages trying to fill a roll for development.

This first picture is from a trip to Bristol. The other great thing about a TLR is that you don’t look at your subject directly, but stare down in the direction of your feet, which makes you much less intimidating. Even if people do notice you, they are fascinated rather than threatened. This has let me be a little more direct with photos, as this picture shows:

Bristol Pret. F/3.5 60ms

This picture has had some post processing as there was an unsightly bollard in the foreground. I know this goes against the grain for true street photography, but this is my blog and I want to make it pretty!

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to use the TLR in a studio situation. The college has an excellent studio and Adam was kind enough to lend me one of the college’s Speedlites and help me to set it up.

I am extremely excited to present these images of Len, who was kind enough to pose for me. These are the first medium format studio portraits I have ever taken and from a roll of 12 pictures I have managed to get 4 good quality street photos and 4 studio portraits. I love this camera!

Len. F/4 125ms

This is one of 4 shots I took of Len. I used a light meter on Len’s cheek to measure the ambient light for both of the included studio shots. The flash unfortunately failed to fire on two, and I only have the light from the screen of his phone, so they are unusable, but it’s all a learning process.

I love the eye contact in this picture. On one of the failed images I had removed his lanyard, which made the image slightly more timeless, but given the context and the mobile phone, I don’t think this is too much of a problem. I have cleaned up some dust from the image in Lightroom. I need to remember that this size of negative appears to be very good at collection detritus from the darkroom!

Len’s Phone. F/5.6 125ms

For this image, we attached a good quality close up lens to the camera and I got in real close. I find this image really engaging and love the tones on his face. I am pleased with the detail that the camera can achieve, even with a close up attachment on the front.

Since completing the project I now have a Bronica medium format slr camera, with a couple of lenses which I use to shoot personal work.