ASSIGNMENT - Mansa-Colley Bojang School

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Auntie Fatou Saneh and child

In 2011 my wife and I visited The Gambia and were fortunate to meet Mr 'Mucki' Mucktarr Bojang the founder of the Mansa-Colley Bojang School in near Brikama. The school was founded in 2009 to meet the needs of the village of Jalanbang, where many of children were not receiving any primary education. With charitable assistance from overseas, the hard work of the paid and volunteer staff, and the support of the village chief and Imam, the school is doing well.

However, meeting Mucki again in 2013 it became clear that further help would benefit the children. My wife and I asked friends and family to help us raise money to buy school equipment. We created the 'Toubab Bumsters' blog to keep folk informed of progress and booked a trip for December. We raised £1,300 which will be used to buy text books for the older children.

We stayed for a few days at the school and I recorded some of what we experienced. I tried to avoid too many cliched images of smiling kids (difficult as the kids were charming and smiled an awful lot !) instead looking to a combination of posed portraits and reportage to capture some of the atmosphere of the place. While I am pleased with the quality of the images in hindsight I would approach the assignment with a more structured focus. When I go back to the school I will concentrate on portraiture.

Night Watch Man, Mr Ebrahim Barr

Nursery C teacher Auntie Charlotte Mendy

ASSIGNMENT - Around Gambia and Senegal

While the main focus of my trip to The Gambia in December 2013 was to work with the Mansa-Collery Bojang school it seemed churlish to turn down the opportunity of a holiday. My wife and spent 3 weeks in The Gambia and Senegal and I took the opportunity to take some pictures of place - and of the people we met.

Gunjar Media (Flickr)

We stayed firstly in Gunjar Medina which is thankfully some way from the rather unpleasant Senegambia hotel strip.My favourite pictures is this one of Mr Buba Badjie who was making wardrobes at our hotel. I like it mostly because of email reply I received from Buba after sharing the picture with him.

Hi Andy, how are you and your family? hope you are all in a good condition of health. I am very happy to hear from you and i have seen the pictures you sent to me and they are good pictures and i will show it to my family and tell them about  your kindness to me.
Now the malaria  is ok . Sent my greetings to Beth, tell her i am very, very happy about you
Thank you for your help and take care
Buba

Mr Buba Badjie

Jalanbang (Flickr)

The Mansa-Colley school is in the village of Jalanbang. We stayed there for a few days - enjoying the hospitality of the village very well. While poor the folk seem industrious and resourceful as this fellows homemade gym equipment shows.

Concrete dumbbells

Casamance, Senegal (Flickr)

Next step was a trip to Southern Senegal where we stayed with a very welcoming English chap and his Senegalese family (see Simon Fenton's home and photography here http://thelittlebaobab.com). Despite the foreign office warnings the place seemed calm and relaxed as were these two delightful kids near the beach in Abene.

Girls in Abene

Brufut (Flickr)

The majority of our time was spent in Brufut, a mid size town of brick compounds that while not touristy is very welcoming. I bought a bag of rice for our young friend Ousman Jarr's family and was welcomed into his home. This is his blind grandfather. Despite having to small talk in French (the man is a Fula from Senegal) I enjoyed his company very much.

Mr Jarr

ASSIGNMENT | Portraits of Abu and Jess

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I was commissioned by a friend to take black and white portraits of her two daughters as a Christmas gift for her husband and friends. Although I know the girls well - and they are both polite and charming - this was a surprisingly daunting task as I wanted to capture the girls personalities; avoid cliche and kitsch; and produce work that had some resonance without missing the brief to be family friendly.

I shot with natural light (a lack of anything else helped this decision !), and worked hard in post to give the images a graphic quality while retaining naturalism. My client was pleased with the results.

Jessica

Abu

ASSIGNMENT | Local Radio in the Fleur de Lys Pub

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On Friday 8th November BBC Radio Oxfordshire broadcast from East Hagbourne's pub. I took the opportunity to take some snaps. I managed to work with low light with the help of iso 3200 (using post grain to cover the join) and a bounce flash. The above is the most successful image - reward for braving sanction by 'stealing' a shot. The greased back hair is oddly timeless - I might kid myself into thinking I have drank from the same pint glass as Tony Ray-Jones.

ASSIGNMENT | Yorkshire

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Visiting my mother-in-law I took the opportunity to practice some portraiture.

It raised some interesting challenges:

• Pam is family and as such I have a duty to respect her privacy and present her image with respect and honesty. Is this responsibility universal ?
• I could tell multiple narratives. An old lady who's sad and lonely or pensioner who's comfortable and happy. A concerned carer or a reluctant barer of chores.  I erred on truthfulness. 
• Post production was tricky. The use of black and white gives the images gravitas - but is it mannered ?

ASSIGNMENT | Army Parade in Didcot

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A young soldier with the medal he received for serving in Afghanistan

I would have gone anyway - but when I heard the 11EOD were to Parade through Didcot I thought this a good opportunity to practice field work. When arriving I followed the guys with big lenses and soon found my self amongst a motley crew of TV, Radio and press journalists and photographers. Not one to disappoint I did not point out my newbee status to the press officer, instead I took the opportunity to be welcomed into the fray. For the final medal giving part of the parade I found myself corralled into a special press area. Only one wily old hack escaped the pen, with the immortal words " I'm not standing in there - I walk on water me to get a good picture". Next time I will follow his lead.