BLUE WATCH
I would like to thank Jonathan Cherry for having sent his work. I insisted on introducing his portfolio with the “Blue Watch” project because I felt it was special and important. The words that then Jonathan, very generously, has wrote us confirm the intrinsic value of this series of photographs.
Steve Bisson
«I started by visiting the blue watch while they were on their night shifts. Initially I photographed them before and after the night shift and was intent on showing these as part of my work but I slowly started to realise that there was something different about the blue watch; they were a real mixed bag of people so I asked if I could begin to photograph on a regular basis and they agreed! I was really happy that the gaffer agreed for me to go along more often but I got the impression that not all of the blue watch wanted me there photographing. It was a really slow process - learning when I should / could photograph and what I could / should photograph because of course I had my own ideas but I knew I could not just go in there and photograph whatever I wanted - I needed to be sensitive to these guys, especially as they allowed me into there work world.
At this point I was shooting on a Wista Field 5X4 camera which although is one of the easier 5X4 cameras to set up etc - it still took time to photograph using it. So I tended to photograph a lot of objects and still life initially. I would shoot portraits as and when I could. It was the portrait that I was most interested in and I guess for me the still life was a way to escape confronting these fire men and having to ask to make a portrait of them. In this instant shooting still life was really beneficial for my project as it gave me a chance to see the bigger picture, to see the times in-between the sirens, to notice the small everydayness of the station.
The project then soon developed into something more about the in-between moments of station life. Falmouth is a town in Cornwall, UK and can be very quiet … this sense of quiet was reflected in my images. After a few months the fire fighters got used to me coming in once or twice a week and we began to find out more about one another and thing started to get easier the more I photographed and re-shot stuff there. The editing process was really tricky as I had so many negatives. I had over 200 5X4 shots and around 50 rolls of 120mm. I spend a fair amount of time in the colour darkroom printing to see what images worked and what didn’t. It was only through the making of Blue Watch the book that I had to fine tune my selection down to 22 plates. This eventually became something that I enjoyed and searching for the narrative within a sequence of images is something that you learn to love. I really loved making sense of all my images after having shot some much content! When I set out to photograph something I find it very rewarding if I can get to know the people / place that I am photographing. I think its important to know your subject on a personal level; this is something I achieved with Blue Watch».
Jonathan Cherry
© All copyright remains with Jonathan Cherry