Everyone needs a good quality place to live, and Fabrick Housing Group based in Middlesbrough prides itself on building communities through rental, shared equity and shared ownership. The company manages 15,000 homes, from North Tyneside to York. Fabrick Housing Group includes Erimus Housing and Tees Valley Housing and I’ve worked with them for several years over the north east, so I understand the company’s ethos the community feel it wants from its imagery.
When one of the marketing team, a contact from my days as a press photographer at the Middlesbrough Gazette, rang me to talk about a multiple location commercial photo shoot across Teesside and County Durham, I knew it would be a busy day.
The core of the company’s business is people, so it’s logical that they figure largely in its marketing materials. The photo brief was to produce a set of clean, bright shots to reflect the heart of the business and the diversity of the communities it works in. These were to be added to its photo library and used on the website, for news releases, in newsletters, the annual report and other materials.
To give Fabrick’s graphic designers a free hand with future layouts I planned a series of landscape and portrait formats, giving these additions to Fabrick’s image library maximum flexibility.
Because I’m familiar with Fabrick I had some ideas for the type of shots that would work well. One of the marketing team came out on location with me, which was really useful. As we moved round the sites I was constantly referring to the photo brief and scanning the opportunities for a great photo, while they were highlighting what was important and relevant to the business so we worked well together. As the day progressed I was also able to show them what photographers call back of camera shots so they can see the photo stock we were building up.
It was a full day that saw us travel between Redcar, Stockton on Tees, Middlesbrough and Darlington photographing people and properties, with shots ranging from happy tenants and busy workmen, to a young apprentice on a building site, and senior executives back at headquarters. I’m a big fan of working quickly, with the minimum of fuss, and my style is natural, informal photography.
Speed is a necessity because whatever their role, anyone with a busy job does not want to stop to have their photograph taken! If you are too slow, the subject gets uncomfortable and the picture loses its energy and looks forced. If your subject is a man with a toolbox, you would be very unpopular with the foreman too, who could get twitchy about the time spent holding the job up.
Everyone was very helpful, the weather was kind to us all day and we were able to get all the shots the brief demanded. It was an action-packed day, but once I had processed the images back at my studio, we had a great set of commercial photos that Fabrick can use to show how it is helping to build neighbourhoods and benefit the people at the heart of its communities.
