Photos featured in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Album 2012 St James’s House, publisher of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Album 2012 and official publishing partner to the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation, approached me last year with an exciting commission that I was very pleased to accept.
This glossy, limited edition book went out to a national and international audience and is designed to mark the Queen’s 60 years as monarch. It details some of the highlights of her reign and celebrates the best of British life, from education and industry to tourism and leisure – in fact every aspect of British society today. St James’s House was looking for a CRB-checked commercial, schools and education photographer in the North East and found me through my website at www.davecharnleyphotography.com.
My task was to visit Excelsior Academy in Denton to the West of Newcastle, to get some lively images of its pupils, who besides studying the traditional curriculum are encouraged to get involved with stimulating outside interests, including putting on art, drama and fashion shows that regularly appear in the North East press. I spent several hours touring the Academy’s classrooms and its impressive facilities, taking unobtrusive, fly-on-the-wall photographic shots of pupils aged from four to 18 getting to grips with the climbing wall and engrossed in their work in the science and music labs and the art classrooms, all of which provided a colourful glimpse into school life.
Having sent the images to St James’s House they replied by return asking me to do two sessions at other North East schools. The first one was on the outskirts of Durham, at the Durham Trinity School and Sports College. This caters for pupils between the ages of two to 19 with a range of special educational needs including moderate learning difficulties, severe learning difficulties, communication disorders including specialist autistic provision and profound and multiple learning difficulties.
This 180-pupil school is an amazing place, full of fun and laughter and I was made to feel very welcome as I quietly worked my way around the campus with my camera, taking pictures of pupils combining learning with simply enjoying themselves. Students take part in a wide range of extra-curricular activities designed to build their self-esteem and confidence, and prepare them for life. The children were happy to join in and soon forgot all about the camera so I could get some natural, uncontrived shots in the craft rooms - where there was some beautifully detailed work on display - in the sensory room and outside in the playground. I was even able to photograph some of the baking sessions in the kitchens, where there was lots of messy fun being had!
My third job took me to Elmore School near Pittington, County Durham. This is a mid 18th century country house, providing a mix of residential and day school for 72 secondary age children with special educational needs. Standing in 40 acres of land its unique approach to promoting healthy living includes horticulture, bee-keeping, mountain-biking and bushcraft, and provided me with some great photo opportunities showing pupils at work.
I think it’s the first time I’ve been quite so close to a swarm of bees with no special suit on – a photographer’s life can be a dangerous one! Inside the school I continued my photographic reportage style approach at a lively band session with some talented young musicians, none of them shy and all of them quickly ready to ignore the man with the camera and get on with making good music.
I love doing this sort of school and college prospectus photography around the north east. It gives me chance to use my skills as a commercial and portrait photographer to put together a set of creative, natural photographs showing happy students in a safe and supportive learning environment, which give readers a snapshot of everything that school or campus life has to offer.
I met some lovely staff and pupils at these fantastic North East schools, and I’m proud that their pictures – and mine - will be seen by the international readers of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Album 2012.
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