Richard is studying BA Hons in Lens Based Media, a three-year degree course he enrolled in following retirement.
While studying from home, in the village of Caythorpe, during the current coronavirus restrictions, he decided to use the time to capture his local community by taking doorstep portraits of people – an idea he wasn’t sure would take off at first.
But an initial post on Facebook, asking for volunteers to come forward, saw nine people agree to have their portraits taken and the number of people wanting to take part has snowballed, with Richard so far capturing 150 photos of people in his village.
“The photos could not have gone down better. My original target was 10 per cent of the village, which would have amounted to 56. And then one of the local pubs asked if I could photograph them - the chefs and the staff outside the pub – and then I thought I can do the shops, the surgery – so I’ve now done 150 – about 25 per cent of the village.”
Richard has also taken portraits of people at farms, businesses, allotments and at the local doctor’s surgery, all taken from a distance to adhere to the coronavirus social distancing restrictions and he says it’s helped him meet people from the village he’d not really met before.
“Out of the first 50 families I photographed, I’d met two of them, so it’s helped bring people together – and people have told me they’re rekindled friendships through social media because of the project.”
Richard, who is the official photographer for the Starring Lincoln Theatre Group and also covered The World Transplant Games last year, hopes to put together a book featuring the photos and plans to exhibit them. The images will also form part of his final project at the end of his degree course.
“I’ll be taking my last image this Sunday (May 10) and I’ll give myself a week to assemble and edit the book before printing. So far I have had around 110 orders in for it.”
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