Zed Nelson

I have decided that I'm going to do a project on Freedom of Speech, and photograph events that relate to this title in a documentary/ portraiture way. This is because for any event, to get the best understanding of it you need to photograph it in a photojournalist/ documentary technique, but also after my last project on Cultural Diversity in Manchester in which I really enjoyed taking portraits as well, I've decided to include these into my project as well.

Zed Nelson is a London based photographer, who has done a few documentary/ portraiture projects. His project that I will be focusing on in relation to my work is titled 'Gun Nation', which 'explores the paradox of why America's most potent symbol of freedom is also one of its greatest killer- resulting in an annual death toll of almost 30,000 American citizens.'

I think Nelson's Gun Nation is a really good example of the kind of thing I want to recreate, but where as his images are taken over a few months. Mine will be taken over one day, but from different angles and compositions, which hopefully result in the viewer getting the whole picture of the story. As you can see from the photograph to my left, he's taken portraits of his subjects but inside their natural surroundings. So like what I did for my last project, he just stopped then mid what they were doing for a photograph, but he didn't change their environment or actions which would make the image unnatural. I'm going to use this technique at the Peace Procession, of capturing portraits.

This image shows part of Nelson's project in which he walked around a gun show in America. This image as you can see has been taken without the subjects knowing. This means that the moment stays exactly the way it was, without any of the subjects changing what they're doing for the camera, which would result in the moment changing.
Like the portraits, I also hope to capture candid documentary photographs at the event, because they will represent the general feel and mood of the day, and go alongside the portraits which focus just on the people. These candid photographs will represent to the viewer what the area they are processioning in looks like, aka it will give them more visual information about the event so they get a better more detailed understanding of whats going on there.

This final image of Nelson's represents his close up images, in this case its a close up of pick n mix ammunition. The close ups fit in between the candid and portrait images, which I think increases the viewers awareness of what the project is about. It also highlights to the viewer certain details that would not have the same affect if he captured them from afar.










These three different techniques of shooting can be displayed following each other and this results in the viewer coming away with a very detailed understanding of the event that just happened. This understanding would not be as much if he just shot in one technique, aka candid or close up. This technique is also very popular for books, because again it represents the whole event from all photographic angles, giving the viewer a very detailed view. I'm going to try and use these techniques in my shoot at the peace procession.