ESTABLISHING SHOT: a group portrait of two or more members of the family where you are constructing an image that tells a story. This image can be naturally observed or staged. The main focus is conveying a sense of narrative.

Daniel Meadows

Daniel Meadow’s considers himself a documentarist, ‘ I have spent a lifetime recording British society, challenging the status quo by working in a collaborative way to capture extraordinary aspects of ordinary life, principally through photography but also with audio recordings and short movies. ‘ (Meadows https://www.photobus.co.uk/daniel-meadows )

He was born in England, Glouschestire, in 1952 and studied at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970-73. During this time he took photos for June Street Salford and collaborated with a fellow student at the time Martin Parr.

1973-73 he toured England in the PhotoBus running a mobile free portrait. He made a record of this journey in his book Living like this- Around Britain in the Seventies which was published 1975.

Daniel Meadow’s Style

Meadow’s style is very nostalgic and reflects on the passing of time, for example, he did a collection looking at how people have aged, photographing them in the same place. His images in June Street Salford tells a story of a family by how they are positioned and by the items around them, but also the number of people or lack of people in the image. He takes the majority of his images in black and white. His images also comment on the structure of the family at the time with men always standing above the rest of the family or at the center of the image.

Analysis

Technical

The lighting is artificial from the light in the room and light coming from the fireplace. It’s a wide-angled aperture because the items around the family are in focus. I think it was taken with a lower IOS sensitivity because the image isn’t grainy.

Visual

There is no color in this image because it’s been done in black and white. There is a variety of tones, there are some really bright whites on the walls and then the dark couch and carpet which creates a lot of contrast. There’s also a variety of texture in the image like the whool of the carpet juxtaposing with the smooth tile.

Contextual

The image was taken kin 70’s to document homes of the working class. At the time documentary photography was becoming increasingly popular and Meadow’s and Parr were part of a new wave of documentary photographers. Meadows asked the families to pose for the photos.

Conceptual

The idea behind the image was to document working-class family life and to tell the stories of those families. It also comments on the social constructs of the majority of the homes in Britain at the time. Meadows asked the families to pose for the photos, he didn’t direct them. In most of the images from this series, the image depicts a family, always with a man at the center or standing over the rest of the family, with the wife sitting down with the children. The eldest child is standing and any animal is on the floor. They almost show the hierarchy of the family in those days which makes sense because in those days the man was the main provider and main decision-maker of the family and the women were encouraged to sit at home with the children.