Nigel Shafran started his career as a fashion but now focusses on photographing the mundane, and often unnoticed people and parts of society.  I was fascinated by his series Bookshelves, as I felt that each image reflected the character of the owner of that bookshelf.  I would love to have talked to the owners of those bookshelves to see how my interpretation of the images was in line with the owners’ personality.

In his series Washing Up, Shafran created a series of images of the kitchen sink and draining board after the washing up had been done, but with different items on the draining board and different captions describing each scenario.

I addressed the questions in the exercise as follows:

Did it surprise you that this was taken by a man? Why?

No, I was not surprised.  In our culture it is acceptable for both men and women to do the washing up, and he was recording an activity that he would probably have participated in.   Given his style of photography, photographing the mundane, it seems to fit with this series.

In your opinion does gender contribute to the creation of an image?

I do think gender can effect the creation of an image, but I believe it depends on the subject and scenario rather than the abilities of the photographer.  In some situations a female photographer is more likely to be accepted or even unnoticed.  For example,  Doreen Spooner, the first female Fleet Street photographer, was able to take a photograph of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies taking a break from the Old Bailey trial of Stephen Ward in July 1963.  They were sitting near the ladies toilets, and she was able to hide in the ladies and take the photograph unnoticed.  A male photographer would not have had such an opportunity.

Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies were prime press targets during the Old Bailey trial of society osteopath Stephen Ward in July 1963

Spooner was able to snap Keeler and Rice-Davies at a pub in Holborn by hiding in the ladies’ loo. ‘I put the door ajar and stuck the camera through it,’ she recalled. ‘My heart was in my mouth as it was very dingy in there… I developed them and what a relief when I saw they’d come out.’ The shot was splashed on the front page.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/photos/the-pictures-of-doreen-spooner-a-life-through-the-lens/ss-BBWjT8J#image=2 [accessed 21/5/2020]

What does this series achieve by not including people?

In his series Washing up, Shafran achieves anonymity by not including people.  Most people at some time in their lives will have to do washing up in some form or other, regardless of their culture, ethnicity or gender.  By not including people, he has reinforced this as a multicultural, multi ethnic and non gender specific activity.

Do you regard them as interesting “still life” compositions?

I think that had Shafran omitted the captions, they would be less interesting, but by adding the captions he has brought the compositions to life. It makes them intimate and personal. Unfortunately I was unable to find the whole set of images where the captions were included, but the example shown in the course text does show how the captions describe the scenarios.