After having a meeting with my tutor, I have decided to change my idea. We discussed how my initial idea would not work in the timeframe that we have been given. My idea now is to take photos of a homeless organisation with a food bank, looking into their donations and workers. This still links to the brief, the workers who work at these organisations are volunteers, who provide the homeless and people in poverty with a better future, by feeing them, making sure they have clothes on their back and giving them support and guidance. 

My local food bank was not what I had pictured in my head so I ventured a little further to Brighton, which has the second largest homeless population in England. There were multiple food banks to choose from, I found 5 that I really liked, which I then contacted. Clock Tower Sanctuary got back to me but said they didn't have a food bank they were just a day centre, so I decided to not photograph them for this project, but I could always come back to them next term.

The other charities I have contacted are: Safehaven women, Fareshare, Sussex Homeless Support, Whitehawk and Brighton food bank. 

Safehaven women offers a safe and relaxing space for homeless women. They provide cooked meals, support and activities from their all-female team. They don't have a food bank but I thought this organisation was really interesting.

The next is Fareshare, they provide food to charities that have services such as, meals, support and guidance, to help break the cycle of poverty. They redistribute food which would normally be wasted, to the people that need it the most.

Sussex homeless support, provide support, accommodation and outreach to people suffering housing crisis. They run a Sunday street kitchen where they give out meals, clothes and advice to over 1200 homeless people.

Whitehawk food bank is a project founded by St Cuthmans Church, Emmanuel Church and St Peters Church, working together towards stopping hunger in Whitehawk and the wider East Brighton area.

Brighton food bank is the last one, they provide food, love, essentials and fuel aid. They consider their food bank to be a free food shop, they take their client around and they get to choose what they would like. Supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda and Morrison’s collect food for them. I think anyone of these organisations would be an amazing opportunity to shoot for.

I did find it quite hard trying to find inspiration for this shoot as not many photographers haven’t taken photos of food banks. After doing some thorough research I found Charlie Clift he is a volunteer at the south London food bank warehouse and could not believe the amount of food and essential items that were coming and going each day during lockdown. He wanted to shine a light on what he was seeing while volunteering, so he began photographing the food bank and created some amazing images. The lighting and framing of the images really stuck out to me and is something I want to carry through to my shoot. He has also inspired me to volunteer for one of the food banks.

I also found Kristian Buus, he is a UK based freelance photographer covering social issues and human stories. He has a lot of experience working on sensitive issues, some would consider food banks as part of this. Kristian has done a whole project about food banks in the 21st century, called ‘voices from the vault’ combining both photography and moving image, by interviewing people who have had to use food banks. His photography is more simple but tells a story through each image which is what I would like to do.

This is my mood board which I created when planning for this shoot. Depending on which organisation I choose, the images will look very different. As the safe haven for women doesn't have a food bank, the photos will be of the activities and volunteers. Whereas, the others will be of the donations and food bank. I do really like the images where light is being considered within the warehouse shots, also the images of the volunteers are really powerful because it shows them building a better future for others.

I have sketched out some rough ideas on what kind of shots I would like to get. These include, the warehouse, the food bank, clothing donations, close ups of food boxes, the workers and volunteers. I need 5-10 images, so far I've got 6 vague sketches but will take a lot more when I am there, such as packing a food box delivery and the process they go through.