Martin Parr's rural communities series of photographs taken from 1975 to 1982 looked at what we know as traditionally British in and around the northern town of Hepden Bridge where he lived. I went to visit my family who live in the town of Colne last week, which is only a few miles from Hepden bridge so I decided to explore the town of Colne and do some street photography in an attempt to represent this rural community. Being such a small place there were very few people around to get some more typical street photography however I think the photos I've taken represent this community well in the way I've shown the very traditional Lanchashire buildings and cobbled streets with things like rubbish among them, for me this represents this standing still that places like this are. Many young people move away from these places, as there are very few job and educational oppotunities and places like mills and mines are no longer a main source of employment for the community like they were fifty years ago.
These black and white photos are of a mill that is currently being demolished. My grandma and most other young girls fifty years ago would have been sent to a mill like this to work for very little. My grandma worked in this particular mill and told me about how much she used to hate working there. To me this is street photography because it really defines communities like this. Hundreds of people would have worked in this mill decades ago and now it is abandoned and being destroyed.
Through taking these photos I've learnt more about how I can use street photography to communicate more than what is directly in front of you. After doing this I definitely want to go out around my city and try taking more photos with lots of people in them to experiment with different techniques and composition.
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