Revisiting Some Well Known Totnes Characters

We bumped into Vanessa Griffith’s website and discovered a wealth of great photography featuring local citizens that many will know or remember – we thought we’d ask some questions…

What got you started on the photographic path?
As a child, my father would often mention that when he was growing up, his mother would share with him, her interest in photography and early black and white cinema. Whenever possible she would take him to screenings in Torquay, the town to which they moved in 1918, leaving London behind and the after-effects of the Great War.

My father gave me my first camera when I was about ten years old, a Kodak Brownie 44A, together with a yellow filter and some black and white film. I became ‘hooked’ on photography from that day and still have some of the prints.
My father was an excellent amateur photographer preferring to use colour transparency film. When the processed film was returned to him in the post, he would sit and meticulously cut up the film and mount each frame in a slide mount in preparation for a family slide show using his Leitz slide projector and a large screen. Those slide shows became very much part of family life. I have my father’s slide collection which dates back to the early 1950s, and I am still in the process of producing high-res scans of much of his work. One of the greatest advantages of transparency film is that it doesn’t fade, not like colour negative so these family slides are as fresh in colour as the day they were captured.

What’s your view on digital photography and the proliferation of phone cameras?
Throughout my childhood and teenage years, and then on into adulthood, I took photographs. When the digital age struck, I had little interest, although camera phones did become addictive with the instant production of photographs, compared to the long task of processing and printing black and white film. When I came to study photography at what was then Plymouth College of Art and Design (now Arts University Plymouth), I learned how to process and print colour film, but my heart was never in it, mainly due to the challenges of having to work completely in the dark whilst controlling the time and use of the film processing tanks as well. Seconds and minutes had to be counted, and my mind tended to wander off which was disastrous!

After a BTEC National Diploma in Photography and Design, I went on to complete an HND and then progressed to gain a BA Hons in Media and Photography, whilst also gaining my PQE (Professional Qualifying Exam). During my study years (1990-95), the teaching was 100% film based with digital coming in shortly after my graduation. I saw many ‘pros’ and ‘cons’, the first being the excitement of being able to produce instant images. However, the greatest disadvantage appeared to be that many students tended to bypass the need to understand the relationship between film speeds, apertures, shutter speeds, and the focal length of lenses. This resulted in vast numbers of photographs being taken and then tweaked in imaging processing software like PhotoShop, without a basic understanding of the fundamentals of photography.

So you’ve taught the subject at Arts University Plymouth – I’m guessing you enjoy passing on the skills and techniques?
In 1997, I was invited back to the college to teach with the offer of studying for my teacher training qualification in-house. I remained in that teaching post across both Higher and Further Education until 2014 when I took early retirement. My specialist area was black and white film processing and printing, specialist printing and toning techniques and discussing with students, ideas on how best to present their work for their Final Major Projects. I loved witnessing how students developed their own camera and printing skills and went on to produce some outstanding work over the two years of their programme of study. Many went on to become highly successful in their future photographic careers but that wasn’t all down to my teaching as I worked within a team and a fine one at that. I didn’t get involved with digital teaching/image editing or studio work. I’m still in touch with quite a few of the students – one of the advantages of social media!

You have a lot of images of Ireland – are you particularly drawn there?
It was in 1985, that I first visited Southern Ireland on the recommendation of an elderly friend. I had at that time, just received a £500 inheritance from my uncle which I chose to spend on a medium-format second-hand Pentax 67, three lenses, some filters, an exposure meter and a Benbo tripod. The same friend had recommended that I read HV Morton’s classic book In Search of Ireland first published in 1930. This writer so captured the essence of this magical land, that before I even set foot on its soil, I felt myself becoming drawn into the nature of its people, the folk lore, the history, their lives of struggle and hardship … and the beauty of its landscape.
I’ve made four trips over there so far and have seen many changes with insensitive building in what I term areas of outstanding natural beauty and the inevitable creeping-in of commercialism and the upsurge in the leisure and tourism industry. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have visited Southern Ireland as it was all those years ago. I wonder if you can still see hayricks in the fields and spot donkeys being taken out with creels on their backs for the collection of peat for home use on fires during the cold winter months …

Do you have a home developing studio?
For many years, I had my own darkroom which was superbly equipped with all I needed including a freestanding commercial sink designed for its purpose of holding large trays, an enlarger capable of printing from 35mm up to 5/4, print washers and driers and all the other regalia I had collected over the years much of it given to me by friends and contacts.

Do you use different techniques for differing styles of imagery?
It’s true that my approach to my own portrait photography does vary depending on whom I’m photographing. Some photographers have a very clear and steadfast style, but I wandered around with my printing techniques. Occasionally, I would fix a soft-focus filter below the enlarging lens, some prints I would sepia or selenium tone and others I would Lith-print. This latter technique tends to result in each print being slightly different from the one produced before. It’s not a very straightforward method of printing as it requires over-exposing the print and then developing it in the tray until the exact moment the blacks start to appear. Then there’s no time for a stop bath, as the still-developing print needs to be placed in the fix immediately to halt the formation of the ‘blacks’.
Sadly, a few years ago I had to sell off my darkroom equipment which is a loss to this day. I simply didn’t have space for one after downsizing.

What inspired you to do the Totnes Portraits?
I’ve been asked many times as to my rationale for whom I chose to photograph for my Totnes series. Quite simply, there never was one! One local person would suggest somebody to me and then another would be mentioned so that’s the path I took. I’ve always been impulsive and that’s how I worked with these local portraits.
If any reader has an update of any of the Totnes people I photographed and their biographies, then please get in touch with me via my website.

[Top image is Alec Coles – Cobbler in the Narrows in 1993]

Vannessa’s Website: https://www.vanessagriffith.com