David Severn

David Severn is a 21 year old photographer from Nottingham, and came in to talk to us about his work. He showed us his project 'Thanks Maggie (2012)' consisting of 20 images, and each of the images he showed he could tell us a little story behind them. These two images were in his Thanks Maggie project  and are two that stood out to me.


David Coleman;

The first one of the man from the mines really stands out to me because of his eyes. Although the man in dirty his eyes look extremely clear and troubled. The story David told about this photograph was that he met the man in a cafe and they sat talking, the man told him about an explosion down the mines where a man got injured and was told he wouldn't walk or talk again. This happened to be the man he was speaking to, that he took this photo of. The expression on the mans face I feel is very powerful. This was taken on a medium format camera.


This image stands out to me more after David told us the story behind it. The man in this photograph is sat in a busy bingo hall with a beer, playing alone. David actually spoke to the man and found out that he had been coming here for years, but unfortunately his wife had recently died and this was a something they did together, so he keeps up the tradition of going to play bingo, alone. Once you know the story of this image I think it allows you to appreciate it more, as you can see straight away that the man looks sad and lonely, and now you know why. I feel this image has questions popping up in my head after knowing the story behind it. Why is this man sat alone in such a busy hall? Does he want to be alone? How is he feeling? Is he alone every time he comes here? - The image is a very powerful image alone, without actually knowing the background of this man. It isn't forced or set up, and with the old man being the only person in focus in such a busy hall you can help but keep looking at him.