Ciara Leeming - words, photos and multimedia

Homelands

Ciara — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:02:20 +0000

After a properly quiet January in which I’ve barely touched my camera, it feels like things are starting to shift again.

I’m delighted to have learned today that I have been awarded a Homelands commission by Newcastle’s highly respected Side Gallery, to help me expand my Roma photography project into the North East over the coming months. I’m starting to make links with people who work with Roma migrants elsewhere too, and I still intend to continue my collaboration with Ramona as and when the opportunity arises.

Also I’m flattered and really quite nervous to be talking about my photography to South Manchester Camera Club on Monday Feb 13th (8pm, Didsbury Methodist Church, £2 non-members). Please be kind!

Inside the mind of a dementia patient

Ciara — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:51:29 +0000

more here

chicken cab

Ciara — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:03:47 +0000

I’m selecting images for a talk I’m doing at a camera club in a few weeks time. This one always makes me smile.

Good morning 2012

Ciara — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:30:57 +0000

Roma Christmas, Manchester.

“I think it’s simply beautiful and just goes to show what can happen when people start to write their own story, both for real and on the page.” Jake Bowers, English Romani journalist and broadcaster

So, the MA is done, Christmas is over and we’re well into the new year. 2012…where did that come from? The past month or so has been the kind of hectic where you have little to show for it, plus some much needed rest, recuperation and family time. I’ve had lots of lovely feedback about Elvira and Me, my collaboration with Ramona, which has been viewed more than 1,100 times in less than two months. Many people seem to have read it cover to cover, which is amazing. I’ve been thinking hard about where to go with this work – the problem with creating a book is that mentally it feels like a project is finished, even as someone’s life and struggles go on and the desire to document them continues. Ramona has become a close friend though so I think our collaboration will continue – albeit at a more sedate pace – as long as she wants it to. Perhaps the project will be expanded to look at other Roma migrants, possibly using a different approach to the photography, or perhaps not. Time will tell and much will depend on funding. So now comes the time to start taking photos again and building up my freelance business, after two quite intense but highly worthwhile years of study. Am I more photographer or more writer? I’m still not really sure, but maybe that question doesn’t matter as much as I used to think.

Oops. Belated Derker Streetfighters update.

Ciara — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:33:38 +0000

Forgot to post this when it was published. The corpse of Pathfinder continues to twitch in many areas of northern England. And my Streetfighters project also limps on.

Elvira eBook

Ciara — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:57:19 +0000

Elvira and Me is now available as an eBook for iPads and iPhones, via Blurb.

Participatory budgeting

Ciara — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:46:05 +0000

“An awful, needless and desperately sad situation”

Ciara — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:40:20 +0000

Pinhole day

Ciara — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:11:05 +0000

Just as something completely different, I spent yesterday on a ‘make your own 10×8 pinhole camera’ workshop at Liverpool’s new Open Eye gallery, organised by Redeye. For me the whole pinhole thing – like much of lo-fi camera fashion – can sometimes veer into the territory of naffness, but I loved Tom Hunter’s use of the technique in his Prayer Places and Bathing Places series, and I’ve always quite fancied having a go. Whether I have the patience to really experiment with the technique – yesterday’s exposures were in the order of 10-15 minutes in the freezing cold – or the money to play about with 5×4 or 10×8 negs which cost a few quid each even before processing, only time will tell. An interesting day though.

Elvira and Me – final

Ciara — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:20:42 +0000

So. It’s over. I’ve submitted all my MA work and now just need to physically hand my book in on Monday. Most importantly for me though, this afternoon I’ve given Ramona her hardback copy – which I wanted to do before I shared it online. The reaction was very positive and I am so glad I had the project translated into Romanian (cu multe mulţumiri Daniel şi Dorothea!) because members of her family were immediately able to check it out for themselves…who knows, maybe they will learn something about her.
But now I’m doing that thing which I so often do with my own work – I’m mentally over it before I’ve even showed it to anyone. The dissemination part is something I am fairly weak at, since if I’m honest I shoot/cover stories primarily to indulge my own curiosity. I stick things on my blog and show them to the few colleagues I know well but beyond that am never quite sure what to do with my personal work. Anyway I think this is actually the first time that I’ve been truly proud of a body of work, and I finally feel I’m really saying something worthwhile – no doubt because this project is a collaboration – all I’ve done in this case is act as facilitator, supporting someone else to represent themselves. I intend this to be the start of a larger body of work on the UK’s new Roma communities.

Please check out my book layout.

If viewing on Issuu is a problem, you can download the low-res pdf from here.

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A couple of short clips of Ramona talking can be seen below – she has such an amazing voice that it seems criminal not to share her words. These are not part of my MA submission….

and