Rob Clayton is a London based freelance photographer, he prides himself in making great photos and likes to show 'real people' in 'real situations'. The understanding of people and place is important in both his personal and commercial work.
I first came across Clayton's work as I saw an article about youth cultures and a photo from his monograph: 'estate' was used as the title image. I decided the photo was good enough to do some digging and find the full works. The project documents lions farm estate in Oldbury in the early 1990s and I love how raw the project is despite the images having an almost staged feel to them as if each photo was a screen grab from a movie.
The image below was the first photo I saw in this project and it shows a young man and what id assume was his grandma moving furniture in front of the high-rise flats of the estate. The photo itself is quite simple the subjects are in the foreground and the buildings in the background give it the context however what drew me to it was that he is using a wheel barrow to move the things around in, this could show you what it was like being part of the working class and living here in post war Britain without all the comforts we get today like easy access to vans/cars and even hired help.
The photo was shot in natural, overcast light, which is obvious from the lack of shadows as well as the haze in the background. The image was shot with a small aperture as you can still see a lot of detail in the background, the subjects are completely in focus from the front of the wheel barrow, and the background hasn't all just turned to a mushy mess of bokeh.
In this next image you can see a young child hammering a large pile of wood in the foreground, I would assume that this was the start of a bonfire however I'm not quite sure why the boy would be hitting it with a hammer. You can also see some different buildings within the estate in the middle and then those same high-rise flats in the back. This photo is interesting as the subject is the boy in the foreground but the buildings in the middle act as leading lines drawing your attention from the boy up through the image and to the high-rises in the background. The use of 3 subjects works well and It creates almost a triangle in the centre of the frame. Just behind the boy there is a grass verge which appears to be covered in rubbish and there is graffiti on the wall, this tells me that this estate isn't well looked after and that possibly has been forgotten about adding to the rugged and raw feel throughout this project.
Just like the previous image this was shot with a small aperture id say between f11-22 as the image is sharp all the way back. This image appears to be shot in the evening when the sun was low as you can see the highlight in the clouds which is fairly close to the horizon as well as being able to see darker coloured clouds as you get further from the centre, however because of the clouds you don't get much of the golden hour light in the photo and you only really see that light on one of the high-rises in the back, this emphasises that feeling of being forgotten about.
This photo shows what appears to be some kind of park/ urban gym kinda thing with the high rise flats over looking it. There are puddles in the foreground which reflect the building this guides your eye up the building, which is the only vertical element in the frame. the building is also not central in the frame and I think this is so that he could also use the fencing around the park, the equipment, and all the lines of slabs to lead your eye towards that same building. Just like the previous image there are 3 subjects, the main focus being the building but I also think that the 2 bits of play equipment are important as it shows how rugged this estate is and how its just not cared for anymore, this all emphasised by the cracks in the slabs that its built on. This image is the fourth photo in the set and I think it does a good job at setting the scene and mood of the project as it feels stark, bland, and cold which could relate to how the people of Britain felt coming out of the war and trying to settle back into there lives.
Again Clayton has shot this on an overcast day, which makes the colours muted and continues that depressing, forgotten about feeling present throughout this project. it has also been shot with a small aperture to keep everything in focus, just like the other images in this project. The photo is very flat and you don't see much depth, this is down to the light conditions and the small aperture this gives a mundane/humdrum feeling to the estate and could reflect how the people living here feel about the place.
images © Rob Clayton - estate
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