This edition is the final edition with Nick Hodgson FRPS as our Decisive Moment editor. As ever, it is excellent. I’d like to start by thanking Nick for his contribution as our Decisive Moment editor and as a Distinctions assessor. Nick will be succeeded by Wayne Richards who is moving over from his current social media role to take on the DM Editor role.
Thank you!
Our summer 2025 edition includes an In Focus feature on the work of the prolific Simon Street FRPS. We have two successful Documentary Distinction panels from Yizhen Zhang FRPS and Roy Brown ARPS. There is work from two Members - Arunanjan Saha and Ray Hobbs and the work of final year Student Lilah Culliford, who received membership via our UAL LCC Documentary Award.
Once again the work published shows the diversity and opportunities. This edition covers work on political elections, migration, crafts (hand made bikes), making pashminas, a local upholstery business and sibling relationships. Local businesses and activities provide plenty of opportunity to do more than just simply document, but also to tell a story.
An important reminder that our RPS Documentary Photography Awards (DPA) are now open for submissions. Entries close on 1 September at midnight. We are looking for documentary projects with between 10 and 15 images. Members and Student entry is free. You can also enter more than once (up to three entries) and in more than one category.
Our local groups are continuing to put local events on but many would love to see more participate. Check out the local organisers on our About Us page and get in contact with them.
Our next Engagement Talk is with Janine Wiedel on 16 October. We are looking to book more speakers and will update the Documentary Events page shortly.
We are looking to fill a number of volunteer roles to help us put activities on. We currently have a need for people with:
• website and social media skills,
• event organisation (i.e. putting on talks), and
• publicity and fundraising to support our next touring exhibition.
If you can help with any of these please contact me at doc@rps.org.
Mark A Phillips FRPS Chair, Documentary Group
The Documentary Group Team
Documentary Group Committee:
Chair: Mark A Phillips FRPS doc@rps.org
Secretary: Nick Linnett LRPS docsecretary@rps.org
Finance Officer: Andrew Burton ARPS docfinance@rps.org
Members: Valerie Mather ARPS, Harry Hall FRPS, Wayne Richards, Nick Hodgson FRPS Dave Thorp, Neil Cannon
Local Group Organisers:
East Midlands: Volunteer Required docem@rps.org
South East: Jeff Owen ARPS docse@rps.org
Northern: Peter Dixon ARPS docnorthern@rps.org
Thames Valley: Philip Joyce FRPS doctv@rps.org
Central (with Contemporary): Steff Hutchinson ARPS
North West (with Contemporary): Alan Cameron
Yorkshire: Graham Evans LRPS docyork@rps.org
Southern: Christopher Morris ARPS docsouthern@rps.org
East Anglia: Richard Jeffries docea@rps.org
Scotland (with Contemprary et al): Steve Whittaker email Steve Whittaker
To support the RPS Strategic Plan Photography for Everyone 2021-2026 and to enhance the relevance for Documentary Photography by engaging more diverse audiences and ensuring our activities self-fund.
Inspiration – showcase inspiring photography and to shed new light on subjects of importance
These activities are focussed around showcasing and celebrating high quality photographic work and thinking:
Engagement talks
The Decisive Moment
Documentary Photography Awards (DPA)
DPA touring exhibition
Skills and Knowledge – encouraging a deeper understanding of photography and providing resources for photographic education and Recognition (such as distinctions and awards)
To develop the range and reach of our educational activities. We want to help photographers develop their practice, and also educate non-photographers about what is current in documentary photography:
Workshops
Engage university courses
Resources and support individual development
Distinction support
Community – promote belonging and inclusivity, by supporting and engaging widely
To engage with more people and connect with other communities, including those who are not photographers, to appreciate the value of documentary photography:
Work with groups outside RPS
Regional and local activities
Website and social media
Online competition
Newsletter
The Documentary Group is run by RPS members who volunteer their time. If you can help in any capacity, please email Mark using doc@rps.org to let him know.
rps.org/groups/documentary/about-us
In Focus
Simon Street FRPS in conversation with with Nick Hodgson FRPS
In 2016, London-based Simon Street bought his first digital camera and started evening classes. He used the RPS Distinctions pathway as a way of developing his own monochrome style. He blames the Covid pandemic for the solitary confinement that fed his creative bursts in abstracts, and later, in people. A fellow of the RPS, he now judges at camera clubs in the Southeast of England and is an assessor for the RPS Applied and Documentary genres. His passion is now in building his portfolio of eBooks.
Simon is a member of the Richmond & Twickenham Photographic Society in Southwest London, a society with a rich heritage and a number of RPS members. He has been invited to show his work at their annual exhibition this autumn, showing a ‘signature section’ of twenty of his images from his recent work on the UK and US 2024 elections.
Earlier this month Decisive Moment Editor Nick Hodgson FRPS caught up with Simon over a coffee at The Photographers’ Gallery in central London to discuss his recent work.
Clacton Comrades Club. Can I have a photo of you with the hammer outside, I asked. “What f****** hammer?”, she replied.
NH: Simon, thank you for chatting to Decisive Moment. It’s a great pleasure to be able to talk with you and discuss your work on two of the key elections that took place in 2024 – the UK General Election in July, and the US Presidential election last November. How did this all come about?
SS: There were significant democratic elections held around the world in 2024. I’d lived in the US for a long time, and I was also intrigued by UK politician Nigel Farage and his connections with Donald Trump, even though I’m not a fan of their politics, so it just seemed too good an opportunity to miss. The moment Farage decided to stand as a candidate for the Clacton-on-Sea constituency in Essex, I realised there was an opportunity. And in the US, I felt the controversy around the 2020 Presidential election result meant that the 2024 was going to be fascinating. So I decided to go to Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Texas and New Mexico, due to it being a key ‘swing state’. I knew I wasn’t going to get the access to Trump that I was able to get with Farage, but I realised the project could look at the people impacted, balancing pure political content with the local stakeholders, the voters. I was in the US for three days before and three days after election day, so I was going right into the eye of the needle. And in the Texas pan-handle, there was extensive poverty with all its associated politics.
NH: Clacton-on-Sea is one of the most deprived towns in the southern half of England, so there was a resonance with what you found in Texas.
SS: Absolutely. Clacton was for many years a ‘right-wing’ constituency, although there was irony in that the level of local distrust for Farage was huge. The voters wanted his policies but not the individual. They were torn between no-one else looking after them from a political agenda perspective, with a candidate who, if elected, they felt would hardly ever visit them and serve them as constituents. It’s a very impoverished town, with some of the areas I visited being the scariest reactions I’ve ever had, including receiving threats. In the image I took of the woman in the front garden, she thought I was from the council and was checking up on her. She then asked me if I was going up the road to make more photographs. I said yes, at which point she told me not to do it, as then did her neighbour. So I heeded their advice! The body language of some of the locals was aggressive to say the least.
NH: Both Clacton and Atlanta were potentially hostile environments. You wanted to make the work so how did you go about it?
SS: I carefully asked around first, to find out where the best areas were to go, with varying degrees of danger. So the first priority was and is always personal safety. Then the photographic challenge was how to be discrete. I mainly use a Ricoh GR3, a very small 24mp camera with a 28mm lens with amazing depth of field and up to ISO16000, with which I could go into most areas and come out with photographs, even in very dark rooms. These were not places to take my Fuji XH2! But I always talk to the people I come across first and then start to shoot. I always talk to them first. Generally speaking, Democrat voters were more prepared to chat than Republicans. I think this was because the vote was neck and neck at one stage, and Republican voters were generally very guarded.
NH: So your skill was to ensure that your images don’t look staged.
SS: No, no, never staged. That wouldn’t work. Stylistically I’m having a conversation with them, eye to eye. But I’d try to get them to be engaging with the camera lens and not me. I started to shoot onehanded with the Ricoh at waist level, migrate to my chest, then to my shoulder, but never to covering my eyes. I never lose eye contact, always talking with a free hand for open body language. And this seems to work really well.
NH: How much research and planning did you do for both Clacton and the US?
SS: Clacton was easy. I’d often jump into a taxi and ask the driver how long they’d lived in the area. The usual answer was “since I was a boy”, which immediately meant they could show me the gritty areas from the secure environment of a car. I was taken into the most dangerous parts of town, whereupon one time we came across Nigel Farage campaigning in the street. I managed to hop out, approach him and shake his hand, simultaneously firing off frames.
For the US I joined the Atlanta Photographic Society and emailed them with my plans. I got overwhelming support from a number of their members, meeting up over coffee, getting advice on where and where not to go. I had a 60-point checklist of locations to visit but even with a hire car I couldn’t cover every place. I realised there was no way I’d get decent access to Trump at the rallies he was speaking at, so I decided to concentrate on the local election events, the candidates, campaigners and voters.
NH: Apart from personal safety, what were the biggest challenges you faced?
SS: Getting press passes in both the UK and US took weeks of persistence but I got there in the end. Secondly, because I wanted
something different from what the press core was shooting, I’d try and get inside information. For instance, I talked to Farage’s bodyguards, who gave me a heads-up on where he was going to appear, which the press didn’t actually know. So I was inside his security cordon for some of the images.
NH: To paraphrase Robert Capa’s famous saying, if you didn’t get the shot, then you weren’t close enough.
SS: Absolutely! It was only achieved because I tried to get along with the security detail, who just about tolerated me! It is challenging to go up to senior politicians and bluff it, but I managed to pull it off.
NH: The image of Richard Tice is very impressive. (shown on the outside back cover).
SS: Thank you. I wanted the image to show the view from inside the camera eyepiece and managed to pull it off.
NH: Looking back on your images from these two elections, what gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction?
SS: I’m most proud of getting so close to Farage, and the way I earned trust from some of the locals. They were keen to point out that they are not all racists in Clacton, a narrative that was being popularised by the tabloid press. In the US, my image of the woman crying fills me with pride. She was crying over the result, crying for the future of her life, crying for her country. I still find it very moving.
NH: We’ve talked a bit about the technical side of things. How did you go about post-production?
SS: Pushing ISO12000 means I needed some help with noise. I use a DXO plug-in to take some noise out although you’ve got to be careful with the impact on skin tones. I convert to monochrome in Lightroom. There’s more information about this on my website.
NH: And why monochrome?
SS: Because I see things mainly in shapes. I find colour distracts compositions. For me colour adds no value. I also have a low understanding of how to process colour. So it’s always monochrome for me.
NH: And what’s up next?
SS: I’ve just finished a book called Coastlanders, which is a project on the people living along the coast of Southern England. There is plenty of documentary material as perhaps surprisingly there are some towns with a lot of poverty, suffering from austerity and socioeconomic decline. It’s a big subject. So I spent time in places like
Worthing which is rich in photographic material. And I’m now working on a project on dilapidated seaside hotels with the name ‘Grand’ in them.
NH: The Grand Atlantic Hotel in Weston-Super-Mare, for example?
SS: Well done, that’s on my list! I’m interested in both the Victorian architecture and the residents.
NH: And you’re now preparing for the exhibition in September.
SS: Yes, I’ve just finished the printing, which I do myself. A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, but it’s not worth two thousand words. So I found that, by writing a proper caption for each image, I can tell the viewer what the images can’t do on their own. I’m contextualising the image, which I enjoy doing.
NH: One final question. What’s your advice to anyone reading this interview, working or thinking about working on a new project?
SS: My top learning point over the years is that it is really important to go back to same location time and time again. So, for example, I went to Clacton nine times in just over three weeks. I shoot lots but few images make the cut, a bit like Martin Parr. And my other tip is ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’, as the old adage goes. Doing the research, and asking questions, is key.
Richmond & Twickenham Photographic Society’s annual exhibition, featuring Simon’s work, will be held at the Landmark Arts Centre in Teddington, Middlesex, from 27 September to 5 October 2025.
Everyone likes a happy ending. This Clacton Scrap Yard at dusk seemed to say far more about the UK (and its potential saviours) than was ever intended.
It is the middle of the night in downtown Atlanta. A man at a tram stop with a joint seemed oblivious to the frantic call for early voting. The Democrats, in particular, were concerned that voter apathy could be decisive. Many of the less well-off people I met seemed to believe the election would do nothing for them.
Richard Tice, Reform Party Chairman, announces entry to the race. I love the energy of the image and his mirror on the video screen.
10:00 on election day and the key district of Fulton County, Georgia is briefing the local and international media. The TV presenter on the right asked, “Is it true there were 5 bomb alerts at voting stations this morning?” The official (far left), nervous as hell, stepped up to the microphone, looked down and then after a dramatic pause whispered, “Yes Sir.” The press cleared the room within 60 seconds – they had their election story.
This friendly woman was explaining her neighbourhood. “Don’t go down there. It is full of ruffians,” she said.
In the Texas pan-handle, this Republican campaign manager wanted to show her high street office. 80% of the shops in the town were gone. I enquired what she thought the voting was like around here? “95% Republican”, she replied.
“So why do you need a shop?” I unhelpfully asked
This solitary man in a Clacton café seemed troubled. He looked down, stressed, miles away, time to kill.
This Hispanic woman in Santa Rosa (a town past its best), New Mexico looked lost in thought surrounded by an almost empty Tex-Mex diner. I thought the late afternoon sun through the blinds added drama to her face.
This Reform Party campaigner was just 18 – their youngest. I asked what he thought was at the root of the local immigration issue. “Money,” he said.
Georgia Union
Democrat campaigner did not stop singing and dancing for 12 hours on election day. Her commitment and joy was infectious. The cars behind her were hooting their support.
This
City
The Salvation Army are very active in Clacton. I was intrigued by the idea of a ‘Messy Church’ and the way the baby is staring at me.
New Mexico two weeks before the election. Here there is a strong history of immigration (a massive election issue) from the Mexican border. I found it very moving that in this Hispanic corner of a cemetery, the families had chosen to fly the starspangled banner. The pride in their adopted country seemed palpable.
Farage’s Security detail had decided it was time to leave the Electoral Count. As they escorted him at speed past me, I turned to grab this image of them.
06:00 Jackson Georgia the day after the election – a diner. The Sheriffs (above right) were having breakfast. I sat next to them. I asked about the result. “Thank God that Harris women didn’t win,” the Sheriff told me. Below, the residents on the other tables ate in silence despite it being a Republican stronghold.
Clacton
looked thrilled as Farage was announced as winner. Look at the relative volumes of votes in the 2
These
Ballot Counters
crates – Farage vs Watling the Conservative candidate.
This election day voting queue in Union City seemed more like a supermarket check-out. No emotion. No hints of voting intention. No arguments with neighbours. Only detachment. Despite the clear black demographic seen here, the outcome was far closer than the pollsters had forecast. Harris was accused of taking the black community – notably women – for granted.
Clacton. It struck me as brave for these two women to adhere to their faith, culture and dress in a town so troubled by immigration.
The day after the election – Griffin, Georgia. This family sat outside the voting centre as the officials cleared the rooms back to normal use. I asked, “What do you think about the result last night?” She looked at me. “Oh I don’t know,” she said looking downward. As her tears started, she looked sharply away as you see in my image. I lowered the camera. The family sat in silence, doubtless hating my question.
I shake Farage’s hand as a way to get in close. He was in the poorest suburb. As I ran to him, his security team had clocked me quickly.
This homeless Atlanta man walked slowly past me with a polite nod of the head. He was killing the night. The comparison of the frivolity of the advertisement on the right set against the depth of his social predicament on the left, seemed ironic.
Yizhen Zhang FRPS
Documentary Fellowship Panel
Statement of Intent
Win or Lose documents the life of Win Tang, a Chinese immigrant who arrived in the U.S. alone at 15, seeking a better future. A decade later, he is confined— trapped by language barriers, legal entanglements, and a system that placed him under house arrest after a friend’s scheme framed him. His world is reduced to a handful of spaces: the barbershop where he works, the church where he rests, his small bedroom where he spends restricted hours from 8 PM to 8 AM, and the metros that define his daily routine.
This series confronts the quiet weight of isolation and endurance, reveals an immigrant life shaped by forces beyond control, where survival is resilience. These images do not dramatize but bear witness—to those made invisible, navigating a system that refuses to see them. Win or Lose is more than a title—it questions whether survival should define victory.
Many congratulations on becoming a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. Tell us a bit about yourself and your photographic practice, and where you are based.
I was born in 1997 in Hangzhou, China. I studied both Economics and Fine Arts at the University of Miami, and later received my MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York. I’m currently based in both New York City and the Bay Area, San Francisco.
For me, photography has always been about proximity - not just physical closeness, but emotional presence. I’m drawn to working outdoors, to documenting the world as it is, and to finding moments of quiet humanity within it. I see documentary photography as the soul of the medium.
In an age where attention feels fleeting and genuine connection requires more time and intention than most are willing to give, I still believe in slowing down. In listening. In showing up with a camera not just to capture, but to witness. Even when I work in more commercial spaces - street fashion or street weddings - I carry this approach with me. I believe every frame has the potential to hold a story, and I try to let that depth surface through the image.
Your panel was about confinement, isolation and endurance. Why did you choose Win Tang as your subject-matter and how did you go about making the project and gaining access to his life?
I met Win by chance, during my first month in New York. I was looking for a Chinese barber, and someone mentioned the shop where he worked. I walked in without an appointment and was pointed to a tattooed barber named Win. That simple haircut turned into a long conversation, and over time, into an unlikely friendship between a barber and his client.
Win’s life is largely invisible to the public eye. He spends nearly all of his time between his bedroom, the barbershop, and the Q88 bus or 7 train in Queens. He’s a 25-year-old Chinese immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a teenager, carrying his family’s American dream on his shoulders. But that dream fractured. A year ago, he became entangled in a fraud case and now lives under electronic monitoring. His movements are restricted, and he has no legal support worth speaking of. His family back in China knows nothing.
We’re the same age, speak the same language, and come from the same country. But the lives we’ve led in America couldn’t be more different. What drew me to this story wasn’t just our contrast, but the small, quiet strength in how Win continues on. His routine might seem limited, but his inner world is dense, with resignation, resilience, and a kind of unspoken grace.
Yizhen
At one point, he told me that if things got worse, he’d consider ending his life. That moment changed something in me. It became clear that this project wasn’t just about documenting someone, it was about witnessing him and offering that witness as a form of care. I never approached Win as a subject, I approached him as a person. And I think that’s why he let me in.
What were the biggest challenges you faced making this work?
The greatest challenge was emotional. This entire series of over sixty photographs, curated down to 21 for my F panel, was created without a single staged moment or artificial light source. Every image was shaped solely by the light that already existed in the space. I didn’t try to manipulate it. I simply tried to find the angle where I felt truth revealed itself most clearly.
Over time, Win stopped being just someone I photographed. He became a fixture in my life, someone I shared meals with, wandered the city with (where allowed), spoke to more often than some of my oldest friends. That closeness was never something I took for granted. I approached him with sincerity, and he, slowly, allowed me into his world. The trust we built became the invisible foundation of every frame. And perhaps that’s why I’ve never released the full scope of this work - not the complete set of photographs, nor the photobook and documentary film, both of which, depending on how Win’s court case is resolved, I may choose to release in due course. But for now, it remains something closed, unfinished in a way, just like his story.
Even though the project has received recognition internationally, and with my successful F panel submission, I’ve always held it back. Because I never made it to be seen in the way most things are. It was never about turning someone’s story into my own success, it was about showing that someone like Win - a man living in a small, rented room, caught between systems, languages, and versions of home - is worth seeing in full.
The real challenge, then, was knowing where to draw the line. How to honour his dignity while being honest about his reality. How to reveal what needed to be shown, without crossing into what should remain private.
I’m not the kind of photographer who believes the end justifies the means. A strong documentary image, to me, is not one taken at any cost, but one built on mutual regard, where the subject’s humanity and the photographer’s perspective coexist. And maybe more importantly, this isn’t my story. I’m a witness, not a narrator. I didn’t want to manipulate the viewer’s emotions or lead them to a preconceived conclusion. What I hoped for was a space, quiet but charged, where people could come and make their own interpretations - where empathy is earned, not prescribed; where Win can simply exist, and be seen.
What kit and post-production did you use?
I don’t have much gear, just a Canon R5 and a single 24-105mm f/4 lens. But that one setup carried me through the entire project. For the photography side, all the editing was done in Lightroom and Photoshop. I focused on light colour adjustments, always trying to preserve the original atmosphere of the scenes as much as possible. Nothing was staged, and I never used any external lighting. Every image was shaped by the environment itself.
Following your successful F panel , are you now working on a new project?
Yes, I’m working on something new. My next project will likely take place in Cuba or Mexico, and it will be rooted entirely in street photography - pure observation, pure encounter.
During my MFA course I was taught about the use of colour and contrast, how light creates structure and how colour doesn’t just decorate the frame but divides, directs, and sometimes even disrupts it. I’m interested in using these formal elements of colour, light and composition not just as aesthetic tools, but as ways to embed layered narratives into a single frame.
I often think of an image as a condensed theatre, where multiple moments unfold at once, each occupying its own corner of the picture. The divisions between those ‘mini-stages’ can be subtle: they might come through a shift in light, or the way two gestures echo and contrast each other across space. That’s what I’m chasing right now. Images that carry not just visual beauty, but density. A kind of stillness that reveals movement, a single moment that suggests many.
Building a bicycle frame, to fit the owner like a handmade suit, is a dying craft. Post-war, British builders were part of a golden age of handmade frame manufacture - some of these builders’ frames are still highly sought after and cherished by cyclists today. As a keen lifelong cyclist, my intention with this project was to show some of the processes and skill needed to create a bespoke bicycle frame not seen on a modern mass production line.
Early bicycles were made by blacksmiths in village forges, and there are still similarities between the past and present day workshop, from the heat of brazing to the tools. This sequence of photographs records the manufacturing process; as tubes are cut and joined, the frame’s form gradually becomes recognisable. The photographs were taken over several visits as unique frames were created.
Roy Brown ARPS interviewed by Nick Hodgson FRPS
Tell us a bit about yourself and your photographic practice, and where you are based.
I became interested in photography at 17 and taught myself mono processing and printing. My first employment after A levels was at Brighton Polytechnic in Media Production Services, where I learnt the basics of lighting, sound, video-recording and photography from experienced production staff.
I no longer work (personally I dislike the word ‘retired’) and live in a small village near Tunbridge Wells in Kent (South-East England), but in my early career I also had posts in production roles at the Universities of Cambridge and London. At Cambridge I was in charge of AV at the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, using video, photography and sound to support the teaching. I found it very stimulating and most enjoyable working with vets, surgeons and students. I have never been employed as a professional photographer but have always utilised photography in my workplace.
Whilst in Cambridge the gift of a box camera sparked an interest in making images with them, and in the history of photography. This led me to experimenting with gum-bichromate, cyanotype and salt printing at home.
Your panel was about abespoke bicycle frame maker. Why did you choose this subject-matter and how did yougo about the project, gaining access to this workshop?
I stopped working in 2019, my last post being 16 years as Technical Manager in a theatre. After a few months I took a part time job in a bike shop. I’ve been a keen club cyclist since about the age of 12, and have raced and toured on my bikes, so it suited me well. It was through this work that I met Glen the framebuilder. I finished working at the shop in 2023, and having not really done anything creatively since leaving the theatre, I looked for a photographic project which is where the RPS Distinctions process came in. I considered several subjects but thought bicycle frame building would be the most deliverable because of my interest and knowledge. I went to see Glen at his workshop (bringing some cake!) and pitched my idea. He was very enthusiastic from the start, so I went away to plan. The workshop is about 10 miles from home, so easy to get to.
I first storyboarded and pre-visualised the shots I thought I would need to create a clear narrative, bearing in mind the Associateship submission requires 15 images. Originally I was going to document the whole process of getting a complete bike built, from design through framebuilding, spraying, assembling and riding the finished article but quite late in the process I decided the panel wouldn’t work cohesively as there would be too many individual, detached images. So I decided to show only the framebuilding part. Consequently my first storyboard was very different from my eventual submission. I often sat looking at the monitor, re-jigging the order and changing images to get the right flow. After many changes my final panel layout was version number 27. I decided from the start to make a digital submission, to remove the cost of printing and give me complete control over the production process.
I must emphasise at this point the importance of Glen’s contribution to the project. He understood immediately what I was trying to achieve and let me know what he would be working on each week. He even wore the same clothes for each of my visits so there was continuity in the images. The project took about 18 months to shoot so this greatly helped the cohesion of the panel.
He doesn’t just build frames, he services bikes and is often away at races as a mechanic, so there were many periods when he wasn’t building frames. Also I was very aware that it is his livelihood, and I couldn’t just get in the way for a few hours and stop him working. So when I was there I mostly pottered about in the background with him getting on with his work, and I would try to capture shots without interrupting. Of course, each visit involved tea and cake. After the project, as a thank you I gave Glen a framed poster of the submission for his workshop wall.
I also need to thank my great artist friend Mervyn Arthur for his advice regarding my Statement of Intent. We sat down one morning (with more cake) to go through my submission. He suggested a couple of tweaks to my draft with the rearrangement of a couple of sentences, and that became my final version. We also went through a few options for the sequencing of the images, which he was seeing for the first time. With the benefit of fresh eyes, he suggested some things for me to consider that I hadn’t seen.
What were the biggest challenges you faced making this work?
I took around 700 images, and I found it a bit of a struggle to edit down to 15 and still tell the story. I had a couple of shots that I was really pleased with, but they would not fit with the ones either side,
so they had to go. That’s an important point - don’t be afraid to ditch a shot that you like for another that fits the panel better but that you may not like as much. The panel must tie together and make the complete ‘16th image’, as well as making sure the individual images stand out in their own right.
The actual shooting was straightforward. The workshop environment mostly stayed the same, and I could move around as I wished to compose and shoot. Lighting-wise I preferred to use just the ambient light, but there were a couple of occasions when I needed to lift a background a bit to avoid a black hole - for that I used a Speedlight SB 900 through a diffuser. For image 05 (tubing store) I used a direct flash, to get the crescent shadows in the tubes, and to balance the distinct shadows in the first image which were from the existing workshop lights.
Technically
speaking, what camera(s)/lenses/post-production did you use?
The project was mostly shot on my elderly Nikon D90 bought in 2009, with Nikon 18-200mm and Tamron 10-24mm lenses, although towards the end of the project I bought a second-hand Olympus Pen-F Digital with 14-42mm zoom. I still have my OM1 kit from 1980 and can use its lovely analogue lenses on the Pen-F with an adaptor. So nothing too modern or up to date!
Post-production was carried out with Adobe Photoshop Elements on a Mac. I’m no expert so I just did the basics - cropping, levels etc. I did reduce the saturation on most images by about 20% to get the look I wanted, and I spent a morning cleaning any dead pixel spots and sometimes toning down the odd highlight or reflection that I thought was distracting.
I chose to shoot 16:9 partly because I used that a lot in video production and am used to composing with it. The Nikon images needed cropping, but I could set the Olympus to that ratio. I shot RAW and stayed uncompressed until the final conversion to a JPEG. I decided to present all images in landscape format, identical sizes with a thin white line and black border because some images were very dark towards the edges, and I didn’t want them to fizzle into nothing. So I added the white line to define the frame. I found out the maximum size the RPS projected to in Bristol, so I made a black template that size with a 5-pixel white frame and dropped the final image inside that.
I made some other deliberate choices which may not have been obvious in the presentation of the images. Although a digital submission means the assessors see the images one by one, an opening panel layout is still required, so I had to make sure they all sat well together. I laid out three rows of five images. The top row showed roughly the preparation for building the frame; the second row was about the construction/brazing together of the tubing; and the third row shows the cleaning and finishing of the frame.
I also tried to compose alternate dynamic lines into the sequence to add interest. It’s most obvious from image 07, with a line from top left to bottom right. 08 is bottom left to top right. 09 is top left to bottom right, and so on, zigzagging up and down. Maybe that was too subliminal! Finally, when selecting the images I tried to keep the colour palette harmonious through the group - greys and blues, and some orange with the brazing. I didn’t start the project with this in mind, but after I had laid out some images in the draft panel, I saw the way greys and blues were dominant. For example, in image 03 the protractor incorporates a thin blue line, and in image 15 there is an out-of-focus bike stand in the background (both ‘found’ images). From then I tried to avoid other distracting colours by composition or cropping.
Following your successful A panel, do you now have another project for you (and have you started it)?
My favourite artist is Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) who painted a lot around the South Downs, an area I know very well. I’d like to visit the locations and do some landscape photography similar to his compositions, maybe with a view to making a book. His paintings depict all seasons, so it would take at least a couple of years to complete that project. I’d also like to do some more with my box cameras, maybe studio portraits or landscapes, making the distinctive quality of the lenses (i.e. soft!) a real feature. And maybe another bike-related project.
Then I suppose there’s a Fellowship submission to think about. And finally… remember that cake and biscuits can open many doors!
As well as centrally organised events, our Local Groups put on numerous events. These include talks and presentations, workshops or exhibitions of members work, group projects, visits and photo walks, feedback and critique sessions and online Zoom meetings.
We currently have Groups in Northern, Yorkshire, East Anglia, Thames Valley, Southern, South East, and joint groups with Contemporary in Scotland, Central and North West.
RPS Documentary Events can be found on our events page, which includes our Engagement Talks series, Documentary Events and Exhibitions. events.rps.org - Documentary
RPS Documentary Photography Awards
Our Awards
The Documentary Photography Awards (DPA) is organised by the Royal Photographic Society's Documentary Group. It runs every two years. The previous editions have been running since 2012 and provide an opportunity to showcase documentary work and visual storytelling. The Award categories are: Open, Student and RPS Members.
The selected projects will feature in a UK touring exhibition. Development support and/or memberships will also be offered to selected projects. All selected projects will also have opportunities for publication in the Decisive Moment and The RPS Journal and selected photographers will be invited to present at our Engagement Talk series.
Submissions for 2025
Our Submissions for the next edition DPA are now open (from 30 June 2025) and will close on 1 September 2025. Please see our Terms and Conditions and our Entry Guide or more detailed Instructions.
Each entry will require a title, a statement and 10-15 images. Entrants can make than one entry and enter more than one category, provided they meet the eligibility criteria. Entries for Students and RPS Members are FREE.
Our Selection Panel for 2025
Our international panel of experts and selectors for 2025 so far, are: Liz Hingley, photographer, curator and anthropologist; Roy Mehta, Photographer and Lecturer; Mimi Mollica, photographer, lecturer and director of PhotoMeet; Maysa Moroni, picture editor, Internazionale; and Ellen Stone, Creative Director, Side Gallery. We will announce the final list of selectors soon.
rps.org/groups/documentary/dpa
Arunanjan Saha The Pashmina Story
UK-based RPS Member Arunanjan Saha recently submitted a fascinating project on pashmina, a type of cashmere wool which is also known as a type of shawl or scarf. Chatting to Nick Hodgson FRPS, this is the extensive story behind his project.
Arunanjan, thank you so much for talking to Decisive Moment. Tell us about this story.
Well I think most of the world knows pashmina as cashmere wool. My project The Pashmina Story unfolded across one of the most breathtaking and brutal landscapes on Earth: the high Himalayas. But this isn’t the Himalaya mountains that you see on postcards. This is the Ladakh region of wind-whipped and sparsely populated silence, and the militarised alleyways of the city of Srinagar where handlooms beat in dim-lit rooms beyond the reach of tourists. My journey took me through treacherous mountain passes, across some of the world’s most dangerous roads, deep into valleys unseen by the casual traveller, and up to cold deserts where air itself feels rarefied.
I wandered through Changthang, the frigid high-Himalayan plateau where even trees give up, and found the beginning of the pashmina story, not in a loom room, but in a tent pitched against the wind. Here there are villages that don’t feature on maps, where goats outnumber humans and warmth is both metaphor and necessity. I photographed in nomadic rebo tents (typically made from animal skins), along glacial rivers and in the uninhabited silence of snowbound vales, often far removed from any sense of what most would call comfort. And eventually went on to Kashmir, where the final threads are woven, dyed and embroidered. And it’s obviously a region well-known for its political complexities. It is not just a place but a wound, with its own rhythm, its own constraints, its own poetry.
Access was limited, not just physically but socio-politically, shaped by curfews, border tensions and the emotional fatigue that underpins life there. Despite this society persists. And the weavers persist. And so I photographed.
When did you make the images, and how long did it take you?
This project, which remains ongoing, began over six years ago. I have made multiple trips to the war-torn and remote regions, each visit peeling back another layer, each one showing me something new. The fieldwork stretches across seasons, altitudes and emotional weathers.
Arunanjan Saha -
Arunanjan Saha
I try to chase the rhythm of the wool - from the spring combing rituals of the nomads, to winter indoor spinning circles, to the bustle of Srinagar showrooms during festival season. And I keep going back. To wait. To learn. To listen.
Often photography takes a backseat. I’ve spent weeks just being present - joining conversations, sharing meals, searching for the goats roaming in the grand backdrop of the Ladakhi terrain, listening to spinning songs that might be sung only a few times. Time was my currency, and trust was my camera’s lens and the ecstatic light that one will never forget.
Of course COVID initially halted everything. Borders closed, lives grew inward, and the silence deepened. But in a way, that pause taught me how to sit with the work longer. Once life restarted, I returned many times, in different seasons, along different routes.
Why did you choose this as a subject matter?
Because pashmina is not just luxury, it is a legacy. And like all legacies, it is layered with gender, class, and silence - all themes that interest me.
When I first visited Srinagar I found myself in a commune of Kashmiri artisans, whose fingers moved like rivers over looms. The elegance of their skill stunned me. But what stunned me more was this: while their work sold for large sums in the boutiques of London, Paris and Tokyo, the artisans lived in the shadows of that wealth. The world adored the product but never remembered the hands. The making of the pashmina, from the spinning of the yarn, and dyeing, to the weaving of the cloth and its embroidery, is the delicate, patient and intricate work of human hands. Its purity is measured by the involvement of human skill and labour from start to finish. There is scarcely any machinery involved, and handlooms are used because of the finesse and gentleness that the fabric demands of its makers.
While everyone is keen to have a pashmina, no one is thinking about what and who make them, as if it defied reality, a product levitating in the air of luxury branding - as if it just happened, and was not made by real people behind it. It then hit me. Pashmina is more than just a luxury textile. It’s a metaphor. For invisible labour, for unrecognised wisdom, for ancestral silence. It carried within it a song that was being forgotten. And I knew then that this was a photography project that had to be made. Not as fashion, but as ethnography. Not as heritage, but as resistance.
How did you research this subject matter?
Research, for me, was not just academic. I do have a M. Tech in Textile Technology, so I arrived with some technical know-how, but I knew that textbooks would never tell me the stories that are hidden behind the story. So I read about trade history, geopolitical shifts, colonial disruptions and gendered economies.
But more importantly, I listened, and I saw. I spoke to the artisans, NGO workers, weaver collectives, archivists and even the villagers. Obviously, I consulted with scholastic papers, but I also sat beside the spinning women, artisans letting their hands tell me what my research couldn't. I visited dye pits, carding rooms where the fibres are separated out, and the showrooms. I mapped income charts, searched for lyrics of folk songs and most importantly seasonal migration routes of the semi-nomadic Changpas. I tried to understand what made Ladakh not just a location, but a condition.
Over six years, the research has become inseparable from the photographs. Now I know where to go and when. And this project continues to evolve, with new narratives and visuals being added, deepening the story and honouring the craft’s enduring legacy. This story is unfolding stitch by stitch.
What challenges did you face as you went about making the work?
There were many. Some logistical, some emotional, some political. In Ladakh, the terrain was punishing. Temperatures dropped below -20°C and roads would vanish. When I started, I travelled using public transport, but that stalled in winter, so I have walked through knee-deep snow with all my gear. I slept in tents, often unsure of when the next warm meal would arrive.
The Changpa nomads are migratory. Finding them required wordof-mouth hikes, sometimes spending days in search of a herd based on nothing more than a rumour. I have had to learn to acclimatise better for these journeys, and in the early years my trips were sometimes cut short by AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness).
COVID inevitably derailed a large portion of the project, not only in terms of travel, but also in halting the very livelihoods I was trying to document. And now, with rising political tensions, some parts of Ladakh and Kashmir are militarised or inaccessible again, adding further strain.
But perhaps the deepest challenge was earning trust.
As is often the way with successful documentary photography projects. How did you earn this trust?
As a man entering mainly women-led, often sacred domestic spaces, I had to be down to earth and respectful, with a lot of humility. Many of these women had never been photographed before. It took time - weeks, even months, before a lens felt welcome.
From a technical perspective, how did you cope in such harsh conditions?
I’m not a gear evangelist, but kit matters when you're chasing breath in high-altitude (we are talking about around 13000ft) and sub-zero gusting winds.
I began this journey with my Nikon D750, a great workhorse. Over time I shifted to a Nikon Z6II and now I work primarily with a Nikon Z8 and Zf. Still, my old pal D750 remains with me - my old guard, often trusted in unpredictable conditions.
My kit includes 35mm and 85mm Nikon primes and the regular telephotos, chosen for their ability to create intimacy without intrusion. I have a Zeiss Milvus 50mm, it’s a manual one, but it never fails to amaze. Same goes for the Z-mount 24-70mm f2.8 from Nikon, which is a cracking lens.
I try to work almost exclusively in natural light. Artificial lighting for me feels like a violation of rhythm. I wait for the right cloud, the right intrusion of sun through cracks, the right moment of a smile in the shadow. Post-production stays minimal in my work. Mostly basic tonal adjustments in Adobe Lightroom to retain the emotional accuracy and warmth of the scene.
And tell us a little about yourself, where you are now based, your photography ‘journey' and what it means to you.
I come from a generation free of the Partition era but haunted by its legacy. It was my involvement in student activism during my college years in India that sparked my interest in understanding the diverse tapestry of Indian society. This ignited my desire to capture these stories through photography. With a deep-seated interest in photojournalism, I now want it to be a journey to visually document the intricacies of human lives. My journey into photography began not as rebellion, but as recognition - that something was missing in the way I was being asked to see the world.
There are some common stereotypes about India - our land and our people. There is so much more we have to tell the world about who we are. I will be happy if my pictures can help be a voice for our people, how they live and love, and how they thrive amidst whatever circumstances are thrown at them. We are not all about poverty and dirty streets. I think that stereotype has served its time and we should actively try to break it. I want to capture the beauty and the dignity lying all around us. My lens is always searching for the symphony in our multitudes of colours, traditions, aspirations and dreams. I believe that people who are working hard to earn even a basic livelihood should be treated and seen with dignity.
I’ve shifted my base to the UK. I now live in Plymouth in Devon, South-West England, a far cry from Ladakh's barrenness, but rich in its own textures of history. I live and work as a photographer and visual ethnographer, driven by a desire to see the quiet dignity of ordinary lives. I live with my wife, who is a doctor in the NHS, and my mother who is a retired teacher.
I photograph for the burden that comes with being human: for the grandmother whose song no longer echoes; for the pashmina shawl that carries both silence and resistance in every thread. I want to tell the story of ordinary people, going about ordinary life with hopes and dreams, every one of us managing to fulfil some of our desires and knowing that there are many more things we must let go of, and the dignity with which we face reality. It’s the social fabric binding us all together. Being picture perfect does not mean you have to hide reality. The perfect image is the one in which you own your reality. My work is just an experiment to tell the truth, and truth can be beautiful.
The Pashmina Story is ongoing. I’m planning another journey to Kashmir and Ladakh later this year, and the story - like the woolawaits the next combing. And me? I’m still learning!
Carmarthenshire-based RPS Documentary Group member Ray Hobbs made his project Mr Joseph between November 2022 and February 2023. He’d been aware of an upholstery business in a local town for several years, with its run-down exterior, never-changing shop display, broken window, hand-written notes in the shopfront, and the total chaos of the workshop and fabrics store. He set himself a challenge to capture the essence of Mr Joseph and his business in an empathetic and non-judgmental way.
Ray says that Mr Joseph was a kind, generous and affable man, but unable to do much physical work because of his age, leaving some of the hard work to his long-suffering wife and a part-time workshop assistant. Working with Mr Joseph has, says Ray, encouraged him to approach similar photo-opportunities and projects with more selfconfidence and not to fear rejection.
“I was so pleased to be invited to photograph the retail shop and workshop of Mr Joseph in Kidwelly, a town in Carmarthenshire, Southwest Wales. Mr Joseph was born in 1933, and amazingly, at the age of over 90, he is still running his upholstery business in Bridge Street with the support of his wife Rose, who implements the majority of the repairs and refurbishment of the sofas and chairs that are bought to him, usually from referrals.
He told me that his grandfather was an upholsterer in York, and that his father had an upholstery factory and shop in Hove, next door to Brighton, which he established in 1936. The premises in Hove consisted of a basement workshop with a shop at street level and living quarters above. Continuing the family tradition, Mr Joseph opened an upholstery business in Lower Oxford Street, Swansea, and then his Kidwelly workshop in 1992 which has continued to trade in the same place since then.
I believe that it is so important to recognise and celebrate these small independent businesses that have been such an intrinsic component of our heritage. Our throw-away society does not respect the lineage of Mr Joseph and his forebears. It is all too easy for us to ditch the old sofa, rather than respect the craftsmen and women of the past, and have the sofa repaired and recovered. I cannot help wondering what will happen to the business when Mr Joseph finally decides to hang-up his scissors; who will continue in his footsteps? Will another small business cease to function? Another small part of our heritage gone forever?
He takes such pride in the work he produces in his workshop and is eager to share with me the age and history of some his machinery. He informed me that the USA-manufactured Union Special overlocker is pre-WW2. Out of interest, I have sent an enquiry to a UK company who claim to represent Union Special, regarding the possible age of the machine, but they have not responded.
Mr Joseph was keen for me to photograph and take note of the cast iron Bellow sewing machine base. I have also tried to research this manufacturer, but all I can establish is that the company has ceased trading.
It is a mark of the quality of Mr Joseph’s work that he can maintain the business without any direct marketing, relying on referrals and a Carmarthenshire-based free business advertiser newspaper. It also seems remarkable to me that Mr Joseph knows where all his fabrics and material bolts are from, forged from his decades of knowledge of contemporary and historic collections. He can competently respond to a client’s enquiry and fulfil their requirements.
I am very grateful for Mr Joseph’s hospitality and access to his workshop for my photography project.”
Ray started photography about 12-years-ago with a Nikon D300. He graduated with a BA in Documentary Photography in 2018 (at the age of 69) from the University of South Wales in Cardiff, a course that has links back to David Hurn HonFRPS and the documentary photography courses at Newport.
He uses a Nikon D850 and Nikon Z8, with a Sigma ART 24~70 f2.8 lens. Post-production, minor adjustments have been made in Lightroom, including some noise reduction, as some images were shot at very high ISO.
Occasionally we make awards to student photographers as part of engaging with the next generation. This year Mark Phillips FRPS (Chair) was invited by Roy Mehta at UAL in London, to see the final year BA Documentary Photography exhibition to select.
The award for ‘best documentary’ went to Lilah Culliford for her project, Kindred Language. It reflects on the intricate dynamics of sibling relationships through the lens of photography and features participants ranging from family and friends to strangers. As the eldest of six, Lilah has observed her siblings’ lives, capturing their connections since childhood. Documenting her siblings with a VHS camera from the age of five to picking up a stills camera at fifteen, this project is an extension of her own relationships and the transition into adulthood she and her siblings are exploring together.
The project highlights relationships that we did not choose to have. Emphasising collaboration, participants shaped each photoshoot, contributing ideas and selecting locations to authentically represent their unique bonds. Through this process, Lilah invites viewers to reflect on their own sibling relationships and the complexities inherent in them.
Lilah's plans post-graduation are to keep this project going alongside other documentary projects. As well as this she will be perusing a freelance photography and art direction career.
What stood out for selection of this work was the quality and intimacy of the portraiture, giving the participants a voice and a telling of a story that many of us are familiar with, but we rarely consider in depth. Lilah's website can be found at: lilahmaiculliford.cargo.site and Instagram at: @lilah.maii.
We have just launched our Documentary Photography Awards (DPA) 2025 which is free to submit to all RPS Members and photography Students. Roy Mehta will be one of our selectors for these Awards. For details please visit and bookmark the DPA website, rps.org/groups/documentary/dpa, which contains all the details and will be regularly updated with the latest information.
Lilah and Sofia
Aurora and Esmeralda
Francesca and Josefina
Merel and Medelief
The Documentary Group Online
The documentary group has a presence on the following platforms, come and join in the conversation. We understand that not everyone has a social media profile or wants to create one. That’s why all our profiles are public and can be viewed by everyone, no matter whether you have an account or not. This means you will be able to view all our posts and book on to ticketed events. Checking our RPS page and searching for events is still a good way to keep informed with all that is happening in the Documentary group. If you have any questions you can always e-mail us – all our contact details are listed there.
Facebook
Facebook Page - facebook.com/rpsdocumentary
Our public Facebook page highlights projects and events related to Documentary photography.
Facebook Group - facebook.com/groups/RPSDVJ
We also have a closed group Facebook page, exclusively for our members. If you want to join us there, you can share your pictures with us, ask for advice, and engage with our online community.
Instagram @rpsdoc
Instagram is an image-based social media platform, so think of our profile as of an online gallery. If you follow us there, you can see pictures from our competition winners, DM contributors and members along with invitations to events and images from these occasions. Instagram is the place where we want to promote the work of our group and our members to the wider public and encourage them to follow and engage with our projects.
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Royal Photographic Society - Documentary Group
Documentary Group members run an active group on Flickr with plenty of images and the opportunity to discuss them with the group.
rps.org/documentary
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Issuu
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Documentary Group, Royal Photographic Society
The Decisive Moment is published on the Issuu platform where you can read each edition online or download pdfs to read offline. Please follow the Documentary Group in Issuu and use the buttons to like and share your favourite editions or individual features - it really helps support the Documentary Group.
Website
rps.org/documentary
The Documentary Special Interest Group has a section on The Royal Photographic Society website. Here you can learn more about the group, hear about recent news and future events and access an increasing number of documentary photography resources.
Documentary is about developing a narrative or story using images. Our Documentary Group members have a common interest in documentary, urban and street, photography. The group offers a lively events programme, a regular e-journal and the opportunity to participate in other photographic initiatives.
Documentary photography communicates a clear narrative through visual literacy. It can be applied to social, cultural, historical and political events.
Documentary photographers’ work always has an intent; whether that is to represent daily life, explore a specific subject, deepen our thinking, or influence our opinions. rps.org/documentary
Members form a dynamic and diverse group of photographers globally who share a common interest in documentary and street photography.
We welcome photographers of all skill levels and offer members a diverse programme of workshops, photoshoots, longer-term projects, exhibitions, an online journal and newsletter and the RPS Documentary Photography Award (DPA).
Some longer-term collaborative projects are in the pipeline for the future. We have a active membership who participate in regional meetings, regular competitions and exchange ideas online through our social media groups.
The Documentary Group is always keen to expand its activities and relies on ideas and volunteer input from its members.
If you’re not a member come and join us. Find us on the RPS website at: rps.org/documentary
