Shakai was a project as part of the The Way I See workshop run by D Wiafe at Photofusion and Cultural Connections, London. The aim was to capture and create a documentation of the local area of Clapham / Stockwell to show how each person sees it personally.
For this, I used Shakai, from the workshop and native to Clapham, as a model. We got along pretty quickly and I got to learn about his aspirations and life, which in turn revealed a unique personality. For the photos, I wanted to capture the incredible maturity that he shows at the tender age of 15. By a mixture of candid and set up shots, I wanted to speculate (with him) on his future self , whilst not letting go of the cheekier side he has. The shot of him at a cafe simulatenously portrays his self confidence and comfort in his own space, but also shows how young he still is, almost awkwardly placed in a spot he would never hang out in.
The photo with the pigeons was his idea, when he suddenly whispered to me that he was going to run through the birds and I have to capture it in one take. This was by far one of our favourites and I think the results show why!
With thanks to D Wiafe for mentoring, Photofusion for the equiptment and Cultural Connections for hosting the workshop.