People & Place
WORKSHOP. July 2025.
This workshop was held down at Portobello beach, Edinburgh's seaside location popular with many local people and tourists. It was our first workshop after some time when we had been on a pause and it was great to welcome new members who had joined Wifie for the first time.
The workshop was an introduction to social documentary photography where we were encouraged to capture the activities of people carrying on with their everyday lives in a particular location. In this case the location was Portobello. Many of our members are unfamiliar with this genre of photography and were encouraged to continue to develop their ideas on this theme.
This workshop was held down at Portobello beach, Edinburgh's seaside location popular with many local people and tourists. It was our first workshop after some time when we had been on a pause and it was great to welcome new members who had joined Wifie for the first time.
The workshop was an introduction to social documentary photography where we were encouraged to capture the activities of people carrying on with their everyday lives in a particular location. In this case the location was Portobello. Many of our members are unfamiliar with this genre of photography and were encouraged to continue to develop their ideas on this theme.
Yvonne had her infrared camera for this workshop and produced a series of amazing b&w images.
Molly chose to select some images from her archive that had been taken in Portobello over a number of years and in different weather conditions. The muted colours from shooting in mist, rain and snow give these images a distinct ambience.
In the images here by Margaret Munro and Maddy we see two very different approaches. Both dynamic and interesting with Margaret capturing the people in Portobello and the beach enjoying what the place offers them and Maddy focusing much more on the location, and how she uses compositional elements to draw our eyes to the people in the distance.
Belinda's four photos start with this lovely portrait of a toddler and adult looking out onto the beach where a lot of the action takes place in Portobello. It's a lovely touch and for anyone unsure about approaching strangers and asking to take a photograph of them, this technique works really well.
The colour of the fairground and the promenade was what captured Janice's eye when she was at the workshop
Olga was unable to make it to the workshop so decided to send in a selection of images that were about people in different locations
You can't find a better place than Edinburgh Festival for being out with your camera. Here Mary has explored not only the action related to the festival but one that is more intimate where she has captured some local people going about their every day existence. What a lovely bit of reportage.
Debs has sent in a selection of photographs capturing people in different places for this project.
Lorraine's set of images reflect her love of the outdoors and dog walking. She has also included a great image of an empty bench, where the viewer is brought to reflect on who might have last been there or a memory of having sat on this bench or one similar to this one ourselves.
