article 1 final

Article 1 Final 

I’m proud to say that photography is an art. I would say that photography is an art of feeling and emotions that you can feel through the pictures. There is going to be a lot of arguments against my statements. Photography always have struggled to be taken seriously as an art form. This is one of the reasons why I’m going to talk about successful photographer; Colin O’Brien. I’m going to talk about struggles and achievements Colin went through to inspire my young audience to chase their dreams, because if you never chase your dreams, you will never catch them.

Colin O’Brien, who was a photographer inspired by Bert Hardy and Bill Brandit. The famous photographers inspired Colin to start capturing working-class life in East London. He is known for his series of images of Travellers’ children, taken in the 1980s. “I’m fascinated by the ordinary” Colin O’Brien said.

Colin O’Brien took his first real photograph when he was only 8 years old, which is really aware these days to start from such a young age. He captured his two friends, Raymond Scallionne and Razi Tuffano. After some time of his first photograph, his uncle, a cab driver, gave him some contacts that would allowed him into developing his photographs without using a darkroom. At first he photographed his parents at the casual routine, as well as neighbours and children as they went about their daily lives. Colin O’Brien always been interested in his area with all its everyday human dramas, he reflected the energy of the surrounding city. “Famous people and famous things just don’t interest me. The ordinary is of as much importance as the extraordinary” Colin said once.

Colin O’Brien continued photographing till his 70s, in and around Hackney. “Two things will stop me doing street photography” he said in a recent interview. “Either I die, or London stops changing”. Over the years East London have changed and it’s still changing, however Colin died at the age of 76 years old. Colin O’Brien had hold of archive with over 100,000 material.

Colin O’Brien showed us that you can achieve anything that you want but you need to practise as much as you can to achieve it. It doesn’t matter what’s your age or where you from or how much money you have, you can achieve your dreams if you really want to. I hope that Colin’s story is going to inspire you all to chase your dreams without reflecting on your circumstances and take your dreams more seriously.

“Famous people and famous things just don’t interest me. The ordinary is of as much importance as the extraordinary”: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/aug/26/colin-o-brien-obituary

“Two things will stop me doing street photography”: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/aug/26/colin-o-brien-obituary

“Either I die, or London stops changing”: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/aug/26/colin-o-brien-obituary