Craig Easton

Craig is a documentary photographer, he first worked for a newspaper called the Independent. He was known for taking the photos of the IRA bombings and the photograph of Margret Thatcher leaning out of the window. These single images were used by the newspapers and news outlets however Easton wanted to move away from the single image and started to collect multiple images, in which he looked at poor families in Blackpool (how they were living etc). He now works with the family that he worked with back then and looks at how they are still in poverty, but they now have their own children. He also collected audio interviews to go along side his photographs. 

He also works large format camera to take his shots. He has work with former footballers and creating portraits for a magazine about the footballers lives etc and how they are after leaving the game. Easton has also worked in a couple of different countries around globe including France, he has created a lot of advertising photographs working with people like Barclays and touring companies for bands, in which he actually did a shoot on an airport runway 

At the moment Easton is working on a project called Sixteen, this project started in 2004 where his idea was that he would photograph people who were turning 16 on voting day as they were given the right to vote at 16 in Scotland. The idea was to find out the reasons that these young adults were voting for a certain party etc. He asked them to write a piece about why they were voting for that party and what their thoughts were about voting. As this project moved on Easton invited 15 other photographers to join where by they speak to the next generation about their dreams, ambitions, hopes and fears etc. It explores how your background, gender, ethnicity, location can influence how you feel about your future achievements and how you might fulfil your potential.

I find the Sixteen project really interesting because I like reading about how the social connections and environments can effect how you feel about yourself and others around you. I feel that Craig Easton's work shows people and explains to people in a more in-depth way that people react and do what they do because of where they've come from and we have to understand this to make us stronger and support each other.