This was slightly disheartening and I was considering a full rethink of my idea. Luckily I then heard back from Salford Lads Club and they were happy to let me come down.
I talked my idea through with Les but we were unsure if Salford Lads Club qualified as 'Hidden Salford' because it was so well known but then I mentioned the Smiths room and no one in the group had heard about it so it was left to me to decide if the idea was fitting enough. I spoke to Cassie at quays news and she was quite interested in the story. She said that there had been a few pieces on the club in the past but nothing on the Smiths room. So if I was to focus mainly on the room the story would work.
Next it was time to decide how to approach it. We've been talking a lot about how to approach people as a photojournalist. How you do this affects your final shots in my opinion, you need to make your subject comfortable around you before you pull out a camera, especially if it's a sensitive story. I decided to first go down to the club and meet the people involved and show them I had a genuine interest. So far I've been down and spent 2 hours meeting different people involved both old and young team members as well as youths who attend. It's been a really positive experience and they were happy to let me take some test shots and I've arranged to go back one day next week and conduct my shoot during the daytime.
I think a key element of this project was to connect with people, it was difficult at first because it's so hard to get a reply through emails because they're so easy to dismiss. I'd emailed SLC a number of times and heard nothing and finally decided to give them a call and 30 seconds into the call they invited me down, I think most people are happy to give a photographer there time as long as you make it benefit them. I offered to let them use any of my shots and also told them about the possible feature in Quays News which is good publicity for the club.
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