We constantly fail to see what sometimes is right in front of us; that there’s another world inside our own that we so often overlook.
My interest in these particular projects stems from my love of culture, community and sub-communities. Those whose voices are sometimes overlooked, or go unheard, either through a lack of language or an absence of knowledge or interest.
John Ferguson’s Personal Photo Projects
Black Suffolk
Black Suffolk is a series of portraits by photographer John Ferguson of people from Suffolk’s African-Caribbean community. The pictures were on displayed via an outdoor exhibition in central Ipswich throughout August 2021. I have produced a new collection of portraits which explore the concept of home for a diversity of people in the African-Caribbean community in Suffolk. This theme creatively expresses people’s experience and interpretation of what exactly is home. Home can be a feeling, a physical space or a geographical place. Home can be a memory, metaphor or experience. The idea is to connect with the notion that our lives are inextricably attached to where we live, our homes, and Suffolk.’
Banger Racers of Suffolk
Have you ever been to a full on Banger Racing event? Well I had'n’t. So having a track based only a few miles away from my home, was enough of a reason to apply for an access all-areas pass and go see and photograph the people behind this most unusual of motorsports. And what I found was sheer delight, another hidden world of petrol-heads and motor fanatic families all in one place.
Living with Albinism
My three-year photographic investigation focussing on individuals who have spent their lives living and coping with the condition and issues that accompany this congenital disorder. Characterised by a complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism is also associated with a number of vision defects, such as photophobia, nystagmus, and amblyopia. Typically all those photographed for this project have their own very personal intriguing and sometimes-traumatic stories which the Sunday Times Magazine reproduce and published not long after I'd finished my last subject.
Black Britannia
The then Prime Minister Gordon Brown kindly launched my first solo photo project entitled "Black Britannia", a mainly environmental portrait series on 50 black Briton's who I either grew up watching, or others who have made a significant contribution to the British public life. I wanted the British public at large, to take note to some of the incredible achievements from members of the Afro-Caribbean community, and their contribution to the UK. I started this project after the seemingly continuous negative press and media coverage, which aimed to stigmatised and stereotype the black community at the time.
The project celebrates these, unwitting, role models who have all triumphed in their chosen careers. From schoolteachers, scientists, and Union leaders, to Dr. John Sentuma, Britain's first black Archbishop, Supermodel Naomi Campbell to Nicholas Tung, the first black Guardsman to guard the Queen and to have taken part in the Trooping of the colour. Also featured in the project is Lewis Hamilton, Frank Bruno, Paul Ince, Lenny Henry and Baroness Valerie Amoss.
Gordon Brown said at the launch night, "We all know the contribution of black people to Briton goes far beyond that of the household names celebrated in this exhibition. "Britain wouldn't be the Britain it is today without the contributions of it's black doctors, teachers, writers, business people, entertainers nurses and artists, the list goes on".
He went on to praise the best of the Britain's black community- and urged others to follow their dream.
Rural Isolation & Loneliness
This Photographic project I describe as photography that sits somewhere between fine art and the documentary genre, I’d like to think that I'm making photographs rather than taking pictures. There is a paradox in photographs made within a documentary style; combining facts and fiction. Although this maybe a contradiction, I find it a simulating concept, if not a complex one, but nevertheless, it’s a concept that intrigues. The subject of rural loneliness is one which I’ve become more aware of in recent times.
Loneliness and isolation are silent, it doesn't bang on any doors, it doesn't push past people, and it doesn’t shout, but it screams inside us all, hoping and longing to be noticed. Isolation is invisible, but it shines so brightly that it’s sometimes hard to see. Isolation is strong and can hold you back when you're desperate to break free; isolation is not being heard when asking questions, above all else, isolation can be cruel.
The Forgotten Cowboys
Old Hollywood has certainly played it's role in helping to keep down the contribution of the African-American's during the opening up of the old wild west frontier. Indeed some of the first settlers were in fact freed slaves who had travelled West and became skilled horseman, the black cowboys of the American frontier.
I was first drawn to these forgotten band of brothers on the streets of New York, thousands of miles from the Western Frontier. Ten years later I had time to journey to the Southern States in search of this almost forgotten community of cowboys, a community who were integral in helping to tame this unmapped and dangerous region of North America. It's a fascinating and enlighten story and has since my project, as helped to cast a light on some of these African American cowboys and their contributions that are rarely told in the history books. This is a great example of how personal projects can generate interest, my project was also picked up by magazines and websites on both sides of the Atlantic, whilst also gaining further coverage in Australia, China and the Middle East.
Notes on Blindness
Throughout this thoroughly engaging project, I have become immersed in the life of a community that I’ve found enriching and enlightening on many different levels. Dealing with a subject with many emotional, sensitive and inspiring degrees of empathy, I’ve developed an unusual desire in myself in as much wanting to explore and delve deeper into an issue that requires and deserves further exposure to a broader and unaware audience. We all know how disabling this condition is, but how much do we really know about the unseen consequences of a life lived without vision?
My Safe Place.
Most of us have somewhere we like to retreat to for relaxation or to gather our thoughts. But when people are affected by depression, that bolthole from everyday life can take on a whole new meaning.
I set out to capture something of that significance, to challenge myths about the illness and remove some of the stigma that still surrounds it by photographing sufferers in their place of safety.