It’s a hot Monday afternoon in a Clapham back street. The sun is blistering the pavement slabs as I wander through a rambling collection of converted Victorian buildings next to a rail track. I follow the faint noise of pop music to a studio embedded at the back of this hodgepodge of buildings – otherwise known as the Clapham North Arts Centre. Inside in the bright white, double-height studios, it’s a different world. There’s a rack of feather boas, costumes and potted plants decorating a table with the Ting Ting’s latest tune playing out. I am here to tag along for a day with We are Photogirls, a fashion photography workshop company that runs courses for young people across London. The concept is simple: teenage girls and boys come along for a day, or a week, and experience the basics of styling, composition, photography and the creative process.
Today I’m here, along with 10 other – seemingly ecstatic – teenage girls, for the afternoon with founders Celia Willis and Emily Stein. "I love working with this age group. They aren’t afraid to go mad, experiment and have fun with things," says Willis. Indeed, today the girls have been given the task of creating a photo inspired by a number of postcards ranging from Kate Moss, to a Klimt painting, to a 1930s Hollywood starlet. They’ve done fabulously. The standard is also very impressive. I’m not sure what I’m expecting, but am genuinely surprised to see creative, well-lit, sophisticated images that, frankly, wouldn’t look out of place in any style bible. The girls love it and have gone wild creating rock-and-roll scenes; they’ve taken photos from the top of ladders of their friends swaddled in multi-coloured fabric and applied all sorts of wild make-up on each other. The whole vibe is of fun, girly, sisterhood, as they each take it in turns to discuss their work, their thought processes and inspirations. Willis and Stein are also on-hand offering encouragement and tips for next time.
Photogirls has been going since 2005 and the company now works with a number of youth clubs, charities and councils across London, in addition to doing private commissions for children’s parties and events. "Fashion photography covers such a wide range of things. There’s lots of scope there," says Stein, adding, "it also teaches them that they can all be beautiful, in different ways. They all look amazing in the pictures. It really builds their confidence." Stein and Willis’s workshops are always single-sex, partly for this reason they say. "It helps them come out of themselves more. With the girls they can be silly and more forthcoming as there’s no intimidation. With the boys they can be a bit more creative. It’s not about ‘cool’ any more."
Willis and Stein work well together. The pair met at Camberwell College of Arts in 1998 and both have experience in entertainment and fashion photography (Stein photographs for style bibles still, including Dazed and Confused and Vice Magazine. Willis has an MA from the Royal College of Art and is a practising artist). They clearly love their work too. This afternoon is the styling challenge (girls are given £5 each and sent to charity shops to buy an item and create a photo shoot from it) while tomorrow it’s a jungle theme, where the photo-shoots will be on-location on Clapham Common. "The response to the company has been great. There are so many things out there aimed at boys – facilities for music mixing, sports, and so on. But there’s not much available for girls," says Willis, adding. "It’s nice working with kids from a number of backgrounds too. In less advantaged areas it’s a real self-esteem builder, the fact that you are handing them a £1,000 camera and saying:
‘I trust you with this.’ It’s amazing what that does."
And if today is anything to go by, they are certainly on the right track. "I love fashion. This has been great because you could just do what you want, crazy things," exclaims one mini-fashionista. "I’ve never used cameras before, not big ones. I didn’t think I’d be good at it. But it’s been brilliant." So, will she be back next time?
"Definitely!"
The Photo Girls are available for weddings, bar mitzvahs and workshops on: www.wearephotogirls.com