Cheltenham i was told on arrival was a spa town, which i found out means a town situated around a mineral spa that patrons used to "take the waters" believing it had health benefits??
I knew Cheltenham as a racing town, known for its national hunt racing (long distance racing usually with jumps). I watch the Cheltenham Festival every year religiously and is easily my favourite horse racing meeting of the year. I had hoped for some fair weather so that i could explore the racing grounds, however, as always, things are never fair.
Cheltenham resides on the edge of the Cotswolds and in my mind i had an image of a town with extreme wealth. We (Staffs Uni exchange students) were set a brief to show the difference in wealth between the two opposite sides of the town centre and what i found could not have been more polar.
The 'poorer working class' side of the city were an absolute breathe of fresh air, so accommodating, approachable and helpful that it went even further to amplify how completely opposite the 'richer' side of the town was.
So much so that in this blog I'm going to completely concentrate on the 'nicer poorer' side of the city.
SeanG
This is the first building i saw at the end of the road where the Gloucester students had put us up. I really love my fish but unfortunately many of the local tackle shops are being put out of business by the larger tackle/garden shops; and of course the internet
I immediately came across this building and i really liked the building, i am into frames and framing and art and with there not being many of these buildings in Stoke i thought that i must take a picture of it
I decided that i was only going to take one more portrait of a building and that i would wait until i found a building that i genuinely loved the look of or had an interest, this building fitted both of the criteria
I then went onto the idea that i would approach private run businesses and their owner/workers, these two ladies (Annette owner on the right and daughter) were terrific and really up for having a few shots and helping me out, at the time i thought the location, with it being so cluttered and personal, had a Martin Parr feel to it, so in post production i cropped in a little tighter and increased the colour saturation, i love all the magnets and identity in this shot
I then went into the hairdressers a short while up the road and took quite a few images the one above and below have been edited to give a more fashion feel, i quite like how the colours have come out and i especially love the girl
Very similar shot but wanted to include the fashion poster in the background to give a little perspective, the colours have come out nice again, lucky
I asked these two gents if they were partners which they replied yes, i still don't know whether that meant they were partners in the business or in life, i suppose it doesn't matter really
I was told that this pub the 'Frog and Fiddle' was a bit of an iconic place in Cheltenham and when i learned more about it's style and typical nights i became really envious that I have nothing like it around here in Stoke, the pub wasn't open but i was able to persuade a worker out, maybe that is why he doesn't look so impressed
This lady was with her friend locking up her bike, i wouldn't usually just go up to people like i should but i asked them both in my charming manner for a picture, this lady said 'yes'
The bus driver saw me walking around taking pictures and pretty much ordered me to take his picture, so i did, then a girls jumped into the shot and started dancing about; so i used this for my blog
Struggled to get any pictures in the 'posh' end of town, it was raining and the 'posh' people weren't anywhere near as up for a photo as the 'workers', so in SeanG fashion tried to make a nice composition
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