CJ: FEATURES; PORTRAITS BY EMYR PAYNE, WALES.

I’m always looking at documentary photography on social media, in magazines, on gallery walls, and in newspapers. I came across Emyr Payne’s portraits on Instagram and a couple of his portraits are fixed within my picture memory. One is the photo of John Starkey @john_starkey_clairvoyant, taken on Llandudno prom Wales. For 5 years I ran and curated a page on Instagram Documenting Britain. I would find photographers and upload their features, also something I enjoyed was sharing fast edits up onto the story feature from the many documentary hashtagged collections that have built up over time. Photographers’ images seemed to come back to me Emyr’s was one of them, so I would include them in the story feature edit, especially the photo of John Starkey, standing in a payphone with his hotdog! The story function on Instagram was fun to sequence, creating a fast pace and collecting many different photographers, presenting a continuous slideshow of documentary photography made across Britain from 2015 to 2021.

Photobook / Zine ‘Coming Up For Air' By Emyr Payne published by @admpublishing

Early portrait of @john_starkey_clairvoyant , taken on Llandudno prom. It was taken in Sept/Oct 2020 and is included in my first zine 'Coming Up For Air' published by @admpublishing and @ffotonwa les one image series. Last frame on the roll!
Photographer, Emyr Payne
**CJ:**I wondered if you would like to write a little bit about why you do what you do, I know it's hard sometimes to write this, I find it hard as often just kind of driven to photograph certain things. It would be lovely to get some words from you. When did you start taking photos, Did you go to college?
**EP:** Up until I was in my thirties, I had never picked up a camera, knew nothing about photography and didn’t even take holiday or memory snaps on the phone. To be honest, I never really thought about it. But after graduating as a learning disability nurse my wife suggested I do some short courses with the local college as a way to de-stress in the evenings. She was doing eight-week courses in pottery, glass making, stuff like that, but I had no interest in any of that. In the end I decided to do photography just because I like hiking and thought it might be nice to learn how to take a good photo of the mountains in Snowdonia. So I did an eight-week course (one evening a week) and learnt the basics: exposure triangle, how to use a camera, and some simple editing techniques in Adobe Bridge. My tutor was really encouraging and to be honest, if it wasn’t for him I might not have started taking it as seriously as I have, so I owe him a lot. I did a longer night course in the same college after that, where we did some more advanced stuff on Photoshop and did a ten-picture essay, but otherwise I have been self-taught. I mostly learn from studying other artists’ work from photobooks, websites and zines. Sometimes I look up some technical stuff on YouTube; that’s how I learnt how to use flash and do zone focusing etc. But otherwise I just try and go my own way. I have no interest in doing an A level or degree course. I tend to learn and work independently with everything I do.

Dwyran, Sir Fon / Anglesey
Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.
**CJ:** How long have you been taking photos?
**EP:** I’m 37 now so I’ve been photographing for around 5-6 years and trying to make up for lost time. I’ve become quite obsessed, to be honest, and the more I do it, the more I want to do it. The perfect life for me would be to quit the day job and use my time to write stories and take pictures, but of course, the world doesn’t work like that.
I’m only interested in taking the pictures I want to take too, so making a career out of wedding or commercial photography would never be my thing. I’m not great at weaving photography into my normal day, although I am getting better at remembering to take a small point-and-shoot camera around with me. I prefer to set time aside, like on a weekend or in the evenings, where I can get my head into it and commit completely to the challenge of finding a picture. I tend to visit the same places over and over again, getting deeper into the psyche of a place as I continue my practice. For me, there is no other way. It’s about getting a good picture, but it’s also about knowing a place and its people. That’s where the good stuff comes from. Once you get a feel for how a place thinks and feels you get better pictures.

Muster Point, Hirael, North Wales, Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.

Llandudno in 2021 on a Ricoh GRIII
Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.
CJ; Do you find it easy to ask people when you would like to take their photo?
EP: I knew I wanted to take pictures of people very early on but I didn’t know how to do it. I’m a shy person and really struggle with social anxiety, although lots of people might not realise it because I have learned how to mask this over the years.
Generally, the idea of socialising with other people, making small talk or just being in a room full of people is really challenging for me. So I can imagine people might be surprised that I have ended up going down the street portrait route with my work. But I think it works for me because there is very little planning involved so I don’t have time to really overthink the process, and when I approach a stranger for a portrait, I am in control of the social interaction from the outset which makes it easier for me. I know what to say and how to say it. I think my day job has taught me the skills needed to make people feel at ease when I photograph them. I have always worked with people, as a support worker with adults with learning disabilities in my 20s and as a nurse later on, so my bread and butter has always been about understanding and responding to need. I think people feel that, whether they know it or not when I take their picture. I don’t pose people. I don’t direct them. I’m polite and tell them what and why I’m doing what I’m doing. For the person I’m photographing, I don’t think it feels like they’re being photographed by a photographer, I think it just feels like they’re doing a bloke with a camera a favour, and I think that works to make that moment between us. And I take the picture quickly. Picture first, small talk second. I’m all about the picture.

Holyhead / Caergybi
Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.
CJ: What do you get personally out of taking photos, and creating portraits?
EP: When I started taking pictures I stayed away from people. I was nervous about being on the street with a camera, but like I said, I knew that people interested me the most, I just didn’t know how to do it. I remember watching stuff online about Martin Parr and Bruce Gilden and seeing them run into strangers’ faces with a flash on the street and I thought there’s no way I can do that. I read something Bruce Gilden said once about how you should be honest and upfront with your camera because if you try and take pictures more stealthily it makes you look guilty, so I kind of felt like taking pictures of people wasn’t going to be an option for me. I didn’t have the knowledge of photographic history or practice behind me at the time to know what to do. I wasn’t particularly enamoured with traditional portrait photography either so I knew that avenue wasn’t for me.
Then somewhere down the line, I discovered Niall Mcdiarmid’s photography and that changed everything. I didn’t like it at first, because the pictures weren’t 100% candid, but somewhere in between. But the more I saw of his work the more I went back until something clicked. I watched or read something about his work where he said that capturing the awkwardness of the encounter somehow works for him, and that he works quickly, taking a few quick shots and moving on. And I remember thinking at the time, okay I can do that. That feels comfortable to me. So, I did that. I just went out, saw somebody that caught my eye and asked them to take their photo. The first time I did it I was absolutely paralysed with nerves. My heart was beating and my mouth was dry. I still find it hard now, but it gets easier. The more I do it the easier it gets. And the buzz I get afterward is unparalleled. I think with street photography there are no rules, and you just have to find your own way. I think if you are true to yourself, you can find an approach to photographing people that works for you. Take Bruce Gilden for example, he has an abrasive personality so he can pull off taking pictures the way he does it, and the results speak for themselves. But I have a much quieter, more low-key personality, so I had to find a different way. If you are true to yourself, and your approach matches this, the people you photograph will accept you.

Bangor, North Wales, Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.

Bangor aye, 2022 @hellaburrows
Instant natural in front of the camera - I didn't have to say anything, just click the shutter and hope for the best (which worked on this occasion)
Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.
**EP:** I am artistically ambitious about my photography but I have no economic or career aspirations to do with photography. Tom Wood is my idol, both photographically and in the way he chose to approach his work: working a part-time job and spending the rest of his life photographing on his terms. By going to the same place over and over again he has a body of work which not only includes stand-out photographs that work on their own, but are also a document of a time and a place which, without his pictures, we would know much less about.

Danielmechanic from Caernarfon used to work on the Snowdon railway but left because of the impact of smoke from the coal on his health. Taken in Bangor, North Wales, Nov 2021 Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.
EP: My ambition photographically is to continue photographing the North Wales area, focusing primarily on Rhyl and Bangor, so that when I am old and grey I will have a body of work that documents this place and its people over a long period of time. And then maybe I can think about what I want to do with the work in terms of exhibitions and books. I also want to carry on photographing Anglesey and revisit my landscape work in Snowdonia. But for now, it’s all about Rhyl and Bangor. There’s just an energy for me about those places. And of course, so many colours and unique characters that make the pictures more interesting.

Jonathan, Colwyn Bay April 2021
Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.

Just outside Maes G, Bangor, North Wales, Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.

Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.
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Caernarfon, Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.

Photographer, Emyr Payne, Wales.