http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 37
FOLLOWERS OF FILMhats] who I have photographed a lot.
He is very strong. He’s a strong male
and his body is very well built. He
also has very strong Afro-Caribbean
features. I like to bring a level of
softness to the pictures I take of
him. The black male body isn’t
always thought of as being beautiful,
or soft, or delicate, so I like to
portray it that way – in a way that
isn’t usually expressed. You can see
his strength, but his body language
expresses a level of softness. Most
of the pictures I take of him are part
of fashion editorials, but really they
are portraits.
‘Before I take a portrait I have to
build a rapport with the person I am
photographing; it’s the same kind of
rapport that I have learnt to build as
a doctor. I always spend some time
doing that, so I can get comfortable
with that person and they can get
comfortable with me. It’s just having
a conversation and finding
something in common that we can
talk about or laugh about. In
medicine we do this; we are trained
in how to break bad news and in
understanding how to initiate a
conversion with a patient. We are
taught to figure out the person to
know whether the patient will need
a family member with them when
they get bad news or if they are the
sort of person who wouldn’t want
anyone else there to hear about their
health. You learn to make them feel
comfortable in a very short period of
time. It can be easy when you shoot
with film of course, because the
person will always want to talk
about the gear, and will be intrigued
that you aren’t shooting with a
digital camera.
‘It’s not by chance that we are
inclined to certain things. It reflects
inherently our personality traits.
I know I can be a very practical
“well-defined” person, because I use
both sides of my brain. I’ve always
been creative but photography has
allowed me to get out of that stiff
practical mentality so I can have a
better balance, so I can look at the
world a bit differently.
‘My photography goal is to
share my experience. My ultimate
goal though is to have medicine,
travel and photography as one
beautiful being in my life. How
that is going to happen we shall
have to see. One of the reasons I
went into medicine was Doctors
Without Borders...so maybe
that will be my path.’country and should be cleared
customs on Wednesday. I want to
start with 5x7in portraits of the older
members of my family. I have a
Rittreck large format camera that’s
very modular. I have 4x5 and 5x7
backs for it, and I’m trying to get a
10x8 back. That’s my favourite large
format camera for taking out of the
house as it’s portable. I have a Toyo
large format camera too but it’s huge
and heavy so I use that in the studio.
‘Once a month I take out all my
cameras and fire the shutters fast and
slow, so they stay in good condition.
It takes a while, I have so many.
Believe it or not, I haven’t bought a
new camera every week since
starting photography. I’ve not bought
a new camera for over a month!’
Approach
‘Since I started this process my focus
has been to connect other people to
my culture and experiences as a
diasporic Afro-Caribbean person. All
photographers reflect their life
experiences, and I want to share my
experience of the Caribbean reality.
In Trinidad and Tobago we are a
complex society. We are mixed up,
we are descendants of enslaved
persons, descendants of indentured
labourers the Indo-Trinidadians. We
are a post-colonial society that only
got its independence in 1962, and in
so being we are a very young
country. We are still freeing ourselves
from some post-colonial upbringings- we’ve only just got our own exams
in schools to replace the British
A-Level system. My goal is to share
all of that. I hope that as people
experience my pictures they see the
beauty in the complexity of a
Caribbean society that is constantly
redefining itself and understanding
itself on new levels.
‘I have a photographer friend
called Jabari [the one with all the
To find out more see
http://www.instagram.com/
kellyannbobb_
photography and http://www.
kellyannbobb.com.Above: Fashion, on
the Mamiya RB67
with Fuji Pro 400HAbove left:
Portrait of Jabari
taken on expired
Fuji NPS film that
I developed, with
the Mamiya 645Left: Self-portrait
with my Toyo 5x4
view camera. Shot
with Fuji FP-
100B45 black &
white instant film