Alwyn Jennings' Streets of Cork homage to passing strangers

CORK’S most popular street photographer, Alwyn Jennings, launches his first exhibition next week. The Streets of Cork, at Cork City Hall, will feature 20 framed and signed, black-and-white portraits, and is in aid of the Cork University Hospital (CUH) Children’s Charity (the CUH children’s unit is undergoing a €1.5m refurbishment).

The photographs are vignettes of people walking through Cork City streets on weekend mornings. There’s a butcher in his stripy apron making a delivery; a close-up of the lined face of a handsome, elderly gentleman; a smiling girl with face piercings; and two fishermen enjoying an ice-cream break on the banks of the River Lee.

Established earlier this year by Jennings, ‘The Streets of Cork’ Facebook project quickly gained momentum, receiving up to 1,000 hits per day.

Also be sure to check out The Streets of Cork Exhibition winch will run for a week starting next Friday. And... http://t.co/MYHhWjeSBS

— UCC Photo Soc (@UCCPhotoSoc) November 8, 2013

“It spiralled so quickly. I didn’t expect it to be so popular. I thought the only people who’d log on would be the people I’d taken the photographs of. After a while, I realised that people had a human interest in the photos,” says Jennings, who photographs strangers and then “releases [their pictures] back into the wild” via his Facebook page.

“I was getting lots of messages from people saying that the photos were very uplifting, and that they were logging on every day to see them, and that there was a positive energy about them.”

An engineer, Jennings has completed a number of photography courses, and launched the project on a whim.

“I still don’t know where I get the time to do it. When you’re a photographer, there’s a part of you that takes photographs for yourself, and also a part of you that wants other people to see them,” says the married father-of-three, who spends a few hours every weekend taking portraits on his 1970s, Hassleblad 500CM camera. Originally popular with fashion photographers, the Hassleblad is a film camera, and is held at waist-height. “It’s a lovely camera to shoot with. Even though it’s an old-style film, you get that quality that matches digital,” says Jennings. “A lot of people get heated up over the debate about what’s better, digital or film. For me, neither is better, they’re simply tools in a toolbox. I like the fact that every photo I take with an analogue camera will be different. It won’t be a perfect photograph, but it captures more of the human element,” he says.

Jennings is passionate about the project, but says it’s not easy for him to approach strangers and request a photograph.

“I’m not a super outgoing guy and, often, I have to overcome my nervousness and anxiety to walk up to people,” he says.

However, he always rallies when “the fear of approaching a stranger is overcome by the desire to take their photograph.”

Jennings acknowledges the trust between him and the strangers he photographs.

“I think there’s a sense of photographic responsibility to people. If the photograph isn’t flattering, I just don’t post it on the page. People are trusting me [when I take their picture]. The internet is a hub of all sorts of things and I wouldn’t like to see anyone bullied or ridiculed,” he says.

Like renowned Dublin street photographer, Arthur Fields (who took photographs of people crossing O’Connell Bridge for 50 years), Jennings is gradually documenting a slice of 2013 Cork life, and has no plans to hang up his camera.

He will continue with the project for as long as it excites him, and looks forward to shooting in the winter light. “When it’s not raining, this time of year is lovely. The light is nice and soft, and you don’t get all the harsh shadows on people’s faces,” he says.

“It’s not just about the photography, it’s like a social experiment. When the chemistry’s right and you’re feeling good, it transfers to people and you can see it back in the photograph,” he says. “It’s that moment of capturing someone after the first few minutes of meeting them.”

* The Streets of Cork photographic exhibition opens in the Cork City Hall atrium on Friday, Nov 15. All proceeds go towards the CUH Children’s Unit.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AROUND THE WORLD:

- Bill Cunningham, New York: a documentary about Bill Cunningham, a cyclist street photographer who worked for the New York Times for decades.

- Scott Schuman snaps fashionable people all over the world for www.thesartorialist.com.

- Phil Oh works for Vogue and documents street style in his blog, www.streetpeeper.com.

- A variety of photographers form a street photography collective at www.dublinstreetphotographers.com.