PIECES OF A DREAM

ERSKINE FENTY.!

 

.... yep my name is Dr. Erskine Fenty but it is me that is special, not my title.  A little bit more about me. Well, those who know me and know me well will already know all the juicy bits, all the heartache, all the scandals and all of my loves in life.

 

Basically, I am a down to earth guy who has a creative streak in me that dates back from childhood. I was born in and have been educated in the UK. I was not the easiest of students, not surprising when you consider that I grew up in a racially divisive and tense area back in the 1960’s plus I was later diagnosed as having Conduct Disorder as a child, being mildly Autistic, having Dyslexia and a whole range of other social and educational issues; but the fact is, life is what you make it and this probably accounts for why most of my life has been spent maximising my adult education opportunities and helping others.

 

My interest in education probably comes from a deep-seated belief that with an education, the world really is yours for the taking. My whole life changed (educationally) at 15, when a desire to have a copy of a photograph of a girl I was crushing on at school, was made possible. That desire to gain a copy was fraught at every corner by the head of the science department at that time, but as luck would have it, I did push on and not only got a copy but got on the course.

 

I wonder how many people can remember the first time they did something with such passion and determination, but I can. The whole event changed my educational behaviour 360* and out of the other side came a desire to learn and learn fast. I remember all the excuses my photography teacher gave to not let me get started; I remember giving up an evening of table tennis practice (back then, that was like cutting off your right arm); I remember the darkroom; I remember the whole thing, the learning curve and most of all I remember the very first time I saw an image being developed in the "dev" tray. That day I will always remember because it was just one of the cogs in my big artistic wheel world of photography and over the last 40 years it has allowed me to creatively, express myself. 

 

At 18yrs of age, a local community worker, Roy Burgess (hope I spelt his name right) sat me down and had a man-man chat with me after I had been sent to him to serve a community order, it was to change my then path of life. I was to meet up with Roy on many occasions later and as a result of his input, my desire to put something back in (almost a pay it forward) to any community I choose to work with was matched by many opportunities to work alongside Roy, mainly at "Project Contact" in my local town. Those from my local area will be all too familiar with our local old-school Playschemes and our Action Bus, both of which were a great chance for me meet some human beings for whom their passion was to help others.

 

Physically, I keep myself more than "just fit", so I exercise every day and try to eat smart all of which means I enjoy my life and live it to the max. After being rejected twice for entry to the RCA in London and having repeated refusal to exhibition space at the Photographers Gallery in London, I got a chance to teach photography and from there, ended up spending a large part of my life teaching in both Further Education and Special Needs Schools Placements and that desire to help will never leave me because I still appreciate all those who have helped me.

 

I recognise my limitations from the above but like most people, you learn coping strategies and to that end, I do a great job of hiding my weaknesses of which writing still remains my greatest challenge (so if you see mistakes in my text be kind to me and tell me in an email).

 

Beyond photography, a subject that I was lucky enough to study full time back in the 80’s (where real photography meant taking pictures on silver based film and then getting your hands dirty and your lungs full of chemicals in a darkroom), I also have a mad passion for cooking, recording music, indoor rowing and mountain bikes.

 

My graduate, my postgraduate and post-doctoral educational background has seen me cover many subjects including; psychology, sociology, sports therapy, sports coaching, hypnotherapy and include having a four good teaching qualification in which I trained to teach adult literacy, ITC and those with dyslexia and speech acquisition issues and this all only really came to a standstill when I completed my post-grad studies in 2004 and fell out with the administrators of my teaching college in 2006 over a matter totally unrelated to them or my professional abilities.

 

For me it is important to keep things real (and while accepting that everyone has a history and despite my own) my community involvement, which has been on-going since 1976, is something that is very much who I am on this planet and something that photography has allowed me to both get involved with and express myself… for that, I owe a depth of gratitude to two women and two men; Mr Morris my old Biology teacher from school. Mr Morris allowed me to join the photography class against his better judgement and in the light of my then poor school record; I did him proud by going on to get a grade A in my GCSE O-Level. I also pay tribute to Geoff Weston from my photography art college, a lecturer; Geoff taught me the Ansel Adam’s Zone System and to this date, it is the one most single thing that has advanced my knowledge in photography. The Zone System has given me an insight into both an understanding of exposure and an appreciation of light. My mother deserves all the credit in the world just for being my mum but her mum deserves the same +1 for my grandmother gave up a lot at the age of 38 to allow me to become the man I am today; I shall always honour my grandmother’s life and her memory.

 

All of my work is created in my head and through my camera. I do not use PhotoShop, actually I do not even know how to use PhotoShop or any other photo editing software beyond that which is supplied in Microsoft Office. If anyone wishes to ask me a question about any of my work, then I openly welcome your questions. In most of my images, I do not go into any great details about my photo beyond describing its location because I believe that the images should speak for themselves.