Sam Mellish

Sam Mellish as a teenager worked throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia as a jobbing chef, later then becoming a sports editorial and documentary photographer. At the age of 26 he returned to London to study for a Master of Arts in Photojournalism. He has since settled in the city where he continues to publish and exhibit work. I am looking at Sam's series Roadside Britain a project in which he aims to represent the tradition and quintessential aspects of truck roadside culture, holding emphasis on location environment. This project spanned across the space of a 4 year period to complete, venturing along the UK's many trunk roads to bring home a real taste of roadside Britain. 

"Sam later told me, is in fact the Al, the starting point for this book, and to follow an important photographic lineage, for Paul Graham's work from 1981/82 Al; The Great North Road. There is certainly a sense that this project developed according to its own logic, fuelled by the thrill of the open road, meandering off in unexpected directions, and even photographic styles, in order to capture the spirit of the roadside cafe, bastions of anti-corporatism and purveyors of a full English and a proper cup of tea." - Introduction by Max Houghton, Roadside Britain book.

In this series there is a variety of shots, some having people in the frame and looking at relationships between people though on the most part it's either the outside or inside of the place itself which tends to be cafe's. By shooting the exterior you cannot tell if the place is open and get a sense of feel of the area that it's located in. The weather plays a key role in these photographs as it has a large impact on the overall mood. I find it interesting how Sam has travelled around the country photographing cafe's on these main roads that we won't often stop at, as we would continue driving by to get to our destination especially in some of the weather conditions that he has photographed them in, we would be more inclined to stay in our warm car than face the cold.

Shane Walker's 'Shabbily Shack' Cafe - Kelvedon - Essex - A12 shows a metal based cafe, with the scene having a thick coating of snow upon the ground it's clear to see that the cafe was possibly closed, however there are footprints in the snow which appear to be quite recent which could indicate that it may be in use, though it could have been the photographer seeing if the place was in fact open. The shack cafe is in the centre of the image, with a thick row of trees in the background beyond an open space, which could be a field under the snow. The image is filled with blues and white, which influence the feel/mood of the piece, as blue is known as a cool feeling colour this along with the snow give off a cold feeling though with how the snow is untouched it seems somewhat calming, in the background however in the foreground in front of the shack cafe there is different levels to the snow from the plants beneath and some being trodden on, it gives a more restless feel as you can sense the presence of people even though no one is in sight, you can tell that they could have been seeking for warmth.

Blue Sky Cafe - Cromer - Norfolk - A149 is taken looking down towards the entrance of the cafe, there is an open space before it which is section off by a low cut hedge and a path for outdoor seating for the cafe. The image is full of bright colours and warm tones, giving off a positive and welcoming vibe to the cafe and surrounding area. On the lefthand side of the image there is a main road and on it there is a yellow road train travelling forwards, some of the carriages you can see are bent, coming around the corner. The hedge leads your gaze towards the centre of the image, it also follows the bend round along with the train, disappearing behind the cafe which holds the main focus of the image. It stands out with how he has angled the shot so that you can see the overall structure to the building, seeing repetition in shapes within the structure, this more so as the image isn't taken from straight on at the cafe. Along with this if the image was taken from that angle rather than from a more side view the building would lose depth and it wouldn't be as visually appealing as you can also tell that behind it there is a car park and if he were to take a wide angle shot from that direction it would fill the majority of the background, overpowering the image and making it seem full and busy, whereas this angle you only just notice a couple cars making it more subtle and not that noticeable.

Sources: 

Book - Roadside Britain, Sam Mellish