How our idea developed

Sourcing Locations, clothing and models, and final concept decision and why the locations we picked fit to this

CONCEPT

Initially we were looking to focus on the steel industry Sheffield is famous for, for this we contacted the museum ‘Magna’ about potentially shooting some images in and around the exhibitions, we feel this would be a great location to really create an industrial look, especially with the mix of metals and fire features the museum offers. I contacted their enquiries office and they assured me that if needed we would have full permission to shoot throughout the museum. However, we moved away from this idea thinking that focussing on the steel industry was too much of an obvious route to go down for Sheffield based culture.

We then latched on to the idea of focussing on the music background of northern soul, wanting to use our images to recreate the feel of a northern soul dance night, for which we looked into shooting at either the bar Maida Vale of the club The Leadmill, both of which we feel are to the modern indie scene what King Mojos was to the traditional Northern soul scene. Our idea was to shoot during a club night in which the dance floor would be full of a music loving crowd and have our models showing of the northern soul style surrounded by the movement of each persons dancing. 

Another concept we have liked throughout, is using the peak district as a back drop for our images, showing of the greatness of the norths best feature at the same time as having all the focus on the clothing and styling. This is a concept we are thinking about using alongside any other idea we decide upon, as this would focus on the clothing in contrast to a shoot that would focus more on a lifestyle.

Our favourite concept for the lifestyle of northern soul sprung from the idea of using clubs as a background, while doing some research into northern soul dance and the northern soul scene in Sheffield I stumbled upon the Sheffield City hall website on which I found images of their ballroom including images of the dance floor, a traditional disco dance floor which would be a perfect back drop for styling and relating to the idea that Northern soul was a movement in which you show your style and personality through your movements. This is also a great location as it is used to host northern soul dance nights regulary. We emailed City Hall’s information office asking if it would be possible to use this space for a shoot for a few hours one day, to which they got back to us and allowed us 3 hours to shoot in the ballroom free of charge after we met with the events manager and explained to him our idea and why we needed the space

After getting this confirmation we decided on our final concept we wanted to focus on the feeling northern soul brought to ‘soulies’, the feeling of loosing your self to the music and being completely alone with yourself being fully emerged in the moment and the feeling it gave you. For this we decided to use both the City Hall Ballroom and the Peak District as shoot locations, the ball room representing the physical moment of being at a Northern soul club night, with the colours and lights that you might find in a club, we would have our models dance and pose as if they were in that moment. The peak district aspect of the shoot will show where the feeling and the moment takes you, the calmness and peacefulness of the peak district will show being alone with yourself and where the music and the atmosphere takes you inside you're head, to be alone with yourself and not having any other thought on your mind. For the final piece we hope to be able to combine both of these locations into one image through editing hopefully showing the vision we have and telling a short story of the feeling and the moment that northern soul brings, the feeling of being alone with the music (ballroom) the feeling of being alone/ where it takes you in the moment (peaks). For our concept we are fully aware of the influence drugs had on the scene which goes alongside our concept, the experience of taking drugs can take you somewhere away from reality and detach you from the moment, we feel it is important that this is a reasoning behind our concept as, they were very present in the scene and in helping soulies have these feelings of loosing themselves. More research into the impact of drugs and the relevance to the northern soul scene with be conducted later, to support this motion.

‘The idea that northern soul let you be with yourself, no talking needed just you, the feeling and the music’

STYLING

For the clothing, Taylor knows one of the sales assistants at the vintage shop Mooch, we created mood boards showing our visions for the shoot and took them in store asking if we could borrow some of their pieces for styling, while giving the store full credit and access to the images if they wish to use them for promotion. We are going to use a mix of Mooch clothing and the models own clothing as they already hold an edgy style that just needs a few added extras and tweaking to be exactly the image we envision. Mooch is a well known Sheffield based Vintage store which launched in 2011, widely known through out the city by locals as being one of the best and main stores for vintage garments, some would say iconic within the city with over 10,00 followers on instagram. They are known to have more of a traditional style to the clothes they sell very much being an advocate store for 60s-80s styles.

We wanted to go with quite a traditional northern soul style on our models, using the same styling for both shoots. We took inspiration from the research done in which we found out that the brands Fred Perry, Adidas and Dr Martens brought iconic pieces to the scene we wanted to make sure to include these brands in some way to the shoot as well as using pieces such as loose shirts over vests, wide leg denim jeans, blue denim was the main colour choice in the scene, leather jackets were especially popular even including patches that showed a persons favourite club or artist, we will make sure to include a leather jacket somewhere in the styling, this can bring a great texture to a photograph as well as showing iconic northern soul styling, polo shirts were a big part of mens style during northern soul, using a variety of polo shirts in different colours and fabrics will bring depth to the piece as well as authenticity.

MODELS
For the models we initially asked my friend who works as a model, she is a very natural looking model, with hair we could style into the traditional Mod curved bob, her looks were the main reason for asking her, however as we did more research into the scene we found a few sources that said the scene was very male dominated so we thought it best to go with male only models, for this we asked Taylors friend who is in a band called The Cucamaras, an indie band who plays all around Sheffield and the UK who formed in 2018, not only are they a good choice because they have an indie, edgy look, which we think is perfect as the modern indie scene is the equivalent to the Northern should scene of the 70s. The fact that they are a band ties in with the music side and the friendship side of the scene, using a band showcases the importance that music had in the scene, also the camaraderie that comes with being in a band and the relationship this creates is a nice link to the friendships that northern soul formed, the connections people made over music were extremely strong, there have been many interviews conducted with people who used to go to northern soul nights in which it was repeated that when the scene was over loosing the friendships they created was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of their lives. For the exhibition and promotional pieces we are going to create a gig poster or a northern soul night poster linking to the band and their own actual gigs, as gigs are to the modern indie scene what club nights were to the northern sol scene. We contacted the band who were more than willing to help out, promising that they could have all images and footage for their own use, to promote their band.

We decided to use the band on the Peak district shoot as we thought their own looks and aesthetics would work well with the colours and backgrounds of the peaks. Our second shoot being in City hall and with the disco floor we wanted models with more of an edgy look to them (We were unable to use the same models for both as the band is from Nottingham and were unable to come to Sheffield for two days, however this worked well for the aesthetic of each shoot anyway) we picked two of my friends who both have a modern edgy style and brightly coloured hair, we though this look would go alongside the bright colours of the City Hall dance floor as this will only emphasise more and exaggerate the idea that a northern soul night took you away from reality and under the influence of drugs the music could create a whole new reality, the look of the disco floor and the bright hair also was a nod to a real northern soul night in which the atmosphere woul be much the same with flashing lights and a sea of colours, from the lights, the people and the clothes.