Artwork Posted for 2010: 'Within You'

ORIGINAL INTERVIEW TAKEN FROM THE AMAZE PROJECT BLOGZINE

Amaze caught up with Darren Bannister, from CIT Delivery, after hearing he was involved with a competition in his workplace that showcased staff member’s photos around the office.

This idea tied in nicely with several other Civil Service initiatives including the Your Space Competition, and a current proposal going through the Idea Street Investment Time Team regarding hanging pieces of art around the offices of the Civil Service.

Intrigued we had to find out how the competition was created, and if it had any effect on his life outside of work, and we were pleasantly surprised by the results.

Darren writes:

I’ve been in the Dept for over 18 yrs, mainly Jobcentre plus, until last December when I joined CIT as a FLSM at Lincoln CC.

I have always been interested in Photography and little bit of design - any Dept ‘design a poster’ competition I always entered, I’ve even had one of my photos on the Dept’s photo gallery.

In the Lincoln CC I was invited by the Manager to judge our own ‘in house’ photography competition. A different subject each month gives the staff a chance to show their photos, and the winning photo is then blown up, framed and hung on the office wall – this is a great feeling of achievement for that person, and it also creates a better working environment with all these great photos on show.

With all my experience from my ‘creative hobby’ my choices have been well appreciated with members of staff.
We asked Darren about his ‘creative hobby’ and again he told us about his skills outside of the workplace in photography.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I bought my DSLR, it was then that I realised the potential of taking photographs as a hobby, or even living, then with the addition of studio lights etc I am able to produce portraits that you can find in any expensive High Street studio chain (not mentioning any names) at a fraction of the price.

When you create interesting and amazing photo’s that capture that moment for someone, and to see their reaction at the results gives you great satisfaction that you’ve done something good for them.

Apart from turning my front room into a studio to take portraits of families, kids, pets and the odd model portfolio, I’ve taken shots for Bands, Special Birthdays etc, recently I’ve done some shots for our local roller girl group ‘The Lincolnshire Bombers’ which a couple of staff are members of - Basically any chance to take photo’s and capture that shot I’ll be there.

I take my trusted camera everywhere, even to work - just in case an opportunity turns up, which has happened on many occasions - taking management ‘mug’ shots so they can be displayed on each floor or photo’s of staff on Children in Need day etc…

I’ve got thousands of images which could be used in our workplace and the dept could save a whole load of money by not turning to agencies and saying to staff ‘ we need images of… ‘I’m sure there are plenty of other hidden creative Civil Servants out there who could contribute, just for the pleasure of thinking, ‘that’s my work!”.

You can see more of Darren’s photography work on his website

darren bannister, amaze, your space extended, Your Space, amaze

Last updated 552 days ago by Tim Knight