I have spent many days in many different places photographing people at work in factories, workshops and offices. The problems are often the same - factories can be messy, people in offices are mostly looking at screens and the lighting is usually terrible, so it was a pleasure to find myself in the brightly lit and colourful home of TOT Shirts in North London where they have been screen printing and embroidering everything from music t-shirts to school leavers sweaters since 1985. When I’m doing a reportage shoot I prefer not to direct people but simply to try and be a ‘fly on the wall’ and capture them doing their work so it’s a question of wandering around, keeping my eyes open and blending in to the background. There’s always the same the reaction when I arrive - everyone becomes self conscious and camera shy but I’ll usually have a chat with them and ask them to show me what they’re doing and five minutes later they’ve forgotten I’m there….
