Foxes Hotel

Hey guys, Andy here. Last Saturday, 21st March, was World Down Syndrome Day and I was asked to photograph dinner service at Foxes Hotel. A Victorian seaside hotel in Minehead on the Exmoor coast, the hotel is the UK’s only fully operating training hotel for young people with learning disabilities. Last Saturday hospitality staff from the Hilton group came to work alongside the students for the three course dinner.

Event photography is always busy with things going on, often simultaneously, in different parts of a location (in this instance Foxes Hotel); none more so than a dinner service with staff moving between the bar, the kitchen, and the dining room ensuring a smooth flow of operations for the guests.

As someone who loves candid photography, I try not to intrude, but to to capture and present moments as they naturally unfold. Usually I arm myself with a zoom lens, find a spot from which I watch the action, and snipe from a distance getting close up images and portraits of people. In this instance I found myself doing the complete opposite insofar the aim of my brief was not to simply document the students, but to also showcase their skills in the same frame. A close up portrait or an image of a pair of hands would have completely missed the aim of the event, the hotel, and the students. This meant for wide angle frames which allowed the inclusion of lifestyle and situational elements, such as kitchen during dinner service, to offer context and detail.

A consistent theme during my photographic career has been people and this was an extension of that, that is to say taking lifestyle portraits, but trying to plan one step ahead and constantly moving to capture moments but without getting in the way of the main event.