FOCUS: Making Things by Salvo Toscano Photography

Submitted by Anna Stassen on Thu, 22/09/2011 - 06:00

We like to think that more people are starting to rediscover the value in doing things the "traditional" way. There's something honest and satisfying about handmade; a feeling we at UK Handmade hope is seeping into the collective subconscious.

 
Knitwear Designer
 
Today, we want to show you a wonderful project which celebrates all the above; a photographic collection which captures the hand-makers who are keeping traditional techniques alive and kicking in and around the home-town of the photographer, Salvo Toscano. Rather appropriately, Salvo has used traditional film to capture his subjects and also develops all his photographs himself in his own dark room. 
 
Designer
 
I am a great supporter of products that are handmade, creatively and uniquely designed. Considering that in my own work and activity I adopt those handmade approaches often referred to as "traditional", how could I not be?
 
Florist
 
I am a great fan of those that provide a much more interesting and challenging alternative to mass produced items sold on the high street by the big distribution giants. I personally see several reasons for this and of course they are all personal points of view, some are:
 
  • I support local/small entrepeneurs hence helping in supporting local economies (I appreciate how naive this may sound to some people...), "local" in a broader sense.
  • I give my money to people that use their personal talent and creativity to give us something different, that breaks this mould of cliche and sameness imposed on us nearly everywhere (is it not depressing to travel all over the world and see the same chain shop everywhere selling exactly the same item?).

Teddybear Maker

  • The individuality even though part of the same community.
  • It supports ideas, thinking, culture, skills development and exchanges, creativity, communication within the community.
  • It gives us a choice: it is not "you can have any colour you want as long as it is black" and we can choose whom we want to buy from.
Of course, as with everything, it's also a matter of finding the right balance as one side of this story must not or cannot exclude the other and there is a place and a role for both aspects of the economy.
 
Ceramicist
 
I am a Reading based photographer and I like to explore what is happening around the place where I live. Last year I worked on a portrait project that eventually resulted in an exhibition. It was an exploration of people with a strong passion and drive involved in the local community. This year, I decided to work on a follow up to that and started another portrait project: this time I wanted to look at people in the local "handmade world".
 
Dress-maker
 
The aim is to photograph people that use their own creative, artistic, design, "artisan" skills to make a "unique product", as opposed to the sameness found in Chain Stores and the High Street that is quite common nowadays. The people involved in this project all design and "make things" and are based in Reading and the immediate surrounding areas. They deliver a product to a final customer that is characterised by a unique design, creative and artistic twist, something that the artisan has marked with her/his vision and talent.
 
Milliner
 
For more information about Salvo Toscano visit his website: http://www.salvotoscanophotography.com/

 

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Comments

Submitted by salvo on Thu, 23/02/2012 - 11:49.

project update

I thought I'd post an update on the status of the Makers project that you kindly featured on your great site. Unfortunately I have decided to put it temporarily on hold and hopefully to get back to it later on. I have taken this decision due to several reasons, a main one being the difficulty that I have been experiencing in finding suitable sitters that would meet the criteria that I had set for me and the project. This decision in a way highlights a point that I was trying to raise through this project that is the shortage/lack of artisans and makers in our community and the need to acknowledge their work and existence. I feel extremely disappointed about this but I thought best to put things on hold for a while and assess the work, re-focus, review the approach I want to give to this work and get back to it with renewed energy. I would like to thank you again for this article and for the great work you do supporting handmade. I do hope to get back to this work soon and show you the complete series of images.

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