This week we are fortunate to have another talented photographer join us at The Croydon Photography Forum to share a little about their photographic practice.

Colin Pantall is a writer, photographer and lecturer based in Bath. His photography is about childhood and the mythologies of family identity. He is a senior lecturer in photography at the University of South the southwest of England including Bath Spa University, UWE and the University of Gloucestershire. In his teaching, he emphasises the integration of theory with practice and developing different narrative drives within. For Colin “in a world where we are saturated with images, it’s the story that matters.”

As a respected writer of photography, Colin writes for the British Journal of Photography, Royal Photographic Society’s RPS Journal, Photomonitor, Photographic Museum of Humanity, Source Magazine and Photo Eye.

In 2018 he co-wrote and edited Magnum China, a book that details the history and evolution of Magnum photography in China.

However, he began his journey photographing while living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Spurred on by his desire to be a tropical Eugene Atget, photographing the godowns, temples and mosques of the city. After leaving Jakarta, Colin travelled around Asia with his wife photographing environmental, travel and historical stories on topics such as seaweed farming and poverty alleviation, the birthplace of Mao, the villagers of Komodo and the myth of Shangri-La for newspapers and magazines.

After the birth of his daughter, his family settled, and Colin did an MA in Documentary Photography at Newport. He started writing for publications like the Far Eastern Economic Review and the British Journal of Photography. As he helped care for his daughter, he started photographing what was close to him in every way – his home, his wife and his daughter.

Sofa Portraits came from that period of intense domesticity and fits into a wider project on the different ages of childhood and the different visual stages that connect to those ages. His book All Quiet on the Home Front is a continuation of that project as is Broken Camera Pictures, to be published this year.

This event will be an exciting opportunity to look at the impact that photography has had on the life of another photographer how his life has shaped the direction of his work.

, and the Wales alsolectures across

We have always made this event free so that it is accessible to everyone from across the globe that would like to join us. However, in addition to the free ticket, we also offer a category of ticket, which allows for the making of a voluntary donation. This is for those people that would like to support covering the costs associated with running Lenses of Croydon and our regular events.

To keep in touch with the Lenses of Croydon Team, follow us on Twitter @LensesofCroydon or Instagram @LensesofCroydon. You can also follow Colin on the following social media accounts:

https://twitter.com/colinpantall?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/colin_pantall/?hl=en

http://colinpantall.blogspot.com