DOCUMENTARY

photography

DOCUMENTARY photography

A young man in a black winter jacket holding a scooter over his shoulder at an outdoor skate park.

Half of my practice is rooted within documentary storytelling. This page gives an overview a few of my projects. If you have any questions regarding prints or commissions, you can find my contact info at the bottom of the page.

‘Of Skin & Rock’

I grew up climbing the Snowdonian mountains with my dad and uncle; I can remember the mix of intense fear and exhilaration on that cold and dark day where a ten-year-old Fin scaled a 150ft cliff face without ropes alongside my father – wanting to make him proud. The motivation driving me all those years ago is experienced by every climber and boulderer when on the rock – it is the ecstasy that draws us junkies back whenever we can afford the time. This project documents this community from Fontainebleau (the birthplace of bouldering) to my local crag and beyond.

The Archaic Man

Take a moment to imagine a man. What does he look like? Stereotypically muscular, tall, dominating? Maybe your vision is more prosaic, a beer belly protruding through a tight Fat Face top and a pair of kind eyes? Or is he older – a father perhaps? What we picture is a compromise between those men in our lives whom we care for and societal projections of masculinity, or, to put it more simplistically, between your experience and your expectation. ​

These factors are reciprocally linked; the expectation of what a man looks like will be reinforced by those groups and individuals committed to conforming. Whereas, if the societal projection is too divorced from the physical and mental attributes of a population, it will be rejected and forced to evolve into something more applicable.

I wanted to explore this phenomenon and use photography to draw an aesthetic and conceptual link between modern British men and archaic and classical sculpture – one of the first studies of the nude male form. 

A black and white photograph of a topless person wearing white linen trousers with a black and white painters sheet in the background, taken by Fin MacMillan on film.
A black and white photograph of a topless man posing like a Greek statue with a dark background, taken by Fin MacMillan on 5x4 film.
A black and white portrait photograph of a woman in patterned overalls and a head scarf posing with crossed arms and with out-of-focus foliage in the background, taken by Fin MacMillan on 5x4 film.

Places and faces

A study of the people who live in Dorset. Each portrait was shot on 5x4 large format film and each subject was able to annotate the white boarder of their image - the collaboration created an intimate look into each individual.