Described as an antidote to throwaway culture, Suzy Bennett’s beautiful book Artisans of Dartmoor celebrates inspiring individuals who work in traditional crafts. Tracy Calder talks to her about the challenges involved in environmental portraiture
Suzy Bennett is an award-winning journalist and photographer with clients including The Telegraph, The Times and Conde Nast Traveller. She spent the first 20 years of her career specialising in adventure travel, but now works closer to home in her beloved Devon. Suzy is one of the UK’s leading writers and photographers of traditional crafts. In 2017 she founded The Dartmoor Artisan Trail, a not-for-profit community project that gives people the chance to visit members in their workshops. Her book, Artisans of Dartmoor, is out now. To find out more visit www.dartmoor-artisan-trail.co.uk and www.suzybennett.com.
Blacksmith Greg Abel works in near-total darkness, the colour of hot metal determining his next move. Dust settles on his clothes, skin and hair, turning everything grey. At the heart of the room is a forge housing a coal fire that Greg expertly tends. The walls around him are lined with tools for grasping, twisting and hammering metal. He is the master of his domain, and his cave-like workplace is both a photographer’s paradise and a photographer’s worst nightmare.
Award-winning journalist and photographer Suzy Bennett first encountered Greg while looking to buy a curtain rail nearly 20 years ago. ‘I’d just moved to Devon from London and the cottage I live in has very wobbly walls,’ she smiles. Someone from the pub suggested that Suzy contact the local blacksmith, so that’s where she headed, armed with a few measurements and no idea of what to expect. ‘Having lived in London, I’d been completely sealed off from acts of creation, so seeing this Victorian forge with its old ironmongery, was absolutely bewitching,’ she recalls. ‘It was like entering a time warp.’
Cultural movement
Suzy’s visit to the blacksmith led to an interest in other crafts in the area. ‘From that moment on I was captivated by the craft scene,’ she reveals. Luckily for Suzy, Greg was well connected, and he introduced her to a willow weaver, who introduced her to a shoemaker, who introduced her to a potter, and so on. Having settled in the community, Suzy decided to embark on a personal project documenting some of the people and places she discovered. ‘The project just grew and grew leading to a couple of exhibitions,’ she explains. ‘After a while, people started suggesting I make a book out of it.’
At the time Suzy had a shortlist of about 20 artisans, but it wasn’t until January 2024 that she finally felt ready to start work on a book. ‘By then I had more than 40 people on my shortlist, and I was spoilt for choice,’ she says. While some newspapers were bemoaning the demise of traditional crafts across Britain, Suzy found the opposite to be true in her corner of Devon. ‘I could see this cultural movement happening right on my doorstep and I felt compelled to celebrate and document it,’ she explains. Having been asked to speak at the Bovey Tracey Craft Festival in June this year, she decided to give herself 18 months to complete the book. ‘I cancelled my entire social life,’ she laughs. ‘I barely took a day off.’
Staying close to home
Before Suzy began her social record of modern-day Dartmoor, she worked as a travel writer and photographer. ‘Of course, this was a climate change disaster,’ she admits. ‘Once I became fully aware of this, I decided do something less damaging to the planet and focus more on my local community.’ Suzy went from flying around the world to concentrating on stories closer to home – now she is one of the UK’s leading writers and photographers of traditional crafts.
Thanks to its natural resources, Dartmoor has been supporting craftspeople for centuries. ‘There’s a woodturner here who lives just 15 miles from a Bronze Age cist where the earliest example of woodturning in the UK was ever found,’ says Suzy. ‘It’s incredible to think that our ancestors were working in a similar way millennia ago…the human urge to create is the same now as it was then.’ According to Suzy, this call to create is one of humankind’s most defining traits. ‘Our biggest leap in evolution was the discovery that we could make tools,’ she explains. ‘It was a gamechanger because it meant we could adapt to new environments and improve our living conditions…Craft nowadays is a main vein to our primitive making instinct.’
Unique challenges
Working with our hands can have a positive impact on our mental health, something that Suzy heard time and again from the makers. ‘It taps into a part of the brain that nothing else reaches,’ she suggests. ‘It reduces stress and anxiety, and it satisfies our need for self-expression.’ While some of the makers bend wood, heat metal or trim clay, Suzy finds her peace via photography. ‘I have an extremely busy internal monologue, which never shuts up unless I’m photographing,’ she laughs. ‘It’s literally the only time I get a holiday from my brain.’ This holiday, however, isn’t always relaxing.
Photographing artisans in their natural environment comes with a number of challenges. Low light, confined spaces and cluttered backgrounds are just a few of the things that Suzy has to contend with. ‘To be honest, I love gloomy flat light,’ she laughs. ‘It creates soft shadows and kind of suits Dartmoor.’ Having decided to use natural light for all but one of the images – the picture of Greg in the smithy – Suzy avoided bright sunny days and kept her gear to a minimum. ‘Some of the studios were so small there would have been no room to set up artificial lighting anyway,’ she says. ‘Also, I didn’t think it would suit the theme of the book, which is very rustic, earthy and natural. I quickly learnt how to read natural light and work with it rather than fight it.’
Photogenic, yet authentic
While natural light can be used in small spaces to create intimate, atmospheric pictures, working in tight conditions can often be physically demanding, as Suzy explains. ‘When I’m on location, I’m always ducking between people’s legs, climbing on things, straddling things or hanging from things,’ she laughs. Another challenge is managing the level of clutter in a space. Early on, Suzy decided to play down evidence of modern machinery or tools, which often meant a bit of styling was required. ‘We generally had an agreement that any eye-catching, glary stuff would be removed if it detracted from the story,’ she reveals.
On the flip side, Suzy had to persuade people not to tidy up too much before a shoot. ‘When I did a recce at Greg’s he had all this beautiful Victorian ironmongery strung along the rafters – it looked like no one had touched the place in 200 years – but when I came back, he’d thrown loads of it out,’ she laughs. ‘It was a constant conversation between things looking photogenic and things looking authentic – I had to find balance between the two’.
While Suzy tried not to give too much direction, if a subject was struggling to relax, she would ask them to tap into what they love about their craft. ‘I would tell them to be proud of what they have achieved, and I would remind them that they were in their domain, their happy place,’ she says. ‘All of a sudden, their shoulders would go back, their chin would go up and their posture would change.’ Jessie Watson Brown, the hide tanner featured on the book’s cover, is a good example. ‘She’s quite a modest character but she’s so proud of what she does that she needed no instruction,’ says Suzy. ‘She struck this awesome pose that seemed to say, “This is me, this is my domain, and I am in my element.”’
Artisans of Dartmoor by Suzy Bennett is available now. To order the book (or find out more about the Dartmoor Artisan Trail) visit www.dartmoor-artisan-trail.co.uk. You can see more of Suzy’s work at www.suzybennett.com. I also chatted to Suzy for my podcast We Need to Make Things. For a link to the episode visit www.tracycalder.com.
Suzy’s tips for environmental portraiture
Manage the subject’s expectations
Let your subject know how long a session might take, how much tidying will be required, how disruptive it will be and if they can continue working while you set up the shoot. You don’t want to feel as though you have to rush – nothing good comes from rushing!
Keep equipment to a minimum
When you’re working in small spaces, keep gear to a minimum so your subject doesn’t feel intruded upon. Also, If you move things around, remember where they belong so you can help put everything back.
Prepare a shot list
Start with easy shots until you get your eye in and understand the atmosphere of a space. Don’t attempt the hero portrait until you know exactly how you’re going to shoot it – this will stop you from looking amateurish and losing the confidence of your subject.
Make the most of natural light
Use an app such as Sun Scout to work out where the sun will fall at specific times. In addition, if you’re using natural light, put your subject by a window and shoot them looking out of it so that the light falls on their face.
Deal with cluttered backgrounds
Get back as far as possible and shoot with a long lens and wide aperture to separate your subject from what might be a very cluttered background. Also, try shooting through a door frame, plant or window to introduce foreground blur and add atmosphere and depth.
Share shots with your subject
If you’re tethering to an iPad, show your subject the pictures after each set – they might spot things you’ve missed or suggest improvements. They might also see what they need to do to look more relaxed if you’re struggling to pose them.
Equipment
Suzy used a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and 24-70mm lens for 80% of the project. She also used 70-200mm, 100mm and 16-35mm lenses. Her camera was tethered to her iPad using a CamRanger 2. When space allowed, she used a tripod; when it didn’t, she used a monopod. To help predict where the sun would be, Suzy used a Sun Scout app. When the project was well underway, she bought a drone, which enabled her to include wider views of the landscape.
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