Blog: A twist on a Twist

This week the Guardian in association with Vintage books asked photographers “of all ages” to imagine and capture how Oliver Twist's world would look now. An exciting task indeed, BUT when reading the small print the article said ‘Entrants must be 18 or over’. Working with a group of talented young artists, I felt that they were more than up for the challenge and so with advice and support from professional photographer Camilla Adams, we decided to create some entries to urge the Guardian to acknowledge that young photographers can produce fantastic pieces too.   

The brief:

To create a cover for the Vintage Classics new edition of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. A cover that not only reflects the Twist story but is also true to the themes of: homelessness, crime and life on the urban streets.  

Long gone are the days of handsome orphan boys dressed in rags with their possessions held together in spotted handkerchiefs, street life nowadays is a whole different story.  We started the session by looking at the ways in which Oliver had been portrayed through the ages, considering illustrations, photographs and film clips. We then took a look at photographs used for existing book covers. We talked about the old saying ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover’ and decided that actually you often can and that’s why it’s so important to get one that draws a reader in.

Dickens stated that Oliver Twist was to be a true representation of life on London’s streets in his preface he said the story was to represent “The cold, wet, shelter less midnight streets of London; the foul and frowzy dens, where vice is closely packed and lacks the room to turn; the haunts of hunger and disease, the shabby rags that scarcely hold together.”Armed with our cameras and some spray paint we left on our mission….To put a twist on Twist. 

The session was a fantastic opportunity for the group to channel their creative thoughts to fit a brief (great practice for those hoping for a career as an artist). It was also a good opportunity for us to explore our surroundings, looking at things differently.  The group produced some excellent work which I think is not only valuable in its own right but is also of a standard high enough to challenge the Guardian to rethink their age guidelines and reconsider what the phrase ‘photographers of all ages’ really means.