Mixed emulsions

Bristol-based Esther began as a runner for TV and film production companies, eventually directing episodes of Doctors, Hollyoaks and Skins. She continued with her personal photography alongside. During lockdown, she has been sending out ‘photography care packages’ to local children, who use the camera she supplies, before sending back the film for processing. www.esthermay campbell.com.

Esther May Campbell

FILM photography has been in Esther May Campbell’s blood since childhood. She was given a Polaroid camera when she was eight years old, but it was the Olympus OM1 she received in her early teens that really changed things. ‘My teens were quite tricky times,’ she explains. ‘I was at a fairly dishevelled all-girls state school, and there was a certain amount of bullying. Taking pictures helped me navigate some of those relationships, and being in the darkroom meant I could escape and process the pictures of the world around me. It was bliss.’

Despite relishing the escapism photography offered, Esther had no intention of following it as a career. However, having worked her way up the ladder in television production, she discovered it was an industry that didn’t marry particularly well with the commitments of bringing up a daughter. ‘I came home to pick up a camera again and photograph what was immediately around me,’ she says.

What to shoot was never in question – it was always going to be black & white, as this best expressed her interpretation of her environment. ‘I see light better than