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When Francis first started out he felt lost. He felt like someone who had a camera, who was always snapping but didn't really know what they were doing. Honestly I can relate to this. Even now, so close to having my degree, I still feel this sense of being lost, a sort of wondering, with no actual idea of what I'm doing.

Francis was born in Angola in 1993 and he came over to England during the time when an ongoing civil war was happening, a civil war that started in 1975 and continued till 2002.

When he was 13, he was arrested for ABH and found himself going down a dark path. A path that would lead to similar, if not more harmful, actions. He didn't really know where he was going and he didn't have anyone to guide him otherwise. Once he was arrested, his mum decided it was time for them to move.

When they moved, he met a man who changed his life. A man named Roger who gave him a sense of belief and belonging to the youth centre that Roger worked at. He'd given Francis a space in which he could just be himself, where he didn't have to play the part of the 'tough' guy, the 'gangster' type. He gave him a space where he felt trusted and wanted outside of his immediate home. They built a kinship that is still very much prevalent in Francis's life to this day.

He got a camera at 17 (roughly 2010) and he just started to take pictures of pretty much anything he could including friends and family. He really enjoyed this but he was working as a researcher, as this is what he had studied in.

It wasn't until 2017, at around 24, he started his freelance career. He had no idea about what kind of photographer he would be, nor did he know all the ins and outs of photography. He knew it was going to be hard.

I spent the rest of 2017 being anxious and being broke and trying to figure this out.

Eventually things began picking up and he just started to work.

His favourite image he has taken was one of his grandmother, taken in 2018 whilst in Geneva. He feels that it encapsulates everything about him as a photographer. This is because when he first started taking photos, he was drawn to capturing people being people. He enjoyed people watching but more than that he loved the mundane things that make us human and are often taken for granted. For this image it was basically the subject sitting down and being done. There was no licencing, no stylist, no moving around of any sorts. It was essentially a basic, simple illustration of things and people being themselves. A natural state so to speak.

Francis then went on to tell us that he's not the most technically minded photographer and that his talents mainly lay in documenting. When we look at this kind of photography it's rare to have all the time in the world to capture something that is happening. Travel photography, for him, is one of his most favourite aspects of photography because you can take the time to really immerse yourself into whatever city or country you find yourself in.

"You leave with a bunch of files that mainly showcase how you felt about that place or what you saw and sometimes it doesn't show the reality."

I could kind of sit here and tell you more about what he said, what he does, the work he's produced and it would be interesting for me to kind of explain from my perspective how he works. But whilst I enjoyed his talk, I felt the bit I most resonated with was the beginning. It was so comforting to hear somebody talk about being lost, about not really knowing what you doing because that's kind of where I'm at the minute. As I mentioned earlier I've nearly finished my degree and still don't know what I'm doing. I'm a point where I've got to make a decision about the next step and I couldn't feel more unprepared than I do in this moment. I have absolutely no idea where exactly I want to go next. More than that, it's the way Francis talks about photography. About how the goal is to really immerse yourself in what you're doing whether that's a country you're in or the project you're currently working on. It's such an important aspect to being a photographer- to just get excited about it. As a photographer and an artist you've got to consume yourself in your work but you don't need to be drowning in it, and I think that's a very fine line to cross. To be consumed is to be passionate and excited but to drown would be to feel trapped and lost and just kind of floundering about and not really progressing forward in anyway.

When I've attempted street photography, I have a habit of taking pictures of people without their knowledge and I think this is some of what Francis draws on. It's the idea of catching people just being people. It also kind of feels safe, like their unaware and you've captured a moment that otherwise wouldn't be documented and I feel like that's why Francis loves the photo of his grandmother because he was able to capture a moment of happiness, that we do take for granted and I think that's something that I'll take with me in future projects.