‘I look out the train for shots’: a photographer's commute from Stafford

Jonathan Cherry’s future career choice was laid down pretty early. The Staffordshire-based photographer says his love of camera and film began when he was about 12 years old. “I would spend hours in my parents’ loft looking at all their family photos,” he says. “My dad had rolls of film from what was then Yugoslavia and I remember these landscapes on little 5×4 prints with white borders. They really captivated me.”

He went on to study photography at Falmouth University, where he met his wife, Gemma, and four years ago they moved to Stafford. “We always wanted to live in a beautiful landscape,” he says. “One of our favourite places is Cannock Chase, a forest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with wild deer. As a photographer, I love taking portraits of real people – the people working in factories, the characters, that gritty side,” he says. “There’s such a range of stories and backgrounds living here.”

In June 2018, they had their daughter, Alva, and Cherry found that working from home was proving tricky. “I’d often find that I’d get sucked into family life when I needed to work, so now I have an office in a shared workspace,” he says. “It’s a hive of creative people and it feels like there’s a real buzz about it. It can get lonely as a freelance photographer so it’s great to have that atmosphere.”

There are other perks to working in town. “My friend recently opened a craft beer bottle shop next to my office called Candid Beer. It has a great ethos about community and sharing each other’s company.” His other favourite spots in Stafford include The Market Vaults, whose burgers use chuck steak from a local Eccleshall butcher, Perrys of Eccleshall, and has earned itself somewhat of a cult following locally. For coffee, there’s The Bear, a beloved eatery over three floors in a 17th-century building. Then there’s the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre, and The Oakley Arms – “it’s a restaurant and pub with a moat and a really good atmosphere”. Once a month he’s a regular at the Makers Market. “It’s got lovely local food and loads of artists – there’s a guy who does woodwork in front of you and I’ll often buy a spatula or a little wooden bowl.”

Near his office is ProteanArt, a gallery and workshop where artist Debbie Todd makes art from recycled materials and teaches classes. “It’s a lovely space and I’ve litterpicked and given her some of my cans to make [her work],” says Cherry. “She also uses a lot of cans from Candid Beer.” Next door is her husband Johnny Todd’s leatherworking space. “He has a lovely open workshop where he makes beautiful leather goods.” Cherry also recommends a “secret bakery” in nearby Eccleshall called Toast. “I stumbled across it down this little alleyway and got some sourdough starter from there,” says Cherry. “It does the best bread in town.”

Since graduating in 2009, Cherry has worked as a freelance photographer specialising in portraiture and documentary work for newspapers, magazines and commercial clients.

“I love how varied it is. One week I might be in London shooting a chef and the next I’m documenting a music festival in Wales,” he says. Cherry adds that he often attends events in the capital that don’t finish until later in the evening, so it’s good news that London Northwestern Railway is now running trains from Euston to Stafford as late as 21:49pm Monday-Friday and 20:34pm on Saturday.

“I’m constantly looking out the window of the train and scouting out possible shots. I recently passed a canal and saw some cyclists I wanted to shoot, and another time I was on a train to London and saw some kids on dirt bikes and wanted to get some portraits of them so I worked out where it was and went back there and found them.”

“I shoot a lot of stuff on film cameras, as it has a lovely tone and depth to it,” he says. “I’m always buying cameras. I recently picked up an underwater camera and if I see old cameras in charity shops I have to buy them. My go-tos are a large format camera called the Wista, it’s a Japanese make and you put a hood over your head and you take one exposure at a time. The images are so beautiful and clear. I also use a Hasselblad a lot, it’s a medium format and it’s lovely for portraiture and travel shots.”

Cherry also likes experimenting with the film he uses. “I’ll use a lot of expired film because it goes all foggy or almost looks like an Instagram filter, which is great and also frustrating in equal measure,” he laughs. He’s had his film developed at the same lab in Birmingham since he was 15. “I used to give them films I’d double exposed or boiled,” he says. “Over time, we’ve developed a close relationship – no pun intended.”

“I love experiencing the world and my life without a camera in front of my face, but I also love capturing a moment,” he says. “My favourite shot was in the Philippines a few years ago. I happened to walk along and see a dude getting his hair cut on the beach by his mate. I set up the shot in 30 seconds and he’s looking right into the lens. That photo and that moment will stay with me forever.”

There are also some pretty great perks of the job. “I was doing some food photography recently and ended up eating macaroni cheese at 7am,” he says. “I regretted it later but in the moment I was living the dream!”

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