“When people try to guess what I did they say, ‘oh you’re so little you were probably a dancer’,” Margaret laughs, knowing that her interests had in fact led her towards a very different career path. “But I was actually a builder,” she reveals. “When people find out what I really did, they go, ‘wow, there weren’t any lady builders back then!’ I would do plastering and woodwork, bricklaying and decorating. And I loved every minute of it.”
I photographed Margaret at home for a campaign commissioned by Age UK to promote the charity’s Telephone Friendship Service. She spoke to us about how important it had been to her now that she lived alone after the death of her husband. The chance to hear someone’s story in person has been a unique part of my role as a photographer for the charity. I need to be sensitive to the fact I am in someone else’s space and that often there is a vulnerability to their story. At times these commissions become an extension to the charity’s work - providing company, listening, and engaging with their story.
