One day I was invited by my contact at a local organisation to contribute towards ideas for a local project. I didn't know what was going on but I knew we would be paid for the session. This was a major draw for me as I don't work and didn't have much money. I decided to attend. During the course of the meetings I nearly stopped going but my contact pulled me back in. This was because of having to leave my children at home alone. Also a lack of confidence and feeling there was no point going. I had given up hope in any meaningful projects coming my way.

I contributed my pitch at a group session for my photography project idea. I have a degree in photography but was finding it hard to get work. Having an interest in the local area, having grown up there, I decided to do a project on people in the local area, being inspired by similar projects. However, the difference with my project would be that I would find ‘regular’ people from within the area. The strength of Balsall Heath being that it was as diverse an area as you could get. I wanted my project to reflect this. I wanted people who others would never think of using.

I was lucky that I had built up a modest studio set up while I was at university. Also I was lucky that the organisation that was supporting me had rooms available. I shot the photos of my ‘legends’ myself as well as editing and getting printed the A3 sized prints for exhibition use. This was all possible using the funds for my project.

One of my legends got a lot of attention through the project. I was told that people who previously didn't even greet her were coming up and asking what she had done to get her photo on the bus. People assume you have to do something or be worthy in some way to be on the media. All the fuss got back to people, which made her feel good that she had achieved city-wide recognition. I was able to include my mother in the project and get her some recognition too.