Business Networking Without the Stiffness — A Morning at The MAZI Project

There is a particular kind of business event most of us recognise before we have even walked through the door.

Name badges. Formal introductions. A room full of people wondering who they should speak to next.

Friday morning was nothing like that.

I was invited to The MAZI Project in Bristol to photograph and film a new gathering for local businesses — an opportunity simply to meet, talk, exchange ideas and see what might develop from putting good people in the same room.

There was coffee. There was cake. People sat where they wanted, conversations moved naturally around the room, and nobody seemed particularly interested in turning the morning into the usual exercise in collecting business cards.

For me, that immediately changes the way I photograph something.

Getting to know the room first

My approach at events like this is deliberately relaxed.

I like to arrive, meet the people involved, have a conversation and understand the atmosphere before worrying too much about photographs. There is nothing particularly formal about it. I would much rather people became comfortable with me being there than spend the morning constantly noticing the camera.

Once everyone settles in, I work quietly and unobtrusively, looking for the little things that give an event its character — conversations developing, people laughing, someone listening properly, a gesture across a table, the moments between the obvious moments.

It is an approach that runs through much of my commercial photography. I am interested in what a business or an event genuinely feels like, not simply what it looks like when everybody has been arranged for the camera.

Of course, every commission is different. Some shoots need structure, particular people photographed, formal portraits or a very specific set of images for a campaign. Others, like this morning, work best when I interfere as little as possible and allow the life of the room to unfold naturally.

A setting with a purpose of its own

The MAZI Project provided the venue for the morning, and its founder gave the group a brief introduction to the work taking place there before everyone settled back into conversation.

It was a chance to hear directly about the thinking behind MAZI, the young people it supports and the role that food, education and community can play in creating confidence and opportunity.

MAZI is a Bristol-based charity using food, education and community to support marginalised young people. The organisation works with young people including care leavers, young asylum seekers and those affected by homelessness or domestic abuse, helping to build confidence, independence and opportunity.

The word MAZI means “together” in Greek, which felt particularly appropriate for a morning based entirely around bringing people into the same room.

There was something refreshingly straightforward about it. Good people, coffee, cake, conversation and enough space for ideas to develop without anyone trying too hard to make something happen.

Photography and film without taking over

Alongside the still photography, I was also there to create a couple of relaxed pieces of video for the group.

The same principle applies to my film work. The camera should support the story rather than become the story.

Sometimes a business needs a carefully planned film with interviews, supporting footage and a defined narrative. Sometimes a much lighter approach is more appropriate — capturing enough movement, personality and atmosphere to give somebody watching a genuine sense of what it was like to be there.

Friday was very much the latter.

Capturing the life rather than staging it

I think businesses increasingly need photographs and film that show what being around them actually feels like.

The formal headshot still has its place. So does the carefully constructed campaign image. But there is also enormous value in the less obvious material — the conversation at the edge of the room, somebody halfway through making a point, the laugh that happens before anyone realises there is a camera nearby.

Those are often the images that end up being particularly useful for websites, LinkedIn, social media, recruitment, newsletters and the constant flow of content modern businesses now need.

After more than 35 years behind a camera, my way of working is fairly simple: get to know the people, understand what the client actually needs and then find the least intrusive way of capturing it. You can read more about that approach on the MGANE Studio About page.

No two shoots are exactly the same, and I don’t think they should be.

Friday needed very little direction. It simply needed somebody watching.

And sometimes that is where the best work starts.

If your business, organisation or event needs natural photography, film or a mixture of both, you can tell me about the project here.

Photography & Film — MGANE Studio
Bath · Bristol · Somerset · UK