31/08/2016
Hi! If you wouldn’t mind starting by telling us who you are that’d be great!
My names Kyle, I’m a walking cliche of a bearded, tattoo’d motorcycle rider.
I’m the lead photographer at Limits Edge but I also work on the frontline with South West Ambulance Service, running out of the small town of Stroud, covering a large area over the cotswolds.
My main sort of ‘hobbies’ would obviously be photography, but I’m really into my BMX (I realise that I am a grown adult) and anything with an engine in it, I’ve had umpteen motorbikes, and built drift cars and 4x4 toys.
My current project is an E36 BMW estate that I’m transplanting a 4.0 V8 into, its about an inch of the deck and stupid offset wheels. Most people think it’s a waste of money but I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Limits Edge:-
How long have you been doing this? What made you start and what makes you come back to work every day?
Kyle:-
I’ve currently been with SWAST for about 18 months, but I have a fair amount of experience from previous jobs including Rescue and also Palliative care settings. I’d say in total I’ve been crewing some form of ambulance for about 7 years.
It may come across as odd, but I pretty much fell into this role by the seat of my pants, random opportunities over the years, considering I was an apprentice engineer prior to anything healthcare based, but I feel it’s whats crafted me into the human I am today.
The last bits a bit cheesy and cliche but I come back to work for the people I get to work with, spending 12/14 hours on a truck with someone you get to know them very well, the things they love, the things they hate, things that I will never repeated outside that small space, it’s a very unique job in that sense and the people I have the luxury of working with I wouldn’t change for anything.
I’m loosing my regular crew mate in a few weeks, bastards off to pastures new! Gutted.
LE:-
What made you want to do this project?
K:-
I’ve been messing about with cameras for years now and Limits Edge is a project i’ve been running with one of my best friends and together we’ve done some amazing things.
But I feel the need to do this as I’m in a very unique position to look into the very closed off little world that we work in, the emergency services are a unique bunch.
I really enjoy portrait photography and faces in general, they always tell a story if you capture it right, and the people who work the 999 frontline have experienced several lifetimes worth of uniquely wonderful and equally horrifying events, and I want to capture that, and also find out some just as funny tales along the way, we all have them (within reason not to get told off telling them)
It’s been difficult to get people to allow me to photograph them as I feel they didn’t really see what it was about, so why not start with myself!
The emergency services are getting a hammering from all sides, the governments ‘do more with less’ attitude, huge budget cuts, assaults on staff from ‘grateful’ members of the public, social media experts becoming judge, jury and executioner with mobile phone footage of us doing something as unorthodox as buying food in uniform when on shift.
Its relentless recently, so even if this gives us all in in-house laugh, a bit of a boost (taking inspiration from UK Cop Humour and the likes, then job done, and I get to take some interesting pictures in the process, and hopefully meet a heap of new people!
LE:-
Pet hates on shift?
K:-
Having ‘that address’ ping up on the system
Running out of food
The noise of someones radio battery running low in the crew room when everyones trying to grab some ZZZ’s on nights
No time to eat said food
Distinct lack of coffee
Loosing my fu***ng pen! (And then my spares)
LE:-
What does a ‘good’ shift entail?
K:-
There are loads of factors to a decent shift, always starts with a decent crew mate and a decent non-pre historic truck/vehicle.
Stealing ED nurses' pen.
Decent banter with the older generation of patients
Laughing that much during shift that your face hurts
Inter service jobs (and ensuing p**s taking)
Waking the fire service up to help with an extract from a property
Lots of coffee and lots of food
My back not hurting.
Jobs that make you feel that you’ve actually made a difference
LE:-
Funny story time! We all share stories from all services, and the best ones always leave you in stitches, whats your favourite?
K;-
I’m trying to think of a particular job that I’d be allowed to tell everyone about, its fairly difficult.
But I would say the funniest jobs usually include a good crew mate being hugged, kissed, licked, flirted with or given marriage proposals by people who you really WOULD NOT want doing any of those things.
Or jobs that just make you wonder how people are alive, and how we've survived this long as a human race, job security type stuff.
I’m chuckling now the amount of times I’ve looked at a colleague from either my service or another, its the look of ‘how the f*ck?!’ or ‘right then’
A good ‘Sh*t’ story is always a fairly sound way of getting a laugh, don’t lie, weather its being caught mid-dump and getting passed a job or a drunk teenager deciding to mess your truck up, it’ll always make you chuckle in the end.
LE:-
Things not to ask….
K:-
'whats the worst thing you've seen'
Yeah this is a good one, its something I’ll never as someone I’m taking photos, and to the general public, I ask you never to ask any police officer, paramedic, fire fighter, this question.
Its not very cricket, as it can take you to a pretty horrific place, its like asking them to relive a nightmare for your own gain, its a glazed eye look I know all too well.
Please. Don’t.
LE:-
Anything else?
K:-
Yeah I just want to say thanks to the little collaboration with Rosie at Snapdragon Photos back home on the Isle of Man, not my usual style but I do like them, I can’t take very good selfies but I wouldn’t say I look too bad!
It’s always hard to get people to let you take photos, so hopefully by starting with myself it will encourage others to let me !
And to anyone wanting some photos for themselves or just to get involved and have a laugh, then ching me a message and we’ll get moving.
Don’t be frightened! Even if you’re only wanting the photos for personal use, just let me know.
Cheers!
