John Angerson is a photographer in the truest sense. His personal projects documenting the Jesus Army and the Crypt - a charity helping the homeless and vulnerable people in Leeds - are life stories and in the case of the Jesus Army fifteen years of work.

We caught up with him and chatted about his patience and began to understand why knowing when not to take a picture is the best thing a documentary photographer can learn.

Steal-Life.com - What first inspired you to pick up a camera?
John Angerson – My father gave me a camera when I was twelve. I started taking pictures around the house and the garden and never looked back.

SL - How did you go from that to becoming a professional photographer?
JA – I worked on a local newspaper doing stories and it just went from there.

SL - How long have you been shooting?
JA – Well I’m thirty-four now and I was shooting the Jesus Army when I was seventeen, so that’s seventeen years or more.

SL - You’ve travelled all over the world shooting photographs for the last ten years or so, what’s been the most memorable trip?
JA – The stuff I did of astronauts was exciting, just to have that kind of access is unprecedented. I was working to shoot stills while a film crew were making a film, so all the background work of getting permission etc. was done by them, all I had to do was turn up with my camera!

SL - Your latest book ‘Entertaining Angels’ documents St George's, a charity that helps the homeless and vulnerable in Leeds. Like a lot of your work it’s about people, is that something important to you?
JA – As a documentary photographer, the best thing you can learn is when not to take a photograph. My first couple of months at The Crypt were disheartening. The people who used the place were very hostile to me just being there with my camera. One guy in particular, a drunk would abuse me to the point that I was never able to take any pictures when he was there. I would have to wait till he fell asleep or left. There was a few weeks he wasn’t around that I got a lot of work done I recall. Other people though began to trust me in time and they contributed bits of writing to the book. The book also raised money for the place to stay open so it was of positive benefit to the people it featured.

SL - What inspired the airports slideshow you’ve submitted?
JA – Just bored waiting in airports I guess. There is one photo of a guy sleeping in the departure lounge that I had published, a friend of the guy saw it and alerted his friend. I then received this very nice letter asking if he could have a copy of the picture to give to his wife. I obliged and printed a huge copy for him; he probably has it above his bed or something.

SL - Have you changed the way you shoot in airports with the recent international developments?
JA – I’ve just stopped shooting as much, I wouldn’t want to cause panic in a busy airport.

SL - We featured your work with the Jesus Army in our July issue, what interested you about them as a subject?
JA – I started working on the Jesus Army project when I was seventeen. I wanted to retain honesty in the images. The easy thing to do would be to portray them as nutters. I have one shot of some women sitting in their living room with their hands in the air, that’s more representative of what their lives are really like. They trust me because the pictures are honest.

SL – You’ve been working on this subject for a long time, have your images changes over that time?
JA – Yeah, I guess you could say the way I’ve shot has matured over time. That’s good in some ways, but the earlier shots I’ve taken are the ones that I like most. There is this shot of a crucifix silhouetted in the church, which was one of the earliest pictures I took for the project, yet I think it’s one of my strongest to date.

SL - What’s next for you?
JA – To make the Jesus Army into a book. I just wonder if I’ll ever feel like the project is finished.

You can view more of John’s personal journeys via
http://www.johnangerson.com/