Sylvain Deleu

Every week we showcase a personal project from a photographer looking for completion funding or assistance shooting another series. Each published is then longlisted for our £5000 Project Assistance Award. This week's featured photographer is Sylvain Deleu.

My Project: Stosznia Gdanska former Lenin shipyard in Poland - In Stocznia, Gdanska history has been written. It was at the epicentre of events in 1980 when Lech Walesa, then a young electrician, confronted the communist regime and created the Solidarity union. It was the beginning of the fall of communism. Afterwards the shipyard went back to making boats, providing a lifeline for many working families. Sadly that long tradition is now coming to an end, because the shipyard is scheduled to close. I wanted to capture it on camera, partly to make some record of the place but also to capture the harsh beauty of heavy industry. To give a sense of the scale of the place, my images are printed at 1.5x2m. I've worked on the project for eight years so far, working for hundreds of hours on a variety of formats. It's been one of those projects you fall in love with - I've made many friends and even met my wife at the shipyard.

What I would do with £5000: Go back to the shipyard with an assistant to both finish what I've started and dig deeper into it, perhaps photographing the shipbuilders' families. I'm working towards publishing a book on the project and creating an exhibition that will tour Europe. I need about three months to complete the project: some of the images I've shot have already disappeared into history.

CV: Born in New Caledonia in the South Pacific in 1974, I'm a self-taught photographer. I arrived in London in 1996 and worked as a photographers' assistant for seven years, learning the photography trade first-hand. About 50% of my work is commercial, the rest is personal. In 2005 I won a merit in the architecture category of the International Photographic Award (IPA 05), and I have participated in numerous group shows in London galleries. Since 2008 I have run a commercial photography studio in London, www.studio1parkroyal.com.

Contact: sylvaindeleu@mac.com / info@studio1parkroyal / 07870649206 / www.sylvaindeleu.com / www.sylvaindeleuphotography.blogspot.com

The Project Assistance Award is open to any photographer currently residing in the UK, so long as they are not in full-time education. Photography students who complete their courses this summer are eligible to apply.

For full details on how to enter the Project Assistance Awards 2009, visit www.bjp-online.com/paa.