As winter descended upon us last year, two of my closest friends, that I’d known for many years and documented throughout that time, passed away. In the following months, I realised how much Stuart and Eugene’s deaths had effected me. A slick, cloying, clotting depression, consuming shadow, so clever, creeping unnoticed until you realise, it’s […]
It was a real, rare treat to be able to attend the opening of the Small Town Inertia exhibition at the Camden Image Gallery and truly wonderful to meet up with so many familiar voices and friends from on line. Meet up’s are a little like viewing photographs in print form, it’s always a pleasure […]
You never appreciate the calm waters without jumping, or being thrown, into the rapids from time to time.
There was a moment when I came to realise that attaching labels to photography was a dead end. Projects, series, subjects, themes, all blow away like sand in a storm and what is left?, simply, vitally, life. I’ve always made photographs as a reflection of those lives around me, and less consciously, without paying too […]
Last night I had the pleasure of taking a ride along with Karen and Dale, the amazing founders and driving force behind the Peoples’ Picnic. Last year ‘Small Town Inertia’ featured a story about the voluntary work they do and it’s fantastic to be working on a follow up with them.
Information is a peaceful resistance, photography, documentary amongst the most beautiful non violent tools, they exist as perfect vehicles for sharing, informing, to communicate, to enable awareness, to afford voice and platform, to counteract every misconception, every enforced manufactured reality, every blinkered mauled statistic, every perversion of truth that’s force fed to us, to rally against all disinformation and propaganda.
“My words are thoughts, feelings and gut reactions to a body of work, which I believe to be one of the most important being constructed by any photographer currently working within the United Kingdom. I felt that I needed to put these words into a form, a structure.”
So, watched ‘Benefit Street’… or as I relate to it ‘Lets document a drowning man and not document why the boat is sinking.’ Soap opera filter and ephemeral focus, characterisation, demonisation and exploitation. Middle class voice over, condescension, edited for sensationalization. Poor VS poor and no accountability for the policies and mechanisms that are the true causation.
The journey from the first email suggesting the work be shared in the form of a show to the Private View was wrought with ups and downs, highs and lows, a starting off point and a destination, like all great journeys should have.
AITU Presents Small Town Inertia 11th Oct – 3rd Nov. Behind the scenes there’s a cast of many that have enabled this show, my good friends Justin, John, Lisa, Tom, my amazing partner Laura, Heidi, Kristie at Hahnemuhle paper, Luke at AITU and of course all the people within the photographs. My unreserved thanks to all.