PHO 703 Week 8 Ideas around Landings 2020

My project this module as been a bit of a journey.Starting out as a literal journey by bike to all the pro london football stadiums,visting them one at a time,when London was deserted as result of lockdown.These stadiums usually visited when they and the surrounding streets are teaming with people had a eery air of dystopia about them,it reminded me a little of the TV series I watched as a kid like Quatermass and The Changes without the horror ! It was actually very cathartic and an enjoyable experience I can’t imagine will be available to me very often if ever again.

I started to photograph them purely as a record and they soon became a project of their own.Whilst shooting this project I was able to take in and look on my journeys,planting the seed for for a project exploring Estate Pubs of the post WW2 period,built with a planners utopian dream in mind of new housing and mixed community living side by side,it was and is a great idea of course and initially the Estate Pub played a very large part in this acting as meeting place and entertainment hub.

This quickly inspired an idea drawing on my own experiences and those of my family around the tradition of the Working Mens Club also built around the utopian ideas of Victorian philanthropists before being taken on by the people usually working class who used them.They began independently setting their own up own silmilar ideals usually based around a particular trade or place of work.

Set up as places of learning and self improvement they also offered huge benefits to local communities as hubs for entertainment,lectures and meetings.

I have made contact with two local clubs who have adopted progressive ideas in order to survive,in keeping with the tradition of self improvement and learning one in particular has a Art Club,my plan is to show some of my work and perhaps the journey in the form of a slide show as a workshop to explain my future plans and how it involves the clubs and members.In doing so I hope to meet some of my future collaborators as well as offer an insight into the proccess. Of course in the spirit of WMC I will be offering a workshop,yet to be determined but after discussions with the Steward will probably be along the lines of basic photography skills for those who may be keen to start or get more use out of there own photography.

Below are a few examples of work.