Journal

The MA so far but especially this module as been a real interesting journey,both literally  and figuratively.

Following on from last module we experienced like a lot of the world a full on lockdown on movement due to the worldwide Covid 19 pandemic.It became a time of reflection for many,including myself and also a chance to look and change either by choice or necessity the way we look at the world around us and produce work.Our worlds became a little more localised and insular,I hope not for too long.

I started this module by cycling from my home in East London here in the UK to all the professional football stadiums in the Capital.Partly as an effort to get fit but also to explore my city in a way that is unlikely to be available to me in such a way again.The streets were all pretty much deserted of traffic and the weather was unusually warm.

By setting out with little intention other than to reach my end point I started to explore the notion of the Flaneur and Psychogeography.Both ideas although similar are areas I intend to explore further.

PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY

Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals”.

It’s a method of exploring cities or urban spaces deeply linked to the Dadaist and Surrealist movements it employs a method of drifting or the Derive a term coined by Ivan Chtcheglov close to the idea of the Flaneur but without the elitist connotations.The idea was to allow the space to guide you instinctively,to take you off the beaten track,to make you aware of the urban landscape,to really look and feel.

Situationist International was the group most associated with the idea and was made up of several theorists and artists who amongst many things (usually whilst drunk) redesigned maps of Paris and other cities by cutting them up and reconstructing them the main premise being to free up the city from any constraints,to seperate the traditional Euclidean values in architecture to help separate art from its surroundings.There was to be no no-go areas.

In modern times many writers have used this method as a means to write about cities,Will Self, Peter Ackroyd in his wonderful book London The Biography and Ian Sinclair.They all adopt a very non linear approach influenced by Psychogeography.

Unconsciously I have for a couple of decades followed this method of “derive” or (drifting) through cities whilst on assignment.I have produced travelogues of 45 cities in this way without realising it was a recognised method of working.Turning right out the hotel one day and left the next,allowing the city to take me deep within to quote DEbord in his book.

“In a “dérive” one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there… But the dérive includes both this letting go and its necessary contradiction: the domination of psychogeographical variations by the knowledge and calculation of their possibilities.”

Going back to my own experience with the cycling I used some of these principles by allowing my self a general direction to head towards, i.e. my end point but also not following the strict rules of my GPS map, so allowing myself to be drawn towards places newly discovered to me in a City I thought I knew well.For example in looking for the Woolwich Ferry to cross the Thames I took a slight deviation for no other reason but to look and discovered a foot tunnel under the river I didn’t even know exsisted,which I subsequently used.As a result I engaged in conversations with people I would not have done and saw things that have inspired and informed new ideas to perpetuate the photographic journey forward.Of course it also was very cathartic and gave me space to really look and think .

By using this method I also invariably arrived at my destination from a totally different approach than I would have done by following the recommended rules,the back end,the none shiny part that football fans rarely see.Overgrown and unkempt,like the back end of nightclubs and hotels.Glamourous on the outside with inner works that are functional and sometimes neglected.

Added to this the quiet,in the deserted surrounding streets they became monoliths in a dystopian landscape almost like abandoned places of worship or abandoned gladiatorial stadia of an ancient time past .When usually they would be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of match day,the traders selling the religious trinkets in the form of scarves and badges,programme sellers pamphleteering the words of the god like heroes about to do battle,the local shops selling fast food and ales…not much changes.

The resulting photographs shot on my iphone were then published on Instagram as a series with a commentary written as a “Stream of consciousness” to quote Alexander Bain “to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind”.I think it suits the method of working I adopted for this project.

I produced a dummy fanzine as a prototype to get printed at a later date and to also gauge feedback from my peers,tutors and friends,the result being overwhelmingly positive,attention being payed to the method of capture on my Iphone in particular and the idea in general.

FOOTBALL AND COMMUNITY.

Visiting the Stadia in such circumstances it struck me how all of them are or perhaps would have been in the past such a large part of how the surrounding communities developed both physically and figuratively.Often starting out as patches of grass played on by  men predominantly made up of teams formed through local industries and factories,it was a very grass roots,working class pass time a way of bonding outside of work in close knit communities that worked,lived,played and holidayed together,annual works holidays where the whole place shut for a week was common place from the years after WW1,a time when after nearly a century of the industrial revolution the rights of workers were slowly being formed.

It’s interesting to see today that many of the stadia have been built up from a patch of grass to a few seats to huge grandstands and arena landlocked by houses peaking through rooftops as gentrification and popularity gained.

It’s been mentioned on more than one occasion by peers and tutors that my work as a nostalgic feel to it. Initially I was appalled at the notion,I see my self as progressive,influenced by the past not nostalgic in the normal sense of the word.I needed to explore further the notion of Nostalgia in the wider context of photography and art.

NOSTALGIA.

An affectionate feeling you have for the past, especially for a particularly happy time.

Nostalgia beyond the noun as described above as always been present,we can cherry pick the good parts of the past but cannot truly predict the future.More so than ever though we seem to be at a point in time where looking back is more popular than ever. Partly due to easy access via social media and also a trend in repurposing and buying up old photography collections but why is the trend so prevalent.

Knowing history is important in informing the present and future however again through social media more now than ever we are all able to invent or reinvent our own nostalgic version and this can be a problem.

Or as Karl Marx said “History does nothing, it ‘possesses no immense wealth’, it ‘wages no battles’. It is man, real, living man who does all that, who possesses and fights; ‘history’ is not, as it were, a person apart, using man as a means to achieve its own aims; history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims..

“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Photography as often been used to prove the truth of a matter.However with careful use of filters,editing and curating it can be used to recreate a false sense of Nostalgia and truth.

It’s true my images do have a “look” about them(i’m of a generation of film users and often process with a analogue look in mind) and I am interested in the history of the subject matters but I’m only interested in that as a means to explore how they play their part at present and also the future.

Nostalgia as been used by people in power to influence us numerous times over the centuries,often in times of uncertainty when we may be yearning for what we see as better times (again a picture painted selectively).

Nostalgia is used to sell ideas and products from Brexit,fashion and music to crisps and beer,take for example Tyrells crisps or back in the 80s Courage Best Bitter,adverts adorned with images from the good old days with proper pubs and a proper knees up where you could leave your door open and no one would rob you,(as the popular saying goes because nobody had enough to rob).These are idealistic stereotypes around nostalgia designed to make you relate the products to a better time,a more trusting time,a product or idea you can trust.

I’m a big fan of music that originated in the underground clubs of London in the 1960s but this was not the Swinging 60s which we are told so much about,did it really exsist,the same old photographs from the time are often trotted out,in reality though that was the life of a few wealthy London Elite,not the norm for most.Yet from the select photographs we see you’d imagine everyone spent all their time in and out of Carnaby Street boutiques rather than the daily routines of work and surviving,which was the norm for the vast population.

More recently of course and perhaps more dangerously we have politicians of many countries including our own in the UK convincing us of a better time when we were able to “go it alone” and  “lead the world” all be it as an imperialist colonising force playing on the nostalgia of the 50s and 60s .When we still had an Empire and everything was better and Britannia ruled the waves.Pure Nostalgia cherry picking the myths around immigration and equality.You can see the links to a form of romantic nostalgic  via the advertising being aired at the moment with pictures of busy fishermen and happy workers,elderly couples enjoying their retirement in the English countryside.It may be true for some but it cannot be denied it is a rose tinted view of the world .

EXPERIMENTATION AND NON LENS BASED IMAGERY

This module we have been encouraged to work with mediums we would not usually use,to experiment more and explore re-photography,Cyanotypes and other non lens based photography.

I’ve not always been comfortable with these methods and did not initially embrace or relish the ideas. I experimented with Googlemaps/earth ,initially similar to Arron Hobson who started out exploring  for potential film locations I used it as a means to recce potential sites to photograph as my project moved into locating estate pubs.

Influenced by the likes of Doug Rickard in his work New American Picture which captures moments in time and in particular Clement Valla who’s work Postcards from Google Earth examines how the 3D interpretations  of bridges and rivers are stretched  and altered to fit the 3D effect of the earth, I actually found I really enjoyed its potential and started to investigate the way google earth plays with time.

By switching from one mode to another say from 3D to streetmap there is a sweet spot that magically within certain elements appear and from nowhere a cyclist or petrolheads making donuts in a car park appear then just as quickly disappear with no trace but the skid marks they leave behind frozen in time.I do not pretend to understand the technology but because Google maps is made up of lots of clips and images time is often out of sync when it comes to constructing the final product,if you search closely you can discover all sorts of moments frozen in time or buildings thrown out of shape only to snap back to normal.This “playing with time ” is the interesting element and something we discussed in a previous module.

We discussed the idea of Trace in photography and how an image is a snapshot of time and how a photograph or print takes on a life of its own outside of the subject matter.

This taken directly from Susan Sontags On Photography explains ….

“Such images are indeed able to usurp reality because first of all a photograph is not only an image ( as a painting is an image),an interpretation of the real,it is also a trace,something directly stencilled of the real, like a footprint or a  death mask.Whilst painting even one that meets photographic standards of resemblance,is never more  than the stating of an interpretation, a photograph is never less than the registering of an emanation – a material vestige  of its subject in a way a painting can be.

I found this article below fascinating and have since explored further the works of some of those mentioned.I particulary like the work of George Georgiou and Mishka Henner.

https://time.com/55683/street-view-and-beyond-googles-influence-on-photography/

Cycling whilst using  Psychogeography as one method of working led me onto other ideas around community.I came across housing estate pubs and whilst a bit young I related it to the types of communities I grew up in and how important the pub as been to communities both urban and rural,for centuries the meeting point for social events and business.

Post WW2 in the UK following years of destruction from the war new large scale housing project was implemented .Estates known now as social housing now but more commonly then as council estates were built with the planners and governments vision of a utopian better world.

Along with better rights for workers the NHS and the start of the welfare state many many families previously living in squalid conditions often in slum housing with extortionate rents and exploitative landlords were able to rent great, well built houses with the best facilities both inside (running water,good heating,inside bathrooms etc) and out,big gardens ,nearby shops,doctors,schools work and places to worship and socialise.

One such place was the estate pub,which acted as  a real hub of the community for some. Now many like the estates themselves,mismanaged and sold off do not exist and among the few that do there are even less that have not fallen into disrepair and bad reputation,a far cry from the original purpose. I photographed some and am really pleased with them as photographs but they failed to say what I really wanted and whilst I grew up around them could not truthfully relate my own story to the idea.I had to reassess.

Moving on a little further ,whilst looking at the idea of repurposing photography for our course work I have been re investigating images my dad has of his parents and family including himself.His was not an easy upbringing,although on his mother side they were not poor his mother died when he was young leaving his father to look after him.Who shipped him off to an uncle at 15 to work.I did meet my grandad many times and now in retrospect I get the impression he was not very paternal.

I’m still in the early days of investigating but it made me question my sometimes tense relationship with my own dad and that of myself and my children,my son in particular with which I have a very good relationship.

I’m keen to explore this notion further alongside this whole area around community  and circumstance.So for the final part of this modules journey I have been re purposing old photographs of my father ,his parents and in particular his dad with the images of the estate pubs,this personalisation is bringing the idea to life and as help form the body of work into a coherent journey that I will present as my WIPP.

Simultaneously I am continuing to experiment with ideas around non lens. based photography (with differing degrees of success).Combining the ideas of Psychogeography with the use of maps,Cyanotype and cut ups/montage. Heavily influenced by Temporary Hoarding Magazine,the mouthpiece of Rock Against Racism from the days before Social Media,Rodchenko and his powerful Soviet era collages,Dziga Vertov and his Montage style in films such as the ground breaking Man with a Movie Camera and the use of books and pamphlets to get the ideas across.(Perhaps in itself a little nostalgic)

Heavily influenced by Barnaby Irish work Motivations. He wrote about the idea in the Essay Filaments and Knots The repeating Structure of Connections.I set about exploring my own experiences around my own connections.I experimented with his technique using maps and my work around football grounds and the journeys I took,the thoughts and ideas it evoked eventually using found imagery of myself,dad and grandad utilising the maps as a visual aid to that connection.

WIP

This is a link to a physical version of my Work in Progress in dummy book form. I particularly enjoyed this process of making,combining cyanotypes,montage Japanese stitching and the use of semi transparent overlays .

I now have a clear picture of how I will move on with this idea to my FMP.I intend to take some elements of the techniques used and explore further the use of oral history,re use of old imagery and moving image as projections. I like the idea of exploring the subject of nostalgia and the prevalence of its use in persuasion.

I am in contact with two local Working Mens Clubs and will be documenting the people,events and place over the next few months.I intend to interview informally as I assimilate into the group and relate these experiences to my own and my families.

I want to explore how these places fit within contemporary society now that there are so many alternative ways to be entertained and socialise,how as it affected community as a concept politically and culturally.

I’ll be exploring gender politics,racism,gentrification and the demise of the working class.

My Grandad was a steward of Working Mens Clubs and my dad was and still is an avid member. On my 18th birthday as tradition would have it I was bought membership (bearing in mind there would have been a long waiting list),I never ever used it.To me these places were of the past and of no interest to me. I’m older now and want to understand more.Maybe I have more in common with my past than I think.

References