During the last lockdown me and Mrs B had many conversations about leaving London. With everything closed we just couldn’t think of a reason we wanted to be here anymore. It seemed astonishing to me to even consider this as my hometown has always been my lifeblood but the city clearly had no circulation. And then lockdown lifted and we started to go to things again and the desire to depart faded. Once we were able to visit galleries and go to gigs everything started to make sense again. And I realised that without culture there was no point to being in a city. And, in fact, what was life without culture?
Why is culture so important? I think its because in those moments when you are immersed in a cultural experience, you are not thinking about your life, you are thinking about life itself. Art in all it’s forms generates these moments of contemplation and in these moments we transcend our own existence and are free of the machinations of our own mind. We get to think of something other than ourselves and that is liberating. It doesn’t matter whether it is an art exhibition or a gig or a dance performance, they all transport us away from our little lives and we get a sense of being connected to something larger, something universal.
And now as the second lockdown has just gone into effect we have to retreat back into our own caves with only boxsets for sustenance and we will have to wait until a more collective & more interactive life returns. But to underestimate the importance of culture is a mistake.
The neglect this government has shown during this pandemic for the arts & the events industries and everyone who works within it is truly painful. If they do not give adequate support to venues, companies and individuals there will not be much to come back to when it is all over. And then what are we all gonna do? Shopping and eating is just not enough. They do not feed the soul. They will not nourish our minds. Our spirits need sustenance, not just our bellies.
This week’s photos and above were provided by:
Monday: Among the Trees exhibition at the Hayward
Tuesday: Sister Cookie gig at Paper dress Vintage
Wednesday: Electronic music exhibition at the Design Museum
Thursday: Dance Performance at Southampton Row by Rocio Chacon, Thomasin Gulgec and Estela Merlos. Music performance by Kundai Munetsi
Today: Sunil Gupta exhibition at the Photographer’s gallery
Pretty sure that trees are immune to Covid but sweet that someone is trying to protect them..beats chopping them down which is currently happening at a rate of 15 billion a year..which leads me nicely (and not at all coincidentally) onto this petition..sign to ban any products linked to deforestation, sign it if you want to survive. This is the most selfish act you will ever commit..
p.s this is my 1500th post! Just wanted to say tanks to everyone who has stuck with me from the off, through ups and downs, through comedy and despondency…will this ever end? I’m not sure. Will I ever run out of things to photograph or bang on about? Who can say? I never imagined I would go on this long and there are days (most of them) when I think about quitting but then I see something incredible (like this masked up tree) and I feel compelled to document. So I guess its business as usual..albeit in a highly unusual time…
Somer moody shots this week to get you in the mood (see what i did there) for a series taken in Ibiza exactly this time last year during the closing week of the season. Why now? Well, firstly, I want to show a country that supports and champions clubbing and exists primarily because of it. It would appear not everywhere has so little regard for dance culture as they do here in Britain, where almost nothing is being done to protect the venues and the workers of the nightlife/events industry which is currently unable to function in any genuine capacity. Other countries in Europe (remember that place?) see it as a vital component of their society and their economy are doing everything they can to ensure it survives the ravages of the ongoing Covid freeze.
It is beyond painful to me to watch the U.K gov turn its back on the nitelife industry and everyone who works within it. The Tories do not see how essential it is. They do not consider culture important at all. They never have. And they know that most people who work in the creative industries do not vote for them so why should they help them? Never mind how much money it makes (66 billion a year), how many jobs (1.6 million) or how many people it attracts from all over the world…none of this seems to be a consideration. Forget about the amount of joy and pleasure it generates. No, fuck all that, let’s just let it die and all you leftie muso druggie layabouts can fuck off and try and get real jobs ‘cos we ain’t doin shit all to get you out of this mess…
And secondly, (no, I hadn’t forgotten) there is fuck all going on here at the moment so we might as well hang out in Ibiza (B.C) and party like its 2019…
p. s if you are in U.K and have ever been out and gone to any event whatsoever at any point in your life, please sign this petition for our Gov to give further financial support to the hospitality and events industry or you might never again…
I went through a phase (circa 2007) of taking pictures of abandoned objects on the streets. Mostly household furniture (beds/chairs/sofas) but also TVs, computers and even Xmas trees. (galleries here, here and here if you want to see). I was slightly fixated with these things that had once taken pride of place in people’s homes and were now discarded, thrown into the street, never to be cared for again. They looked like they’d been abandoned and when I came across them they spoke to me. They looked sad, forlorn, rejected.
I worked out much much later it was to do with me trying to process my own grief for my father who had just passed away. I guess I was struggling with the fact that he was gone and the world had just moved on. Time stops for no man as the saying goes. And so it also seemed for these abandoned, once cherished, items. In capturing their final moments before they went to landfill, never to be seen again, I was creating photographic evidence of their existence, just as I had wanted the memory of my dad to be preserved.
This photographic ‘phase’ lasted a couple of years and then it just passed and I haven’t really taken any shots of abandoned items since, well until very recently, when I just started ‘seeing’ them again and the compulsion returned. I am not currently grieving anybody but I am curious as to why they are back on my radar. The only thing I can think of is I am grieving the world that was. We are in a new world now and there are remnants of the previous one lurking around but we most definitely inhabit a different sphere of existence.
With regard to the shot above it is quite unique in the sense that the abandoned object i stumbled upon, flanked by two bollard bouncers, was in fact me. I had myself been discarded, thrown onto the street and left to perish in the elements. Who threw me out? I will never know. But like every shot I have ever taken, I captured it as I discovered it and left it as I found it.
This shot above (taken the other day) reminds of the shot below which I took way back on October 23rd 2007. It is a very important photograph for me because it was taken on the first day that I took my camera out with me for no particular reason. Previously I had only taken it on holidays or when I was going to something specific like a gig or whatever.
Having my camera on me that day changed my life because I was so friggin chuffed to be able to capture what looked to me like the remnants of a teddy bear massacre, its guts ripped out by an unknown assailant. It felt like a message from above to document what I came across in my normal day to day. And so from that lightening bolt moment I vowed never to leave my house without my camera ever again and I haven’t. (well except for August which I take off as you know).
Being armed and ready at all times has meant I have been able to capture an endless multitude of random moments that would have otherwise have got lost in the annals of time (not a rude word btw). Is that a good thing? It’s hard to say. Why am I telling you all this? Umm, I’m not sure really. I guess I just wanted to share that little nugget of info with you..as you were.
My MYLDN book came out a year ago this week and like so many other things that were on the forward drive at the beginning of 2020 it came to a crashing halt as Covid landed. I ain’t bleeting about it. Its just one of a billion stories of lost momentum. Anyways, the Tate recently re-opened and I was delighted to see it was still being sold in the shop and even more delighted to see this young lady perusing it and enjoying it. She even called her boyfriend over to have a lookey at it.
I took this pic and luckily she didn’t notice because she was so engrossed in the book. Win win! She didn’t actually buy it so not quite a win win win but even though it didn’t end in a sale this was by far my favourite MYLDNBK moment since it got published. There is nothing better than watching some random enjoy your work with them having no scooby about it.
So one year on, and in spite of one gi-normous global pandemic ‘MYLDN – a streetview of London Life’ is still available in all good book shops and online. Link here if you wanna get one…
Scrawls on walls this week, some clear, some not, some finished, some not..with reference to this shot above it would appear they are anti-mask..no prizes for guessing that one. There are people out there who don’t want to wear one for reasons revolving mostly around selfishness, paranoia and/or stupidity but why would you have issue with someone else wearing one? What concern is that of yours? What harm could be done by wearing one other than to make CCTV cameras pretty fucking useless?
So many things these days are processed emotionally rather than rationally it is preventing an intelligent response or discourse on anything. With regard to the mask ting it’s just a bit of cloth covering your gob to help stop you spraying/swallowing spit globules. Latest research (here) reveals that there is way less risk from touching surfaces than they thought and if you are out in the open you aren’t in much danger either but close quarter indoor interaction is greatest chance of getting it which is why masks are so important if you aren’t chatting at a distance….and that’s it. That’s why they want you to wear them.
You wanna make more of it? You wanna get all riled up over face fabric? That’s on you. It’s literally all they are asking you to do. Most of us will only need to wear it for a fraction of our waking day. And you’re telling me you can’t even do that?
I don’t really have any interest to wade in on the mask debate because I can’t really believe its even still a debate. Its fuck all to do with your freedom. It’s disease prevention control. That’s it. There is no more.
They don’t want to curb our freedoms because we already gave them up on a plate. That horse has already bolted I’m afraid…
They don’t want to chip us because they already have. If you walk around with a phone every step you take is being tracked & monitored. Bill Gates isn’t putting nanobots in a vaccine to do that because it’s already happened and we consented.
And they don’t want to control us because they already do. And we let them in return for lil tit bits that facilitate our lives. We live in a comfy prison. We always have. It’s got fuck all to do with masks or Covid. Does it suck to wear them? Sure. Are there worst things out there than us all walking around looking like surgical gangsters? Fuck yes…like this thing dragging on forever cos we can’t reign in our behaviour. Don’t we all want things to go back to normal? I sure as shit do.
