The world might have gone to hell in a handcart but the feed still needs to be fed. The symbiotic relationship between the content devouring beast and the dopamine chasing heart hunter is a dance that never ends as neither party can ever be truly satiated. And as most of us are in both parties we are all stuck in an infinite loop of presentation and consumption.
If you stroll around my hood you can see multiple photo shoots going on all around you. In front of every urban graffitied backdrop or colourfully painted house you will find someone getting their picture taken. It’s actually very difficult to tell these days whether they are professional fashion shoots or just people creating content for their own social media profile.
And there is really not that much difference between the two as they are both about branding, just in the case of the self-generated content it is the people who have made themselves the product and are mostly happy to get paid in digital love rather than actual cashola. Regardless, not even the threat of WWIII is going to stop this image generating juggernaut from its relentless drive down the highway of the United States of Narcissism.
My favourite moment to watch is after the shot has been taken there is the review moment when the photographed and the photographer gather round the screen to establish when the photographed and the photographer gather round the screen to establish My favourite moment to watch is after the shot has been taken there is the review moment when the photographed and the photographer gather round the screen to establish whether they have successfully captured them as they wish to be presented. Are they as sexy and gorgeous as they imagine or are they dejected and disappointed by their own twisted projection of their own self-image?
If the person taking the shot is the partner of the subject you can often see their nervousness as they wait for the nod of approval. More often than not you will see a tinge of disappointment or a general lack of enthusiasm for the results and they return to their positions and start again. This is important shit after all. With this single image you will be judged by people who you have most likely never met and possibly don’t even know. Their validation is everything.
And I am going round taking pictures of these people taking pictures of themselves so am fully intertwined in this experience . I have even become involved in a self-referential photographic paradox. The week before last I posted a photo of a fellow photographer working my turf on portobello rd (see again below) and he had stopped me and asked if he could take my photo to which i said..sure, I just took yours. And he was all like no way and i was all like yes way. and he’s all like shut up. and I was all like..ok, you get the gist..
Anyway I ran into him again at the weekend and we both fessed up we had posted the shots of each other. So I thought I would show you his photo which he took on his lovely very old school camera so that I may include myself in this self-presenting process and show you what’s on the other side of the camera for once. I have to say I have never been both the photographer and simultaneously the subject of my subject before so that’s a first and then again maybe he hasn’t either for that matter.
And there you have it. We are all drowning in documentation although I have to say I really think we should probably be looking outwards rather than inwards as there is some major shit going on we need to pay attention to. Maybe the fact that we have all become so pre-occupied with ourselves is what is really stopping us from dealing with the problems that are looming, you know the ones, the ones that aren’t going away no matter how much we don’t look at them.
All shots this week from Portobello Road. I know, that’s not that unusual for me as most of my shots come from there but I explain that a bit later..
What I most love about this street is the variety of people you see. You’ve still got the old school locals but you also now have the new Notting Hillbillies, and the posho Europeans who moved here, and the tourists and the Rastas and the West London fashionistas and an entire mix of cultures and communities all rubbing shoulders. There maybe a few less characters around than there used to be but it is very rare I do not spot someone on my daily walk that is not worth capturing.
As I have walked down Portobello almost every day for the last 20 years and taken squillions of shots ( yes, I know, it’s a lot) I am starting to think has anyone taken more photos along this one road for a longer period than me? Maybe I’m the Portobello photo guy?
This guy who you see with the old fashioned camera in the shot above possibly thinks that as well. In a somewhat ironic moment he actually stopped me and asked if he could take my picture. I said, sure, I just took yours.
Last year when I was ill I had to stay local so my neighbourhood became my world. I could just about get to Portobello and back and I remember thinking, well if this is it and I can’t get further than this one road, it might as well be this one.
Portobello has a vibe and an energy to it unlike any other street I know and although it’s not as busy as it used to be and the demographic of the people who frequent it has massively changed since I have been here it still has a real buzz to it, especially on Saturdays which feels like a mini festival every weekend.
Additional:
I wrote this before the Ukrainian invasion yesterday and now when I look at these shots today I just see people going about their daily lives, going shopping, going to work, hanging out, living a normal life, just as they would have been doing over there, and then in a single instant they are plunged into total chaos and horror. Their lives are now under threat and they will have to fight for their very survival. It is no different to if it happened here to us. We must see that. We must support them. We cannot abandon them to this fate.
shit, late again! I keep forgetting it’s a daily blog so I have to do it every day. I might have to start setting an alarm. Like I do for everything these days. Brain fog has lifted but there is still a deep mist in the air…
i have been locked and lost in my own little world for a very long time so it’s so friggin good to be out again observing and interacting with people.  Although ironically what I am noticing is that everyone seems to be lost in their own little worlds. There is this bigger reality that we are all apart of but that no-one seems to want or be capable of dealing with so we withdraw into ourselves rather than confront it.
And yet not only does this mean we are ignoring what we should categorically not be ignored but it’s also just not that healthy And unfortunately, the further we look inwards the more narcissistic our gaze becomes.
We essentially have the same approach as ostriches, only instead of burying our heads in the sand, we bury them so far up our own arses all we can see are ourselves.Â
The 90s (if you were alive then or can remember that far back) were a decade which revelled in the nuances of personal choices. We were all delighted with our own brand of specificness which we would happily recounted in great detail to anyone who would stop talking about themselves long enough to listen (I know, not much has changed).
This was probably best personified by the comedy series Seinfeld which correctly observed to much hilarity that we are all highly self-obsessed. In the relatively carefree and calm 90s this seemed like an acceptable way to live but we can no longer indulge this approach. In these more troubled times we have to pay attention. We cannot ignore shit any longer…and yet the worse it gets the harder it is to cope with. And the more we need to ignore it. Yup, a good ole Catch Twenty Fucking Two.
And if you do try to take it all on board it’s utterly paralysing and renders you useless so what’s the point of that? Being back on the streets I can feel the strain and tension a lot of people are under. Our only hope is to share the load. To confide in each other. To not pretend like everything is ok when it clearly isn’t. That will bring strength and unity and an ability to cope and to take action. That will get us through this…
