Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
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I have been walking with the undead on world zombie day for the last three years and I have to say they’re the loveliest bunch of people you could hope to meet. Its a strange oxymoron but its always the biggest freaks and the oddest looking bods that are the nicest types. The ones who wear their darkness on the outside are not the ones to be scared of. Its the ones who look like norms but who have a horror show on the inside who are the ones to really be afraid of. This lot were puppy dogs. Albeit covered in decaying flesh and gashes but puppy dogs nonetheless.
The zombie numbers have dwindled year in year out but it has made us a tighter community. Now that there are slightly less of us we have bonded more. I actually chatted to a lot of fellow zombies this year. Good people. Drew and lynne. lovely couple. The woman who had tiny little zombie hands coming out of her pregnant bump. Ever so nice. The Feldmans (on the right of this photo) – super friendly, see them every year.
As for the bystanders, the passersby who stumble across our hoard of PLs (Post Lifers – that is the term we prefer to use. We don’t like the Z word really. Unless we are saying it to each other then its ok) their reactions range from disdain to joy to fear to I’m so dead on the inside (as oppose to being dead on the outside) I can’t even acknowledge what I’m looking at. I really think you can actually really judge a person based on how they react to a zombie.
There is something strangely liberating about pretending to be dead. Its the thing we all fear the most and when you try it on for size its really not so bad. Maybe if it was permanent it would be and I guess that’s the biggest drawback of death. Its pretty fucking permanent. Once you do it you never get to do anything else and that sucks but maybe being dead for it a bit is going to soften the blow when it does actually happen. This is my theory. Please don’t shatter my illusions.
This year we experienced what I am calling the ‘social media singularity’ (yes I am trying to make that happen) which basically means when you are at an event and there are more people documenting than participating. Something which seems to be increasing in these content hungry era we live in. So we crossed the tipping point this time and there were finally more photographers there than Zombies. We were constantly surrounded by a big mob of SLR wielding camerapeople who descended on us like a rabid bunch of erm Zombies. Where is it all going to end? With photographers taking alternate shots of each other because there is no-one else actually left?
Anyways, I recommend pretending to be dead at least once in your life. You be surprised what a positive experience it can be.