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MYIBZA 1 (B.C)

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#MYLDN (1499)

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.

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#MYLDN (1498)

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#MYLDN (1497)

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.

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#MYLDN (1496)

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#MYLDN (1495)

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#MYLDNBK is back!

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…

Buy MYLDN – a streetview of London Life.
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#MYLDN (1494)

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.

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#MYLDN (1493)

just in case he came up to Soho to take advantage of the Eat out to help Out scheme..

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#MYLDN (1492)

Finally..a complete sentence! And a pretty fucking good one at that..

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#MYLDN (1491)

…you’d rather…? The planet wasn’t in turmoil? There were less angry fuckwits around? You didn’t have completion issues? what?? I must know!

This is either the work of the ‘bring down’ dude/dudette from yesterday or there is clearly a trend for half-finished

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#MYLDN (1490)

Bring down…what? The Government? Society? That wall? Anyone I come into contact with? Come on, I need to know…are you coming back to finish the sentence once you get some more paint? What?? What are you trying to say? Don’t leave me hanging here…

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#MYLDN (1489)

Life goes on…

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#MYLDN (1488)

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#MYLDN (1487)

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#MYLDN (1486)

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#MYLDN (1485)

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#MYLDN (1484)

We live in an era of protest. An age defined by dissent. The world is filled with frustrated angry people rallying against their establishments for a multitude of outrages that bear little in common other than they are serious enough to get people to take to the streets. It appeared that Corona would kill off protests but in the end it just became another thing to protest about. There are currently so many groups fighting for so many different causes it is difficult to keep up and yet the one thing all these disparate cries of injustice are all united in, is that they are mostly defined by what they are against not what they are for.

Having a common enemy has bonded together many different groups of people at a time when there is mostly ever-increasing fragmentation and division. The internet has united people all over the world in a single cause but it has also ensured that we will never be able to get the majority to agree on anything ever again as the says of singular & factual source information are well and truly behind us.

Last week saw the return of the Extinction Rebellion and it is sadly apparent that their momentum has waned, their support diminished and the world has kinda moved on. And yet as it clearly slides from the forefront of people’s consciousness climate change is accelerating rapidly and its effects are ravaging the planet, hurtling us towards a future where life will not be sustainable for humans.

And just because we have stopped thinking about it doesn’t mean it has stopped happening. It is all there to see, we are just choosing to look in the other direction. And am not in any way undermining the validity or necessity of any of the protest movements in action around the globe at this moment in time but it has occurred to me that all these other protests around the world are maybe an intended distraction because we can’t face the reality of the environmental collapse we are facing.

The U.K government has now branded the XR as a criminal organisation who are threatening our way of life whilst the media and much of the population view them as troublemakers, privileged middle class or crusty hippies. These labels have been designed to deliberately undermine the movement and reduce their support but it still does not change the fact that their message is true and correct. It is happening and nothing is being done about it.

And the consequences of our inaction will have catastrophic results for all living creatures on this planet. Today I read that animal populations have decreased by 68% since 1970. At what point do we try to stop this mass extinction which we are responsible for and we will ultimately be a part of? at 80%? 90%? 100%? Oops too late.

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#MYLDN (1483)

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#MYLDN (1482)