LONDON GREYS (2009)

WHY IS LONDON SO GREY?

I guess this does not apply solely to London, but to a variety of British towns and cities – they are all constructed in grey tone.

Perhaps this is most noticable in London due to its immense size and the sheer number of buildings crammed into it.  I took this photo last time I was in London, eating lunch on some steps just opposite St James’ Park.

I have always been struck by the monotone look of the architecture and the inhabitants of our fair capital city.  Obviously the suit is the chosen uniform of the city and so a huge percentage of the population walk round in shades of black or grey - perhaps their tiee of if lucky, their shirt inserting an injection of colour.

But it all seems quite drab – more so on a winters day.  You can happily sit somewhere and be surrounded by different tones of grey, be passed by grey people and look up at the grey skies.

To its credit, London does OK for park spaces and tree lined streets – which give a welcome break from the singular vision.  Granted, you could argue the lights of Piccadilly are colourful – but really, that’s advertising and should never count.

Go to a city like Barcelona and you cannot escape colour.  The buildings are painted or even built in a wealth of colour.  Colourful public art fills the area and the people are an explosion of different shades.

Now of course there are exceptions to the rule in London or any other British city – but stop and look and you will notice how drab a lot of it can come accross.  Hannah often wears a variety of colours, more vibrant than the general populous of London and gets innumerable dirty looks for daring to splash some colour amongst the greys.

Is it that we are afraid to stand out or make our buildings shout out from their surroundings?

What I don’t get is that London is not a grey and drab place.  It has a huge personality and is filled with wonderfully creative and excetric people – perhaps we should begin to allow this to be reflected in our personal appearance and that of our architecture.

BLACK & WHITE PRINTING

Incidentally…

Not sure why you want to know this or there will be any interest, but you know – this is a blog, an online sketch book, some I am going to tell you anyway…

This is the first black and white print I have made in a long while – hence its not that well printed!  During the dark days (when my digital lens smashed), I returned to 35mm and shot some Black and White as I knew I could process and print it at work.

So, over the past month or so, I have processed a few of those films and done contact sheets.  Yesterday, I was trying to re-align and enlarger and thought it was the perfect chance to print one of the images to test the focus was even on the enlarger.  So here it is, for all to see!

I must say, it was great to work in the darkroom again.  Not done much of it in the past few years and its always a pleasure to have the smell of chemicals around you and be bathed in nothing but red light. (Does that sound perverted!?!?).

LETS TALK MORE ABOUT BLACK AND WHITE

Shall we?  Do you want to?

I am not sure I do – perhaps another few posts should be dedicated to this topic.

But to tease you – I am really not sure its for me these days.  I like the printing and all, but the results are never as pleasing to me as colour.  I do like Black & White street photography, but the world is in colour and that’s how I like to capture it…generally.

Perhaps I will address the B&W v Colour issue in more depth soon.  Perhaps not.

The Fridge (2009)

Hannah would say I am nosey, I beg to differ, I would say I am infinately curious!!!

Sometimes, my own thought processess get the better of me and do make me wonder whether I want to know too much.

Let me start at the begining….the day of curiosities.

CURIOSITY 1 – THE COIN THROWING INCIDENT

The other day, I was strolling to work and walked past a local shop.  Outside the shop stood a few young boys, perhaps around 10 or twelve years old.  They had their tuck in one hand and in the other, small change, which they were proceeding to throw onto the ground in front of them.  Obviously, I could not stop and watch small boys throwing things without serious questions being asked.  So, I had to peek quick as I walked passed.  They were clearly throwing a range of coins from coppers to 20 new pence pieces.  The throwing was not at anything or with a particular goal – just throwing for the sake of throwing.

No photographic evidence of this I’m afraid due to fear of being considered a freak!  A man a camera and young boys should never mix!

Strange I thought, why would a child thrown perfectly good money to the ground?  When  I was a youth and infact to this day, I keep all currency and spend it!  As a boy, I would certainly have kept any coppers knowing they could buy penny sweets in their own right or be used collectively to buy a more exciting treat such as a finger of fudge.

As you can imagine, this set my day off to a curious start.

CURIOSITY 2 – CRAB IN THE FRIDGE

Crab In The Fridge (2009)

Imagine my shock when I was in the staff room of the college where I work to hear a tutor announce they had just got their milk out the communal fridge to discover a crab.

Never, I thought.  A crab – a whole crab?  Who would do such a thing and why.  As soon as break had finished and lessons had begun, I knew it was safe to investigate myself without fear of reprisal.  So I went to the staff kitchen and opened the fridge.  Who would have thought – there was a crab.  A whole crab, sitting on a plate in the fridge – quite dead you understand.

Obviously keeping food in a fridge is not strange.  But a whole crab, in a communal fridge at a school?  That is odd in anyone’s book.  Had it just been caught prior to someone coming to work?  Had a munger come to the school gates to peddle his/her fishy ware?  Was there some evening class involving crab preparations?  Did the owner not care about the horrible smell it was inflicting on the other fridged items?

What ever angle I looked at it from, it was odd and I really, really, really wanted to know why it was there and who had placed it.
Again, I had to resign myself to not knowing – take a photo and move along.

Curioser and curioser.

CURIOSITY 3 – MYSTERY POST

Mystery Post (2009)

So we find ourselves at the last key curios incident of the day.  My head was reeling from all the days mystery as I strolled back home to recount my tales to the ever lasting patience of Hannah.  Down an ally way next to the park I trod and into my peripheral came a post.

Not literally, I didn’t walk into anything – but awareness grew of a odd shaped post like set up, nestled amongst the foliage next to the path.

I guess there is nothing off about that as such – the photo demonstrates there is nothing out of the ordinary about the post.  Sure its bedded into a textured piece of concrete, sure it has a support strut at an exciting jaunty angle – but many posts can boast that.

The curiosity here is what is it for?  Why is it there?  It clearly serves no purpose and I can only propose that it was once part of something that is no more.  A fence perhaps, a gate, part of a hut, a sign.  So many possibilites and so few facts.

CURIOSITY AND NO CONCLUSIONS

So there we have it.  A typical day with a normal number of curiosities keenly waiting for me to resolve.  Such events litter my life and my brain – eating up valuable space as I do not have the simple answers to my simple questions.

Some would say I am nosey and want to know everything – but I still maintain I am just interested in whats around me!  But here is what I propose – everyone in the world is forced by law to clearly label or mark any strange thing that they are responsible for in any way.  Or, if not practical, they should declare out loud what they are doing.  This would solve all three incidents as follows:

1) The boys could have announced their motivations as they threw their coins – E.G:
“We are throwing coins to the ground because we have more money than sense and do not have a wallet to store our loose change in”

2) The crab person could have stuck a post it note to the plate – E.G:
This crab has been placed here because I was up early and went crab fishing at the Marina but did not have time to take my catch home before work.

3) A council worker could attach a metal plate to the post – E.G:
This post was once part of a very dull fence that ran along the path before the hedge grew.  When the fence was removed, it was more hassle than it was worth to remove this post.

See what I mean?  Simple explanations of curious things would make all of us happier people.

Been a bit quiet on the Blog front for a few days – not a good start to my quest for online dominance.

Still, after an Easter spent buried in Idiot’s guides to websites…I am going to go easy on myself.

Perhaps the more valid excuse is down to the start of the week being a wash out in terms of my mental health! It was the lovely Heather’s 30^th birthday on Saturday night and much merriment ensued. Was DJ-ing and so duty bound to stay until very late in the morning. The curse and joy of mainly owning Reggae records is that the most appropriate time to play is the time you would normally be getting up for work.

Bit out of practice for very late nights as been minimal on the going out front for many months. Was good to go to a house party as there are precious few of them these days and they remain my preferred way to have a good dance and a good chat (although chatting was kept to a minimum as dancing was more essential!).

So Sunday was spent, primarily, doing three activities:

1) Staring blankly at things

2) Walking the dog

3) Watching as much snooker as my shattered mind could handle

Let’s look at these things in turn.

1. STARING BLANKLY

Surprisingly perhaps, I rather enjoy that the bi-product of a good night out is to vacantly stare at different stimulus for varying amounts of time. Whatever my head points at is what will hold my interest for an undefined period. It’s good for the soul to stare! Mostly, I stared at snooker (see point 3).

2. WALKING THE DOG

Flies on Concrete (2009)

Having a dog has many benefits, but perhaps the one that most people would not always agree with is the fact you have to take the little bastards for a walk every day. However, that is perhaps the best thing about it – when (after a night out for example), you really don’t want to leave the house and would prefer to stare at snooker (see points 1 and 3)…you can’t. A brief excursion to the park is required despite heavy physical resistance.

But – once there, it’s glorious.

Sunday was no different, the sun was shining, the birds were chorusing and the park was a hive of activity from people far more lively than me. Hannah and I sat on a bench, entertained the dog with a stick and stared (see point 1).

Mostly – I stared at the ground, the concrete seemed particularly attractive, not only to my eye, but also to a myriad of flies that seemed to hop about on the same small area in front of the bench. It seemed a fitting parallel to the people enjoying the park – all swarming to one location to benefit from what it had to offer, skipping around each other as they went about their activities.

3. WATCHING SNOOKER

Is it wrong. Is it?

Is it wrong for a young man to love watching snooker so much?

Is it wrong to arm chair commentate?

Is it? Is it wrong?

No…it isn’t wrong. It’s right. I do love watching snooker and I’m not afraid to admit it.

Snooker after a heavy night out is perhaps the greatest television that could exist. It’s the ultimate thing to stare at (see point 1). But its hard to drag yourself away from to walk the dog (see point 2).

Term started again on Monday so was back to work, which is the other reason things have been quiet around here.

Still, business will now resume as normal.