Backstreets

Saturday, 3rd August was visit number 27, which coincided with Brighton Gay Pride (more about this later). I’m now up to around 80 contenders for a final edit (of around 60?) and am quite happy with how the project is progressing. I’m unsure about how much of this to foist onto the web before I have a final edit.

I’ve had less success shooting on these sunny summer days – because the harsh light is more difficult to work with technically with my little camera, and because it sometimes doesn’t fit in with the gloomier look of the majority of the photos I have so far. Gloomy was the look I was going for, primarily. When I arrive on a bright, clear day, I am on the look-out for roads – or sides of roads – completely in shadow. For that nice, dull, flat look I've spent my time avoiding the unforgiving Brighton sun.

A narrow Brighton street on a sunny day. [© Paul Russell 2013. Click for larger version]

In Kemp Town a friendly stranger came up to me, unbidden, and advised me to get off the “main drag” and explore the twittens (a Sussex dialect word for alley). I replied that this was an excellent idea but more or less the strategy I had been using. Uncanny. All sorts of things go on up the narrowest roads that are completely in shadow. (Of course, Brighton's most famous alley is the one in Quadrophenia one where Phil Daniels "romances" Leslie Ash.)

I’m easing up on shooting in August mainly because the weather is too good, and will restart the visits in September for a finish some time by the end of the year (40 visits has a nice ring to it). This August shooting hiatus will give me more time to type some random thought about Brighton here. And more time to take stock of what I’ve done so far.

So, August – less photographing, more thinking and writing.

June visits: fighting against the light

June flew by. One photo from each of the five June visits (nos 18-22)

v18. Kemptown carnvial - a real Brighton event. Click on photos for larger versions.

v19

v20

v21. Pool Valley Coach Station. As featured on my list of potential places to photograph.

v22

Twenty visits down

I'm about half way through the Brighton project now in terms of visits - 20 visits made and a similar number to go.

I've made a rough edit of 57 photos out of 70 "possibles" out of several thousand taken. The majority of "surplus" consists of numerous minute variations of the same shot for the static, non-peopled stuff. I like doing those sorts of shots, but it's hard work - I never have the confidence to take just one of a given scene and then move on, as Eggleston claims to do...

[thumbnails - extreme example - six almost identical shots]

I'm reasonably pleased with the results so far - a consistent look and hopefully free of Brighton cliches. While not avoiding the seafront altogether, the catchy phrase that sometimes pops into my head is "the city behind the seaside".

[thumbnails - possible edit of 57. Click for larger version]

Brighton Visit number 17

Visit 16 wasn’t much to write home about. Visit 17 on Bank Holiday Monday, 27 May didn’t get off to a promising start either, as trains were stopping for the morning at Worthing, several miles short of Brighton, due to a fatality further along the line.

I intended to wander around Worthing for a couple of hours until the lines reopened and I could continue my journey. On the off-chance, I rang up an old colleague from a communications agency that I’d worked at 15 years ago in Worthing to see if he wanted to meet up.

I hadn’t been in touch with David Blann for over 10 years, but by a spooky coincidence when I bought my copy of 2012’s The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton* a few weeks ago, he was credited as the book’s designer, along with his phone number. Cue Twilight Zone music. As it happened, this kind-hearted designer for print (Creative-Director-at-David-Blann-Design-and-available-for-freelance-work) ended up giving me a lift to Brighton, so that worked out well.

To Brighton
It turned out to be a satisfactory day from a photographic point of view (although confusing for my GPS software not to start and end at Brighton station). Along the way I learnt a little about the life of Lee Miller, which I might blog about a bit later. Two of the photos I was reasonably pleased with were taken within a few minutes and metres of each other – often the way – one thing leading to another.

The first reminded me of the old “problem” about how far away or indistinct the putative subject of the photo can be, and still maintain interest.

[Hall © Paul Russell 2013. Click for larger version]

As Szarkowski said about later period Winogrand in the essay from Figments from the Real World [p. 38]

"Winogrand made thousands of pictures of people who were too far away to be described in detail, perhaps to test how much could be conveyed in terms of posture, stride, silhouette, autographic gesture. … Surely he was interested in the formal photographic problem: What was the greatest distance at which [they] could be convincingly described?"

And the second testing the limits of the camera:

[Gardens © Paul Russell 2013. Click for larger version]

And plenty for my growing ‘pleasant-abstract-but-doesnt-really-say-anything-about-Brighton or could-have-been-taken-anwhere’ categories, e.g.

[Entrance © Paul Russell 2013. Click for larger version]

Again, a fair day's "work" done and a brisk walk back to the train station for the 6.33 for Weymouth.

*The encylopaedia is also available from Brighton Library for the same price.

Things to Make & Do

[Click for larger version]

The Story So Far

I've expanded the slideshow of sample pictures to 22 photos, out of the 50-odd possible candidates I now have for the project.

This gives a feel of the project so far.

The primitive slideshow can be seen here:

http://www.paulrussell.info/gallerybrighton/00.html

Brighton Visit number 15

Seven Dials and around
On Monday this week (i.e. 13 May) I visited Brighton for my photography project. I’m trying not to get into a routine, but sometimes when I get off the train – in this case at 9.20 am – I head straight up steep Guilford Road from the train station up to the Seven Dials area and around.

Seven Dials itself is the point where (you guessed it) seven roads meet but unlike its London namesake there is no monument in the centre, just a plain roundabout. At the moment, there are a load of roadworks going on to improve safety, as it’s a bit of an accident blackspot – 44 people injured in the last 5 years.

On the plus side, it’s a pleasant residential district with some nice cafes, local shops and restaurants, and an overly photogenic shop selling mainly mannequins. I used to work at a delicatessen in Seven Dials called Appetites – probably the only job I’ve had I didn’t hate – but the deli is long gone, and there’s no blue plaque to mark my employment. I’ve taken a few promising shots of roadworks and street furniture here on previous visits.

Heading downhill and ducking under part of the railway viaduct, I moved on to the Preston Circus and London Road area, where for the first time I came across a piece of characteristic Brighton oddness.

[record shot: shop window for EatonNott roadkill couture]

The EatonNott shop offers a “highly acclaimed range of bespoke couture garments … created out of the pelts, feathers and bones of animals that have been killed and eaten as food, have been accidentally killed on our roads, that have died of natural causes or been culled as pests.”

Presumably the baby on the left wasn’t roadkill, but something else. Anyway, I certainly will be coming here for all my couture roadkill needs, which are quite extensive. I don’t think I’ll be using the photo though – it’s just a quick record shot of something unusual, someone else’s artworks. Almost like taking a snap of the Mona Lisa.

As I headed along London Road on the way to the town centre I noticed an interesting café-type place, and had a quick sit down and a coffee.

[record shot: The Emporium – café by day, theatre by night (out back, not shown).]

The Emporium’s canteen is situated in an old Methodist chapel and had only been open a few days – there was still some plumbing going on. Out back (and the real reason for its existence) is a 230-seat theatre. Everyone seemed very friendly.

Enough Brighton loafing, and into more “central” Brighton.

Sussex ice rink
I was interested in tracking down the old ice rink that I had read about on a community notice-board on a previous visit. It’s situated right in the centre of town but I wasn’t previously aware of its existence. The former rink is located at the end of Queen Square, which is actually a short rising cul-de-sac close to Brighton clocktower. The small rink has been closed since 2003, and the now-defunct sign shown used to read “Sussex Ice Rink”. The latest plan, I believe, is to turn the area into a luxury hotel.

[Sussex Ice Rink. © Paul Russell 2013. Click for larger version]

The tree behind the building is in the grounds of St Nicholas' Church. There was not a lot else that caught my eye in Queen Square apart from a taxi rank and, for one day only, a collection of police vans waiting for that night’s crucial Brighton vs Crystal Palace game.

Later, while hotel spotting I came across this view, and was pleased to squeeze in the angel Peace Statue bottom right.

[© Paul Russell 2013. Click for larger version]

By the end of the day’s wander, I had around six shots that I would consider candidates for the project – not all standalone winners but all shots that might fit well in the final edit of around 60 pictures. A good day, and then past 4 million football fans at the train station, and back on the 6.28 train to Weymouth.

[thumbnails screen grab]

A small sample of photos from the first 2 months of this project can be seen here:

http://www.paulrussell.info/gallerybrighton/01.html