Personal Work: Masculinities and Homosociality, Blackpool Pistol Club. (Part one of many)

So I have begun my photographic study into what it is to be a man/male/masculine after an essay I wrote on The masculine ideal. To start this project I got in touch with a number of social organizations who, stereotypically are associated with masculinity. The first place to get back to me was The Blackpool Rifle and Pistol Club, an organization who have been running since the 50’s. On my first visit to the club I was taken back by the charm of the place.

The clubhouse and incorporated gun range had been hand built by the original patrons of the club, one of who is still there. I knew straight away that this place had to be documented, clubs like this don’t have a place within the minimalist 21st Century, and is almost certainly a dying breed. It has a raw 1970’s feel to it, with it’s faux wood paneled walls and brown abstract floral patterned carpets, and as with most things from this era a homely welcoming aura. Throw into the mix the interesting back-story of how they nearly went bankrupt after the 1997 amendment to the Firearms act in which a blanket ban was placed on all Pistols along with the competitive elements of shooting and the social elements of the club, we have an interesting project beginning to evolve.

I did a quick recky shoot last week just to try and get a better visual understanding of the place. I went for an on camera flash aesthetic as I thought it would really suit the look and feel of this unique club. My Concern now is how to move forward, documenting this place is only one layer and I need to strip away the surface layers to find the real interest, I suspect this lies with the patrons and members and something only time and a lot of shooting (no pun intended) will draw out.

Here are some of the images:

Personal Work: Duality

Over the summer I started working on a documentary typography series based around fatal car accident sites. Northern Ireland is statistically the most dangerous place to drive within the U.K with more deaths on the road per person than England, Wales or Scotland.

Growing up in a small town outside Belfast I frequently made the journey to Belfast along a dual carriage way which is well know for being  particularly dangerous with a huge number of road fatalities every year. I remember as a youngster staring out at the floral tributes, which were left at the exact spot in which the accident occurred. More recently I looked at these floral tributes in a different way. The tributes marked both the point at which someone died and is mourned. It also marks the point at which a soul, life force, energy, neurons or whatever else you want to call it, left this five-sense reality and moved to another, hence the title Duality.

Here are the first three images of the series, I have tried to keep a link with all the images by maintaining the a constant horizontal line running through the first third of the frame to give the feeling of viewing these sites as you would should you be driving up the road.

One of the interesting things this project has thrown up, is the difficulty of making images in and around Belfast which do not maintain some elements of it’s “troubled” past. We see in the first image that as well as the floral tribute, there is a Glasgow Rangers F.C football kit, a team, which has ties to the Protestant community of N.Ireland. This can also be seen in the third image in which just at the left of the frame in the foreground is a red, white and blue painted lamppost, which is used by particular communities to both mark territory and display the areas British-ness.

I am not making any comment of the religious and sectarian elements associated with N.Ireland but I am not going to deny it either. I suppose the comparison could be drawn with John Duncan’s work as these elements are as much a part of N.Ireland as the crash sites and the floral tributes.

This is very much a work in progress so constructive crit is welcome. (Not about the colours though I know they need a tweek.)

John Duncan “Trees from Germany” Book brief.

Mishka Henner as part of a college project recently set me a photo book brief, in which I had to choose a favored photo book, deconstruct it and then produce two images based around my findings. For my book I chose the previously mentioned “Trees from Germany”. This book obviously holds sentimental value for me, being based in Belfast, but I also felt the work would require an extensive investigation due to its complexity.

Below are my deconstruction notes and the two final images I produced.

Trees from Germany: John Duncan.
•    John Duncan is a documentary photographer from Belfast Northern
•    Current works as the editor for Source magazine
•    Apart from a personal, interest I thought it would be an interesting book to look at due to his day job as an Editor
•    Duncan has worked almost exclusively within Northern Ireland, and often staying within the boundaries of Belfast.
•    “Trees from Germany”, Duncan’s 2003 book exploring the ongoing regeneration of Belfast is a fascinating look into a City attempting to emerge from a troubled past.

Title: “Trees from German”
•    The title originates from the ideologies behind the peculiar and ironic notion of importing nature.
•    It reminds us how nothing is safe from the oddities that surround of regeneration and business in general.
•    Reinforces the idea of an instant gratification, things can be built to a particular schedule, but there is no time to wait for nature. (Planting new trees etc)
•    Made me think of plastic surgery, and how people in this day and age try to trick nature, by making themselves look younger.
•    It’s like the city is trying to fool us into believing that it looks natural.

The design and construction:
•    The physical design of the book, as in its appearance before you open it seems pretty standard. It’s maybe slightly longer in width than some other photo books.
•    One thing that is interesting is that it’s not a hardback as with most photo books. This could be a reference to some of this issues the book address’s. (i.e. construction and the rigid nature of building and such)
•    As for the layout within the book itself. Each image is placed on the right hand side of a double page spread. With nothing other than the title of the image on the left.
•    I assume this is the Robert Frank method of book printing, creating individual images within a series, and assuring that no one image is more important than the other and the viewer is not distracted by anything.

The role of introductory / contextual text:
•    The book has two short essays by David Brett and Glenn Patterson. Duncan himself has decided not to write a foreword.
•    Prior to that there is a three-line quote from Robert Lloyd Praeger, a prominent Irish historian and naturalist.
•    The two essays are split into a deconstruction of the images by Brett, which explores the images and concepts surrounding them.
•    Whereas Patterson, relates personal experiences to the work in a more literary manner. Almost like a short story to animate the images
•    This seems like an interesting way to approach the beginning of the book, both essays induce new thought process in different ways.

Recurring themes, signs and symbols:
•    Apart from the geographical themes (all images shot in Belfast) the most obvious recurring theme of the work must be the colour pallet Duncan uses.
•    Pale orange and the brownish tinge brick houses give off with the only bright colours coming from the first image, the blue truck cover.
•    The images also lack any real contrast; the light is soft and as Brett puts it “shadows less”.
•    There is a constant reference to old and new Belfast, on many occasions we see old Belfast set in the distant background.
•    It could be suggested that this is a positive reflection of the regeneration of Belfast as the old stereotype of Belfast and Northern Ireland takes a metaphorical backseat.
•    However I get the impression that it is more to emphasize the idea of a transitional period as opposed to and simple good vs. bad opinion.

Sequencing:
•    There is a definite purposed sequence to this work, it begins with a trees being hauled into place, reminding of the title of the work.
•    Moving on to a look at the new developments of Belfast with there new nature. (Imported trees positioned in a row)
•    To a mix of old and new, with the old tower blocks barely visible in the background.
•    To a more clear view of old and new Belfast, reminding us that with the old city come old problem (loyalist murals) which won’t be going away with this regeneration
•    On to a more shocking view of the old with the debris of a 12th of July Bonfire in the foreground and a huge bonfire ready to be lit in the background. Being framed by the relatively new Days hotel.
•    And eventually ending with a shot over looking a small new housing development with some wasteland in the foreground which will no doubt be the grounds for the expansion of this housing estate in the background.

With both images I wanted to maintain a similar aesthetic to that of Duncan’s images. The light is a key factor in these two images and Duncan has softness to his images and has been described as “shadow less”. Luckily Blackpool, like Belfast, is not short of overcast cloudy days, which will produce this type of light. With the above image I held on to the central horizon line, strong leading lines taking us into the frame with an emphasis on construction, seen in the huge piles of ruble. Following the image through I wanted the “standard” homes to be creeping just over the top of the ruble, letting us know they are there but not as significant anymore. Finally as with Duncan’s work we have the traditional housing block in the distance, offering a reminder of the fail attempts in the past of previous regeneration.

With image two I continued this idea of displaying a transitional period within the frame along with the use of straight lines, in this case diagonals. The inclusion of the workman is again empathizing this idea of transition. There is an obvious human impact factor of regeneration and including the physical presence of a workman is an attempt to suggest this. The signage on the left hand side of the frame not only acts as a reminder of what is physically happening but also offers an image within an image. This is an artist’s impression of what these building aspire to be. Interestingly the dying weeds are locked away by this awful man made fence or being suffocated by the partially built wall. No doubt some awful fake potted plants or hanging baskets will be shipped in to take pride of place in the back “garden”.

Overall I was pretty happy with my results and it has given me confidence to pursue this type of project in the future should I decided too.

Off to email John Duncan now and ask him to check out this post. So if you’re reading this John, hello and thank you.

John Duncan “Trees from Germany”

John Duncan is a documentary photographer from Belfast Northern Ireland and current works as the editor for Source magazine.  He is also the patron of the previously mentioned Belfast exposed gallery. Duncan has produced a number of well-recognised photographic projects approaching such topics as city regeneration, cultural identities and social divisions. Duncan has worked almost exclusively within Northern Ireland, and often staying within the boundaries of Belfast.

“Trees from Germany”, Duncan’s 2003 book exploring the ongoing regeneration of Belfast is a fascinating look into a City attempting to emerge from a troubled past. The troubles of Northern Ireland are well documented and I feel no need to go into details here, instead I will focus on the piece in question. Duncan explored the city from many different viewpoints and offers a mixture of the old, the new and the transitional, and in some instances all of the above within one frame.

Trees from Germany

As the viewer explores the images, we are reminded of the title, “Trees from Germany” as we are confronted by the familiar, yet out of context, vision of trees within urban environments. This enforces the ideologies behind the bizarre scenario of importing nature; the city is attempting to fool its patrons by beautifying itself like some ageing film star covered in makeup. These imported elements reflect the desperation and need a city like Belfast has to change its perception.

Trees from Germany

Duncan has selected these areas very carefully; we see how the juxtaposition between Old Belfast and New are placed within the frame, in most cases seeing the old at the back of the frame. Is Duncan suggesting a positive standpoint of this regeneration or merely happy to see the stereotypical view of Belfast taking a metaphoric back seat?  I don’t believe Duncan is making any political comment with this work; the inclusion of political murals and terrorist banners is included due to the nature of the project. This is Belfast, this is how Belfast looks regardless of what has happened, what is happening and what is going to happen, this is New, Old and everything in-between.

Trees from Germany

John Duncan’s website

Exhibition: The pre-history of the crisis (2). Belfast Exposed

I am currently working as a volunteer for the Belfast exposed photographic gallery (the only contemporary photographic gallery in Northern Ireland) and the current exhibition raises some interesting points.

The Prehistory of The Crisis (2) is the continuation of an investigation into the values and opinions held by the Irish and Northern Irish community on immigration and immigrants. The first Prehistory was an exhibition for the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, where existing work by Irish artists was chosen to represent the curator’s message. Prehistory (2) however, has brought four artists together to produce new pieces of work, to be displayed in both Belfast and Dublin. The four artists are Susanne Bosch, Anthony Haughey, Daniel Jewesbury and Sinéad McCann, the result is two films one photographic response and one installation. All four pieces take the individuals viewpoint and are presented in intuitive formats, however for the sake on continuity I am going to concentrate on the piece by Susanne Bosch as it is photographic.

Bosch is a German national, however has lived and studied in Ireland for many years, which in ways makes her a perfect candidate for addressing issues of immigration as she herself is a foreign national. Bosch approached the topic of immigration by selecting everyday scenes and removing any elements that were not indigenous to Ireland, which on the surface could be misconstrued as a slightly obvious take.

Susanne Bosch

For the Belfast exhibition Bosch shot four separate images. Each image underwent the non-indigenous removal programme. However Bosch has not simply removed these, people, cars, windows and trees via a Photoshop patch tool, each “object” has been physically removed from the prints with a laser cutter. Each individual image was then replicated hundreds of times and placed on top of each other in four separate piles on the floor of the gallery. This unique “mounting” offers the viewer the opportunity to gaze into the image and beyond. The idea of a void being left by the removal of non-indigenous objects is therefore heightened, and the viewer’s standpoint leaves an uncomfortable feeling of superiority within. Further to this mounting process Bosch has decided that these images are “available”. To the left of the images are plastic holders into which any of the prints can be placed and taken home by the viewer. This results in four uneven piles as people determine which images hold the most interest, emphasising the idea of a value being placed on a particular non-indigenous object.

If a tree helps the environment should it be allowed to stay, if a man works, and contributes to the economy should he? Should the value matter?

If you happen to find yourself in Belfast, I really recommend checking the exhibition out; the two films and installation also raise some fantastic points.