tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49001558530115170012024-03-12T23:19:59.921-07:00Eyelevel PhotographyCity spaces: changes, discovery and traces
by John Robertson.Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-75412480230689053372020-04-03T09:00:00.002-07:002023-08-24T06:51:12.886-07:00In the Frame #1 Robert FrankA detour from photographing and writing about spaces in the city.<br />
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Years ago I saw the film 'The Pledge', directed by Sean Penn. I wrote (and re-wrote) this as a response to a detail.<br />
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<u>In The Frame</u><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";">Robert Frank’s book ‘The Americans’ appeared in 1958. The observations hinted at a so-called American Dream, or at least, an inverted reality deep within the heart of the country. The photographs dealt with issues of segregation, disillusionment, the dispossessed and culminated in the myth of any dreams. It wasn’t received well, was deemed too negative as a visual account and thus lingered for many years. Of course, that changed over time as more questions arose about photography as an art medium and Frank’s reputation grew among the ranks of his peers until, eventually, he was recognized as one of the greats. </span><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";"><br /></span></div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";">The cover of the book taken at a parade in New Jersey, 1955, feels eerie. A figure to the left is slightly obscured in the shadow of the room whilst at the next window another figure tries to see out past the wind-blown stars and stripes. It’s an image that stays because of its ambiguities. The American flag dominates the frame and the people it represents are immersed in shadow or completely blanked.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";">It implies a darker or a foreboding psyche behind a country that prides itself with freedoms and opportunity. It hints that things are not what they seem. When you consider the passion from Americans regarding their constitution and all that their flag stands for, it becomes a much more powerful image, not just because that some people are shrouded in some kind of secrecy or mystery, but that there are other more powerful people who control that narrative. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";">Sean Penn chose to recreate it within a parade scene in his directorial crime mystery ‘The Pledge’ from 2001, starring Jack Nicholson. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAMgIquggW_C04BASregJyViFSVvgMiGINww7uLlYsv1N1Oomiah7DJAOCh95x75lsDf6NfExK1YC2GXBQH6DtKEI_Zu0BskDDoXHRwjne7_jhzKB9Du0u_Jlaw7-aAjxi9_7PWYsuf4-/s1600/still+from+The+Pledge.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="1600" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAMgIquggW_C04BASregJyViFSVvgMiGINww7uLlYsv1N1Oomiah7DJAOCh95x75lsDf6NfExK1YC2GXBQH6DtKEI_Zu0BskDDoXHRwjne7_jhzKB9Du0u_Jlaw7-aAjxi9_7PWYsuf4-/s400/still+from+The+Pledge.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";">A flash of the image appears as we follow our detective into the crowds as the height of the film’s atmosphere intensifies. It’s brilliantly placed as it feels like it fits the film’s pace. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "courier new";">Was Penn’s intention to rework the imagery into the film to provoke, or evoke something, or is it simply a homage to the great photographer? It’s possible that it’s all these points. What’s certain is that it’s a reminder of the power of visual imagery and for almost 20 years after the film was released, that particular image continues to ask questions about who the Americans were, who they are now, and what they really want to be.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><br />
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<br /></div>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-45940508716013484082020-02-13T09:58:00.003-08:002023-08-24T06:08:27.761-07:00Changing Spaces. APRIL 2020Preston centre in particular seems to be evolving fast as spaces are changing. On Pitt Street the six terrace houses that looked out of place, surrounded by car parks, have now vanished and have been replaced with...er, car park. This area is now one giant car park mainly serving the Lancashire County Council and Records offices. It's part of the criteria now, because everyone drives, to create space for cars. Over twenty years following this changing urban landscape, the new spaces created are to be or are already:<br />
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a) A car park<br />
b) student accommodation or luxurious/professional accommodations and<br />
c) generic new offices (to let)<br />
d) um, er..that's it.<br />
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Change has also arrived at Vernon's Lodge; a fishing pit, central to the land that merges with Penwortham and Lostock Hall. To this day, there's the mystery of rusted green pipework that sits above a concrete platform with an opening facing the fishing pit. Something existed before, but what?<br />
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The other surrounding space has been a combination of 'edgeland', marginal-brown field and green belt for many years. It was this latest visit that things were different.<br />
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I heard the diggers first and could make out a high wall, obscuring a mound of red rubble. Everything behind had been flattened. The factory was no more. It had been an idea today to investigate again, to see into that place as I only had photographs from the outside. A dog walker told me they were preparing it for flats and the workers were redirecting the flow from the fishing pit as a 'feature'.<br />
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"About time, the factory's been closed fifteen year and they only knocked it down twelve month ago. I'm just waiting for the right pay out. We should get that and another house." He lived behind a row of houses which are to be part of the redevelopment. The houses on Sunny Bank, right next to where the factory was are still there. "Oh yeah, people are still living in them. They be waiting as well, till the time is right."Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-1917581165207735282020-02-05T12:16:00.003-08:002020-03-11T02:41:18.355-07:00Avenham. A full circle.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCDb5AI2n2ZroUjFtPhouxfe8j74A_6Jn9DE3AAmE0MoTL9yfKwiwUWt9fQdtObkhoZF3Xq2pNzSycVl19T85Z7bxXHRjTZGHasZMX1SIWKCF5MMmZ3qc4AMhmIunKdMuQvWoP-Sk1trmT/s1600/Avenham+walk+sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="900" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCDb5AI2n2ZroUjFtPhouxfe8j74A_6Jn9DE3AAmE0MoTL9yfKwiwUWt9fQdtObkhoZF3Xq2pNzSycVl19T85Z7bxXHRjTZGHasZMX1SIWKCF5MMmZ3qc4AMhmIunKdMuQvWoP-Sk1trmT/s320/Avenham+walk+sign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This weathered sign once sat on the colonnade in Avenham, Preston near the famous Victorian parks that hug the beautiful River Ribble.</div>
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The surface had become a living organism, infecting the map of local history and obscuring the layout. Where there had been the order of paths and borders there was now algae. The texture and the nature of that layer could almost be 'de-mapping'. </div>
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Years later my wife and I are back in the area. There are many hidden histories and traces of stories. Even with half bits of information, they're stories worth discovering to re-tell. Someone told me the colonnade is supposed to be the only Victorian colonnade of its kind in the country. This probably means 'with trees' because there's an arched one with columns in Llandudno. </div>
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The Avenham sign is long gone, taken by the Council. Over time my own views and practices within photography have developed and changed. Like the idea of the sign; without 'the other' layer it is just a sign, a regular map pointing out an area we are to explore. But the surface that now obscures it has awakened a different aesthetic. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIk__NieIuGBNxX4eS7APIct_R5fYBPHeIKCUK1afJ3ZgnPc3HZ9YVTM6GoIOZVNYT2Dyt2otDyJ5b4jpxjE_o0p_kX0oupctszFgx4Fddkmor2_A_xhtdb8BnI4eEau6_EWheLrDoFfu/s1600/aven.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIk__NieIuGBNxX4eS7APIct_R5fYBPHeIKCUK1afJ3ZgnPc3HZ9YVTM6GoIOZVNYT2Dyt2otDyJ5b4jpxjE_o0p_kX0oupctszFgx4Fddkmor2_A_xhtdb8BnI4eEau6_EWheLrDoFfu/s320/aven.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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'Belvedere'. This on the website <a href="http://marginalimages.com/">marginalimages.com</a></div>
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The original photograph features three images:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2LtzxHd6WiCL7FHM3Phuuz1f2cx2FsVusaE9hQzS1YrCBngnGY1asT1pYJMQsIwwiyWzqyZLtVgLHtD6kxl49lLF1cYbcbXjfAmLZV2VV83I467OK47gAtDlugkXfyOkdOmWQj0U5xmJD/s1600/park+sign.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2LtzxHd6WiCL7FHM3Phuuz1f2cx2FsVusaE9hQzS1YrCBngnGY1asT1pYJMQsIwwiyWzqyZLtVgLHtD6kxl49lLF1cYbcbXjfAmLZV2VV83I467OK47gAtDlugkXfyOkdOmWQj0U5xmJD/s320/park+sign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The postcards were in an encased notice board on the north-side entry to Avenham Park and they featured the belvedere in Avenham park and the main avenue in the adjacent Millar Park. </div>
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Prints are available to buy and range from £12.</div>
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Other images can be bought on <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MarginalImages?ref=l2-shop-info-avatar&listing_id=746649279">my Etsy page</a></div>
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<br />Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-32584340817688053882014-05-26T05:54:00.000-07:002014-05-26T05:54:33.833-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a large site between Avenham Lane and Church St in Preston. It's a significant area due to the amount of open spaces that can be spotted within a mile radius. Church St and its environs are at the heart of a project I focussed on for my MA studies. This particular site once belonged to EH Booths and then was put aside after demolition and ultimately neglect. Plans being plans take forever especially when existing businesses are involved.<br />
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The changes that are due are taking their time since the developers and interested parties involved want to close small local shops in order to 'fill gaps' (ie, the grotty wastelands and small businesses that hinder progress in favour for the proposed supermarket - that will need the entire area to develop a flow towards its own centre). Since looking at the project in 2010 the complicated case continues to today (May 2014). I interviewed small businesses in the area and they all said the same thing. The Council developers had 'no idea', they wanted leading developers to take over and they also wanted the area completely changed to favour larger developers, instead of including existing shops: basically they wanted to capitalise on the whole zone rather than modify a working community where regeneration was desperately needed. The near by iconic bus station was also connected to these plans. they were going to demolish that, move it elsewhere and dissolve the current routes etc, but that plan dissolved - that's when the Council got in flap and fluster...<br />
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The new plan supermarket WILL be built. But at the moment this ghostland continues to be...<br />
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<br />Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-42024672224385245332014-05-26T05:20:00.001-07:002017-11-12T03:43:53.729-08:00<br />
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Fylde Rd, Preston. Wasteland for many years.<br />
this image was taken 2010/11.<br />
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Same spot taken May 2014. Colour, vibrancy and wilderness is often a welcome sign!Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-2515364696974630162013-02-14T05:00:00.001-08:002020-02-15T05:34:48.133-08:00Glovers Court - updated 2020.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Glover's Court Preston...<br />
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This space was the yard joining the Lambert Brother's Printing company (closed for many years) and by spring a welcome splash of colour. Nature comes back but it wasn't going to be long: heads it's flats / tails, a car park - boom!<br />
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Not far away from here are many uncertain spaces on and around Church Street and close to Preston Bus Station. Upon first writing this the famous Brutalist structure was under discussion and for most admirers it was a jaw dropping shock what the council and developers had in mind. On the plus side the Tithebarn Project was doomed when John Lewis pulled out and since then the megalithic building has attained a Grade II listing from English Heritage - it's been tarted up and has had the 'aprons' pedestrianised. Writing this in 2020, I think they've done a great job.</div>
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See <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/prestonbuststation50/photos/?ref=page_internal">https://www.facebook.com/pg/prestonbuststation50/photos/?ref=page_internal</a></div>
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<br />Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-38344104516704947032012-02-01T04:01:00.000-08:002012-02-01T04:04:22.093-08:00CHURCH STREET 2012<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46tVfOuSjk83ba03jxSSJzO8GMXiNwnqUMHL6snqti8uxlfafwoIuRhA7_WGtmme0INeGu7Xh3ff4CWUBc3LuorW9N7bhz2oAf154wd7bqb3JmEC7VJU97dIwIcVvWnA3Q4ALnidpEgt4/s1600/CHURCH+STREET2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46tVfOuSjk83ba03jxSSJzO8GMXiNwnqUMHL6snqti8uxlfafwoIuRhA7_WGtmme0INeGu7Xh3ff4CWUBc3LuorW9N7bhz2oAf154wd7bqb3JmEC7VJU97dIwIcVvWnA3Q4ALnidpEgt4/s200/CHURCH+STREET2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704136699986248978" /></a>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-46227409306814020362012-02-01T03:31:00.000-08:002012-02-01T04:01:13.340-08:00CHURCH STREET c.1990s<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD2cPy27mzEHez66fd-vPu5iW7oWSsIo5QpCWcilZJ9iUV79FLTvHGvoUe9z71QVKWyRY7uT4GNKWnEcTaSx6vTY3LgT5kRmt2lBRia3lN1eYIgXY4-ga5z2FaafBGZuO31cotwMzCTQ5r/s1600/CHURCH+STREET.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD2cPy27mzEHez66fd-vPu5iW7oWSsIo5QpCWcilZJ9iUV79FLTvHGvoUe9z71QVKWyRY7uT4GNKWnEcTaSx6vTY3LgT5kRmt2lBRia3lN1eYIgXY4-ga5z2FaafBGZuO31cotwMzCTQ5r/s200/CHURCH+STREET.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704135568308474098" /></a>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-31271560355700541762012-02-01T02:24:00.000-08:002020-02-13T09:34:05.542-08:00A look down Church Street, Preston<div>
Sometimes you have to work from memory alone. From what I remember of Church St in Preston in the early 1980s was that it was very run down. There was a second hand music shop (which I bought a bass guitar from to start a punk band!); a pet shop (when this closed down in '83, the <i>Youth Opportunity Programme</i> - YOPs, which included myself, took 2-3wks painting it.) There was a closed down Iron & Wire cutters merchants (built in 1851) that still stands today and features in some of the photographs that involve these neglected spaces.</div>
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<i>Action Records </i>record shop (still there today) moved into the area in 1981, there were hotels, 4 pubs, a coin collector, Frank Clarke's army and navy surplus store, a very old church, several jewellers...It was very low key, not funky or arty, it was a very working corner of town. The flaking paint, the sooted brick and the broken glass were real enough. </div>
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In terms of today 'regeneration' is a redundant term for areas like this. It means nothing. Awkward spatial problems like Church Street will not be solved by a clear and sudden flow of capital. Growth isn't just a term that should reflect financial gain. This part of town/city is a serious reminder that what's needed is something much more organic and cultural, it should be nurtured and supported with commitment. The Northern Quarter in Manchester is a prime example.</div>
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Several buildings had been left to fall into disrepair so that eventually they were condemned and demolished. The <i>Real McCoy</i> was a 'burger bar' for post clubbers in the 80/90s. When it closed it was left to rot. Twenty years later a new block of generic and faceless quick-builds that are swooping the inner city networks, was thrown up. A clean and shining start to the millennium. It became the new city <i>PAD (Preston Art & Design) </i>gallery...a hub for artists and crafts people in the heart of the 'regeneration'. It served the creative community well. The idea to locate it next door to where I bought a bass guitar, which I'd completely forgotten about, was a strange joy. Unfortunately, this new project funded by the Council only lasted 3-4 years; it moved to an old post office building in the city centre...and very quickly died. The fact that it closed down in the centre is sad in itself. But apart from pulling money from the arts, the government were basically, sealing off that area of Church Street, an area that desperately needed <i>something.</i></div>
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Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-40411158296044577042012-01-05T04:32:00.000-08:002020-02-13T09:48:23.582-08:00A hybrid liminal spaceAn usual space:<br />
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Hardwick Place was once a street just off Garstang Road, near the bus station. Left for many years it has become something of a hybrid of liminal and 'adopted' free space. It was quietly managed by locals who have put a few plants in near to their back yards. Evidence of the past street is clear. Bollards line up and a sign throws a null and void warning.<br />
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The image reminds me of a 'garden centre' in the centre of Manchester. An unlikely location, but something about it is reminiscent of <i>Eugene Atget's</i> Zone in Paris. Although both images conduct slightly separate issues about the paradigms of space they are collectively inhabiting the same debates of dilemmas that are cohesive to the arguments.<br />
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Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-51831435082296784302011-12-15T04:39:00.000-08:002011-12-15T05:01:51.377-08:00These receding spacesWhat to do with disused space is a daily task local authorities ask. Developers would normally move in or fees could be quickly reaped from the quick-fire solution of a car park. Space can be used and does get used in an independent manner. Art squatters, performers and people at play have long been documented. Guerilla gardening is creeping in, orderly though it may seem is closely related to us wanting nature to reclaim unwanted spaces. <div><br /></div><div>Whatever it may be it puts its mark back into the urban swirl of change and domineering zones of commerce. There is a growing trend of not-so-much nostalgia but of the need for something that summons a past, a story, a history...something that shows us that something has gone but not forgotten. Ironically it is some of the spaces with traces of before lives that is just about left. We see the beauty in derelict things and we are able to reflect or meditate, for now at least.</div><div><br /><div>The zones of our cities are new, calculated, clinical and carefully mapped for instruction so that space recedes and all pasts with it too...</div></div>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-53080330072325986192011-12-08T04:44:00.000-08:002011-12-08T05:12:54.164-08:00Wastelands pose questions about what Manuel Castells calls <i>space of flows</i>; the internal city rhythm of commodity, high finance, technology, communication, distribution and production...The wasteland is a closed zone to this capitalistic generated network. <div><br /></div><div>New things can begin from nothing but in this way a neglected, forgotten or disused space can turn off any impending investor/developer, especially if an area in need of regeneration is stretched over a long period. Unblessed towns without the fast track of elusive investors slip back in times of recession to their former rugged selves. Some authorities in Lancashire such as those in Preston have been holding on to the dream of investment from major companies but are tied until it happens. In an area closely overlooked by the city's impressive brutalist structure that is the bus station, is a block of varying wastelands. Some have laid waiting since the recession of the 1990s. And new pockets are opening up.</div>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-67934001732100039012011-11-18T02:01:00.000-08:002011-11-18T03:26:41.433-08:00Between, Marginal but not Beneath<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 32.0px; line-height: 32.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">Writing on the works of Victor Turner in <i>What is Liminality? Charles </i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">La Shure* </span></i>drives toward people and hierarchal forms in society, by saying, "...in spatial terms, they are in between (liminality), on the edges (marginality), and beneath (inferiority)." </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 32.0px; line-height: 32.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">The same could be said of these city<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">-spaces except I would be prompted to mention that with will of community and legal procedure, liminal city spaces can be 'managed' and therefore be removed from the </span>eyesore<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "> category and evolved into an alternative spaces that doesn't require much in the way of financial and time input to recreate a 'free space'. </span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 32.0px; line-height: 32.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">www.liminality.org/about/whatisliminality/* </span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 32.0px; line-height: 32.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">Oct 2005.*</span></i></p>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-39022153530484673022011-11-17T07:54:00.000-08:002011-11-17T08:08:42.031-08:00Dilemmas of spaceThe spaces that have laid so long echo that ghostly voice of a changed landscape; the problems of industry and investment. The spaces left go on like uncertain pauses and unanswered questions.<div><br /></div><div>Since the mid-1990s Manchester has developed itself as a very strong cultural centre and with its spirit has bounced back into the Northern arena as being an important city as any classy European one with much investment, new industries and strong bonds with corporations and business capital. </div><div><br /></div><div>Smaller, peripheral towns and cities, like Preston don't have the same clout or force and its for these reasons the challenge of interest and potential investment is less on a relative scale. </div><div>Church Street in the city's heart has a list of wastelands and scarred spaces. </div>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-74976978409630445992011-11-17T07:04:00.000-08:002020-02-17T17:06:12.168-08:00<div>
There tend to various stages of wasteland. The first I'd consider as 'vacant land' where it is both obviously available for development but also open to interpretation. Whether the idea of entering a site is deemed as trespassing or not it is certain that youths and some younger children will want to explore. Usually the land has remained fenced off for some time. Problems arise from time scales. The next stage tends to be the 'liminal stage' where it feels neither owned nor remembered. Other activity can happen. People pass through, walk their dog, motorbikes get dumped, kids play. It becomes an 'other' space. </div>
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In Preston, Lancashire, one site (below) is part of an area that requires regeneration. It was once a Booths depot but has since laid open, although it is one of those rare ones in this case that is awaiting development. Once an area needs regeneration it is difficult to develop interest. Meanwhile, nature returns. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-vyPKTGoptcOFB7-yc-xljIzbt5VCmBVrjmNmdpoP_L0HRtaV2oxyCAtOwtD9NCEb6EIjBb1qkJwA9X0zVu8bHjf77-r_hafhs2HHbzykFlp9vIwJoxXUZFgYb4xdfyrnbDtSem9BZza/s1600/Avenham+Lane+copy.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675981007241590162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-vyPKTGoptcOFB7-yc-xljIzbt5VCmBVrjmNmdpoP_L0HRtaV2oxyCAtOwtD9NCEb6EIjBb1qkJwA9X0zVu8bHjf77-r_hafhs2HHbzykFlp9vIwJoxXUZFgYb4xdfyrnbDtSem9BZza/s320/Avenham+Lane+copy.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 206px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-2698022613330736192011-11-14T14:57:00.000-08:002020-02-15T08:33:43.466-08:00'Friendship' Social Club, Percy StreetThis space was once a social club. This photo was taken on Fujifinepix around 2004.<br />
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They tore the building down and it's been a wasteland since (2020). There's a worn path that runs through. These inner city spaces have a different reasons to attract different kinds of people. The spaces can serve as simple short cuts while for others it can be a place to hide things or with less emphasis on discretionary acts, leaving huge TV sets.<br />
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The space has been in this state for many years since the club was sold, but what of the land? </div>
Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-50474279465755077662011-11-13T05:03:00.000-08:002020-02-17T17:07:30.940-08:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXrkKB3kHpY6fkcUAfKu1E9r92SdO6L87GUipteDff7_EfJ3vMv1pMbUysoyDgr6A8QSr4em2Pe9Xyl_GYeq2JFqBtz2O7JEWRrzrZHUPp5w6aXNS7dPCcNAQ2D-z2JXS9aM8xZMy6AgI6/s1600/BBINGO2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674472817708539410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXrkKB3kHpY6fkcUAfKu1E9r92SdO6L87GUipteDff7_EfJ3vMv1pMbUysoyDgr6A8QSr4em2Pe9Xyl_GYeq2JFqBtz2O7JEWRrzrZHUPp5w6aXNS7dPCcNAQ2D-z2JXS9aM8xZMy6AgI6/s200/BBINGO2.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 136px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
The more curious of locations are those that have not changed. One in particular on Church Street, in an area that has been promised regeneration is an idiosyncratic feature of the city's aesthetic. The building that was here has long been torn down to reveal a backdrop of old tiles, still in place. The trace of previous lives here leads me to step aside from this project. I realised it isn't just about economy, aesthetics and redevelopment and more to do with layers and histories.<br />
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Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-60656523076217284902011-11-13T04:39:00.000-08:002011-11-13T04:58:59.970-08:00Apart from the interest in open spaces that has evolved the years, there are three main things that contribute to making it an open ended and ongoing project. Walking with a camera, taking visual field notes is one, double decker bus rides through Lancashire and Google Earth. surprising I have found the latter an enormous help. All these viewpoints let a map unfold.<div><br /></div><div>Locations are vital to understanding the fabric and flow of the city and its make-up. </div><div>An example in Preston is where within a short radius or square mile, I found up to ten plots of wasteland. Some were in stages of wild nature reclamation while others were in no doubt due for redevelopment; a proud sign tied to fencing reads: 'To be...'</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div> </div></div>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-67152780052636512702011-11-13T04:33:00.000-08:002020-02-13T08:46:29.031-08:00Deepdale St, now a car park<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: rgb(0 , 0 , 0);"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74PKy5-NwCn2KIUR9mFCPLtNE4fidCFSeAogI75Y0gY6BCxUdtc6ZqkslMVzNs0L-Ing4Z7r0BZaQkmSa_uYX6mxieyvdAOjsTfrUm1ZQPue70f6kAe81a93GIE8nQwyouDpZOw3i0X50/s1600/Deepdale.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><br /></a></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;">A view through the fencing on Deepdale St. Deepdale football ground is just visible.</span><br />
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Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-58380858222556515352011-10-25T10:19:00.000-07:002020-02-13T08:49:18.842-08:00These peripheral spacesWhen the North/North West of England's industries started to break down in the 1980s new questions were raised about the environment. Docklands and pits closed and other heavy industries went down adding to knock on effect and eventually creating a very changed landscape that felt worn, forgotten and broken. <br />
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The scars of that post-industrial past can still be seen. The result of neglected places, often noosed by financial uncertainty, became difficult propositions; sites with To Let signs standing for years. During the 1980s and 90s the North was plagued with the aesthetic of dereliction and abandonment. Many buildings have now gone, a few have been reconstructed while some have been cleaned and transformed. </div>
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Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-76141461873553942432011-06-12T15:41:00.000-07:002011-06-12T16:16:07.403-07:00Its been two years since my last posting and I'm aware as will many be that sometimes life stands in the way of such indulgent tasks as blog-keeping. Well, I'm back and going to be changing the look of this blog-mag...<br /><br />Absurdity is a wonderful wry thing we have but my concerns zip back to my work I followed upon graduating as a photographer at University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) ; the wasteland project.<br /><br />Beyond those first photo essays and mappings etc I managed to sift through many subject matters to finally find something I was satisfied with personally.<br /><br />Wastelands have sub-consciously occupied my mind for over ten years and it is an ongoing project. A friend, fellow photographer and journalist, Antonia Charlesworth, (another former UCLAN student) has recently had BLUR magazine published as part of her MA. By featuring some of my work in there helped me to get back to it and focus on finalising some more printwork.<br /><br />Although the work may seem a mile away from 'absurdities' and my previous 'walls and textural studies', to me its all fairly well linked in that they relate to marginal spaces.Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-12542216647697997462009-05-15T07:18:00.000-07:002009-05-15T08:37:02.153-07:00MORE OF THE STRANGEIn my archive I found a cut out policeman. The middle age man is found leaning blankly and not the least bit intimidating in Blackburn's shopping <span style="font-style: italic;">mall. </span>Presumably he was there to deter any ideas that undesirables may have, let alone whether it was their intent in the first place to go and cause mischief. The idea that he stands over a number of elderly people sat on benches begs to make you wonder how he is protecting them. It's all too psychological and surreal. A cut-out-person is unsettling enough but one in uniform seems too far fetched and I think it's not just absurd but barking mad, whatever the 'ideas panel' thought at the time. Where are the <span style="font-style: italic;">real </span>police?! I took this whilst studying a photography HND and I was amused by it all the way home to Preston.<br /><br />Quirky maybe but still in the vein of juxtopositions my partner Alizon and I stumbled on someone selling combat trousers besides two religious icons; Mary and Jesus...perhaps I'm hitting too hard on the concepts of the ridiculous but it sparked something of a war and peace thing - enough for me to include it here along with another from the same day:<br /><br />"Pain?"...Ok so it's a herbal stall. But...<br />"Ask me for a free trial."Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-86155631907184194402008-08-24T11:38:00.000-07:002008-12-26T05:49:45.801-08:00TV guideThe image of the TV helping to mark out the boundary of a dug-out hole is curious and sings back to me the style of commentary that Richard Wentworth was observing in London. My partner Alizon pointed this out to me just around the corner from our house in Alhama de Granada, Spain (see blogspot for creative holidays). Obviously it means little to the people who arranged it but looking from the outside of the situation it seems comical and absurd.Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-60255279251802777442008-05-09T08:18:00.001-07:002023-08-24T06:05:17.649-07:00Fleetwood and neighbouring townsBlackpool has always been coastal king when it comes to the attraction: seaside amusements, the Pleasure Beach, tat and tack, the promenade and piers and of course the Tower. Morecambe seems more subdued and melancholic although the town awaits an influx of visitors as the fantastically re-vamped Art Deco Midland hotel rises again and the town's biggest focus right now - the Eden Project, is stirring interest as it looms on the Bay's horizon. Morecambe's Vintage weekend is a great crowd puller too in September. <br />
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I really like Morecambe while Southport, at least to me, feels more like the posher end of northern seaside culture with its outsiderness from Liverpool, the Victorian shop fronts. (All towns should have the same styled canopies to stop the battering rain).<br />
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Fleetwood on the other hand is a place that Lancashire seems has forgotten about. Its better fishery days long gone, its pier gone, a line of squat shops selling sun-bleached postcards and garish stuff for kids. As ever I'm drawn to these fringe towns and their awkward spaces. People wander about on the 'proms', couples nest in the dunes, while others sit in their cars and watch the sea, with their chips. <br /><br /><div>They have a tram day in Fleetwood and no one can be bothered. The song <i>Everyday is like Sunday</i> springs to mind, which is unfair because rumour was the song was about everywhere else - Morecambe, Southport, Hartlepool, and actually filmed in Southend-on-Sea. We're left with rumour and unknowing which adds to these windswept coastal towns. </div>Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900155853011517001.post-88396193562096430562008-04-28T06:15:00.000-07:002008-04-28T07:51:15.077-07:00Non-place and uncertain spacesPsychogeography is a good companion to the random thinking flaneur who wanders with a camera. I've always been drawn to marginal places and spaces. Photography is an absolute passion and the timing of the shutter firing fits my own attention span on the world. The urban experience is different to me everyday. Saying that, I do have interests that are central to the city and its edges. What sometimes seems like aimless wandering is justified by this random mapping - finding material subjects that fit the projects I concentrate on, such as ruin, wasteground, non-places, textures, walls, palimpsests, odd wording, letters, objects on the ground, the list goes on. Robert Frank once said 'you can photograph anything these days'. Its true, and most people are photographers as well. But its how you collate, edit' and present work that helps a working photographer to find an interested audience. <br /><br />Beyond the spaces of ruin and wastelands that often lay forgotten are the evergrowing number of new buildings, the shining glass exteriors of offices and group companies that are like mini-mirrors of beast capitals like Bejing and Tokyo, New York and London. At the city fringes, along side the dead garages and waste grounds are the non-place (a name coined by French philosopher and anthropologist Marc Auge). These new filled spaces are transitory states through which we move through - often very slowly and mechanically, for transactional and security purposes: airports, retail parks, ATM queues, the new 'malls' and peripheral supermarkets. There are dozens of other examples of non-places. A recent photograph I took shows a sample of a new 'exclusive home zone'(see Lytham below). Near to this was a 'Marketing Suite' where flags waved proudly on clipped lawns and not a soul in sight. These are the cold-edged marginal spaces within their own worlds, disconnected to ruins and places of history and identity. Months before (and left for years)this was a wasteland where people walked.Johnnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505502670973219048noreply@blogger.com0