Real England

^^^this basically apes a sketch off of (Blue) Jam :/

the method seems better than okcupid anyhow

and yeah, jonathan meades needs to make a documentary about nvh, stat

Does he actually live there, though? Last I heard the place was unfinished and to all intents and purposes unhabitable

yeah i think yr right actually. have only had a proper view of it once, a good few years back. stopped by the perimeter fence on a bike ride for a pee and a couple of jammy dodgers. within about two minutes a couple of black-clad heavies appeared and started making their way towards me, so i left pretty sharpish. monstrous place, in size and in spirit

reminds me of tales of the Barclay Bros and their creepy Brecqhou Bond villain hideout

went to central london on the weekend, awful, gentrified, commercial, corporate, achingly emptily cool desperations, selfie sticks, $15 organic single organic cookies, no cafes, zero independants, zero young locals, 100% tourists and rich families. Really you have to go quite far to the outskirts now to find any real people or places in London. Theres miles and miles of corporate desert and it's soul destroying. Other than Bodean's there's no where to even eat. The actual independant places are just hipster run offs frequented by yuppie clients selling nothing. You've got this street Carnaby Street famous in the past for hippie culture and swinging 60s and mods and independent boutiques and you get there and it's fucking filled with Puma and Adidas stores, wtf? They play up it's heritage and put that shit all along it. Soulless. Pay £10 for a tube day pass, get onto the most grotty disgustingly unclean underground trains in teh world in my experience. Had to walk around South Kensington for a bit, just a pile of rich shit and yuppies and dead eyed tourists how can anyone stay sane there?

Cities I generally find disgusting depressing places, but I have never been more depressed and dispossessed and lacking in confidence in humanity by a City than last weekend in London.

speaking of south coast brutality, just recalled business legernd nicholas van hoogstraten

― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Wednesday, 1 October 2014 09:42 (8 hours ago)

van hoogstraten is an excellent example, a dandified cadaverous psycho with impeccable threat

Why does street photography always have a suggestion (in this DW case a lot more than a suggestion) of the grotesque?

i suspect the answer is connected with my strong sense that we almost never see the middle or upper classes photographed in the style of a wildlife documentary

which is to say that whatever dignity or agency you believe street photographers afford their subjects, there is no real equivalent genre treatment of the non-marginalized

http://i.imgur.com/jOxcECY.jpg

:) i'm open to discovering counter-examples, but i think they're in the minority?

maybe it's something simpler about the way that representation delimits the subjects it uses

Semi serious answer: Paparazzi photography is literally wildlife photography

fair point, and it has got stylistic connections to street photography

unless a subject is posing (or at least pre-consenting) in some fashion, maybe they're always effectively wildlife

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n19/james-meek/in-farageland

^ Haven't read this yet.

we're a farage band we come from farage land

nick you are making brighton sound like an absurdity stranded between cliff-faces and rural or meta-rural hinterlands with only the umbilical link to civilization afforded by the a23 and the railway

Why does street photography always have a suggestion (in this DW case a lot more than a suggestion) of the grotesque?

i suspect the answer is connected with my strong sense that we almost never see the middle or upper classes photographed in the style of a wildlife documentary

― Chimp Arsons, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 16:54 (4 hours ago) Permalink

which is to say that whatever dignity or agency you believe street photographers afford their subjects, there is no real equivalent genre treatment of the non-marginalized

― Chimp Arsons, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 16:56 (4 hours ago) Permalink

http://www.ampelos31.fr/le-blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Ray_jones.jpg

Tony Ray-Jones is the go-to for this stuff right? He photographed all types - not just working class folks at Blackpool.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3XcHU_FRJpA/TiK6G1Nrn1I/AAAAAAAABEw/x97KjKFSIY8/s1600/tony+5.jpg

http://c300221.r21.cf1.rackcdn.com/tony-ray-jones-gentlemen-at-a-wwi-veteran-parade-c-1966-1362348073_org.jpg

Or he was able to foreground something else - that could be the humour generated by the situation he was depicting, or a couple showing affection.

I have a book of his photos and it's pretty clear that at least the ones collected in that volume were supposed to show the English "at play" and class, hedonism or the grotesque had nothing to do with his choice of subjects. Also, the British seaside which makes up maybe 2/3 of the book was not exclusively working class then or now.

I agree that the feeling of the grotesque is not there in Tony Ray-Jones. On the other hand, would a little of it have been there if I was looking at his photos in 1968? When looking at his photos now, a lot of my attention is taken over by the fact they are historical documents, which may overpower other perceptions. Maybe people looking at those Shoreditch photos in fifty or a hundred years will find them to be fascinating on a historical level, and they will be less (or not) interested in whether they are accurate or fair.

But, on the other hand, is it possible that, broadly, people in the west may actually have become a bit more grotesque since 1968 and this is partly the problem? The people in the Ray-Jones photos do generally seem a bit more dignified.

Another factor is technical. A lot of the modern amateur street photography looks very pumped-up with processing. (But, again, maybe in fifty years the 'hard digital/photoshop' look of today will be seen as a historical style with its own charm.)

Finally, maybe people generally look better standing still or at rest than when they are hurrying around or caught suddenly unawares by a photographer in their face.

Also, the British seaside which makes up maybe 2/3 of the book was not exclusively working class then or now.

I found v little of a discernible agenda in those photos (the weakness in that exhibition were the diary entries; there was v little insight to be gained from them, and it felt intrusive). If anything it is that the summer seaside holiday allowed for events to be documented -- could be a fair, or a rock festival (iirc) -- and people were at play in them, they would behaved differently from their stuffy selves.

Brings to mind this bit from the LRB:

In her 1938 novel The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen describes a train trip from London to the Kent seaside. It’s one of the most extraordinary journeys in English literature. Without stretching the bounds of the real, she takes her young protagonist, Portia, from a 19th-century milieu – a stuffy, oppressive, metropolitan townhouse, gloomy with servants, sexual frustration, snobbery, hypocrisy and heavy furniture – to a bright 20th-century world of freedom, consumerism and erotic risk.

However people behave differently on holiday so I'm not sure whether it is even very historical. It doesn't seem alien to me. Ray-Jones was able to capture certain emotions that feel accurate and fair and strong.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Smith_Dinner.jpg

23 July 1990 Ian Smith makes a point at a dinner organised in his honour by Denis Walker (far left) at Lympne Castle, Kent, July 23, 1990. Smith is flanked by Nicholas and Anne Winterton, both MPs, and Rhodesian flags.

ive posted some shit from that persons wikipedia contributions itt before, its a treasure trove

sometimes you assume every conservative mp is a 42 yr old with an mba from an american university and a six year stint at pricewaterhousecoopers and then you realize revenants like this are still in the house of commons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Winterton

Lympne Castle is a medieval castle located near the village of Lympne, Kent, above Romney Marsh.

Today, it is used primarily as a venue for corporate events and weddings. It is generally not open to the public. The Estate Manager is Rod Aspinall. Lympne Castle is believed to be haunted, and has attracted mediums and ghost-hunters over the years.

https://www.facebook.com/CongletonPanto

hi im new here

The thread has moved on a bit but Martin Parr did have his "Luxury" project and so on:

http://www.photography-now.com/images/Bilder/gross/24721.jpg
http://thedrawbridge.org.uk/images/article-images/2196_featurepicture2_1.jpg
http://jherrig.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/parrlux2.jpg

Not going to claim that they're good photos but they're there

thread missing Pumpkin Cafe

http://s27.postimg.org/htaiwx277/Greggs_Costa_Duoply.png

the A2(M) is very real but I am not sure it is the realest motorway in England. what, then, is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4KGxDi-jvk

just about the least real autechre track though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLbB9S_iwtQ

doves covering king crimson. so unreal it might be real again

http://i.imgur.com/SZ35Ny0.png

Crucial to understanding recent events

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/dj_waxes_lyrical_about_frinton_gates_1_76906

haha what a dork

loool @ the florist's business name in the prev post

None realer than Frinton. It's an open-air mausoleum

http://i4.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article8009954.ece/alternates/s615/JS49533376.jpg

GIS search for "Khantucky Grilled Chicken" in West Hull coming up dry

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a82/bobbysixer/IMG_2551_zps7ccb5e87.jpg

Camden tourists advertising ILE

there are ways to mute the shutter sound you know

love how were having a great Real England then Bob Six wanders in with his morning's pervings. I mean, nothing really against it but it's off-topic y'know

maybe take it to 'too much time on ilx'? more americans there, they'll appreciate your transgressive exposé

it's a little bit importunate to take photographs of people in that sort of setting

Bobble hat fetishists disrupting threads just as genuine dialectical progress being made...Every. Single. Time.

Sigh.