Spoiler Alert: This blog post is not weather related. I understand that news may come as a huge disappointment to the “British Weather Street Collective”, they look forward to my posts grumbling about weather related Street Photography problems! I’m not even going to mention the weather other than to say it was bloody freezing in Bristol on Friday. That’s it, don’t get me started, I’m over it.
I park my motorbike in the usual spot in Bristol and begin to walk up to the St Nicholas Market area. You probably know by now that I often begin conversations with all sorts of random people. I can tell, and really there’s no need for anyone to pretend otherwise, that some of these conversations are one sided and pretty boring for the stranger/victim who has to listen. Within two minutes I ran into the photographer above. A very nice chap. We spoke about photography for a while, it turns out that he’s the photographer for a Facebook Group: Bristol Now and Then. They find old photos of Bristol and he searches out the location and replicates the framing as a comparison. Apparently they have 50k or was it 100k members. I’m not a member of any Facebook Groups so I don’t know if that’s a lot, but do know that it represents a hefty proportion of the population of Bristol. Of course anyone who stands near me is going to have their photo taken. I moved on and less than two minutes a conversation was struck up with the lady left of frame in the next shot:
I will say that she started our little chat because she was a keen photographer and a big plus was that she didn’t once try to sing me up to her charity. She was just excited about “What kind of camera is that?” and the fact that she had just purchased a “vintage” 1970’s camera. At this point I realised that to her the 1970’s were vintage and got a timely reminder of just how old I’m getting. I told her film is over rated and too much like hard work, digital is the only way to go. To hammer home the point I revealed that I’ve got a ton of vinyl records yet only listen to music via Spotify and my ear pods. Just so she knows that I know what I’m talking about I took a shot of her that’s out of focus! In fairness I did have one eye on Bristols answer to “Reservoir Dogs” walking along in the background. There were five of them ‘strutting” their stuff, I of course managed to miss two of them. Onward then…We’re all creatures of habit and so I wound my way along what for me is a well trodden path.
Familiar territory. Through the underpasses, known locally as the Bearpit and up to Stokes Croft. I always click an underpass shot, then wish I hadn’t, you know the kind of thing, people walking into the light at the end of the tunnel. There’s also a little walkway under a building that I go around the outside of just so I can snap through the missing pane of the graffiti laden window. You’ve seen these before from me:
Once past that we’re in Graffiti Central. I generally take lots of photos, get as far as Banksy’s “Mild Mild West” and turn back. It was eerily quiet, something is not quite right. There’s a tension in the air. A gathering storm perhaps? Time to grab a sandwich and stand outside Bristols Primark store and for good reason.
I say good reason, actually there’s two. It’s usually bathed in sun and therefore a warm place to lean up against a conveniently placed wall. Once this lady has moved rom my spot I can eat and watch the world go by. There’s usually a tremendous amount of footfall around that corner and if we’re people watching then it’s exactly what we need. We can experiment a little when we have the time coupled with plenty of subject matter. Keep one eye open for people with red beards and some layers for example:
…and if the flow dries up I can turn to my left where there’s usually someone sat on the benches…
…and it did dry up a touch. Must be that gathering storm, or the storm about gatherings. There’s an increase in Covid cases, the ominous arrival of Omicron and the double vaccinated are told that actually their immunity is decreased to practically nothing after a few months. The flow of people in the streets and the ability to stand photographing them is once again in danger of extinction. Booster jabs are being delivered in their millions, we’re fighting back except there are currently complications when it comes to asking the public to follow some government guidelines.
I don’t want to get bogged down with the U.K.’s internal politics and believe me, neither do you. Here’s a brief outline. Our ‘Glorious Leader’ has once again been accused of being a pathological liar and of having double standards. One rule for us and one rule for them. None of this will come as a surprise to anyone familiar with politicians wherever you are in the world. In the first lockdown a government scientific advisor was caught literally and figuratively with his pants down regularly crossing London for clandestine meetings with his lover. The anthesis of his own advice. Boris’s main advisor drove hundreds of miles to sit out lockdown (forbidden), then went for a drive to see friends whist claiming he wanted to test his eyesight!
Last Christmas whilst the country was in the midst of yet another draconian lockdown there were Christmas parties held at Downing Street. If your loved one was dying you weren’t allowed to see them. Meanwhile political staff in the epicentre of government of decision making decided they’d have a jolly time at office parties. There’s even a damning video and photos. Some people were appearing in court this week to answer cases where Covid regulations were broken because they held a house party last Christmas. Hefty fines and so forth for the very thing that was alright for ‘them', but not for ‘us’. Importantly what chance now of the Government relying on public goodwill to follow laws and regulations, essentially what they need because nothing can be enforced once a majority of your population decides otherwise. Anyway, ministers have stopped referring to them as “Parties'“ and instead have been instructed to say “Gatherings”. I wonder if we now need to do the same with political parties, Boris Johnson’s ‘Conservative Party’ becomes the ‘Conservative Gathering’.
I’ll be back with my selection for the regular Twelve best shots of the year. I’m delaying that mostly because I find it absolute torture curating my own work, but in the back of my mind have a feeling that this gathering storm may leave me with a lot of time on my hands. Although one of those hands might stick two fingers up to Boris and his chums.
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are made using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
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