Still seeing black and white judging by that that opening shot, but there will be plenty of ‘Red’ to come. This is a ‘2 for 1’ blogpost. You know ‘2 for 1’ offers are never that great, the price is hiked on something you didn’t really want in the first place, but you get two and therefore becomes an irresistible bargain. Inevitably you end up throwing both away. So at this point you may wish to lower your expectations and I’ll remind you that this blog is free. I’m procrastinating, let’s get on with it. Almost immediately that I returned from the latest Vegas trip (see Bad Times at the El Cortez) it was time to set off with my youngest daughter to Barcelona. Straight after that I’d been asked by the organisers of “A Funeral For Nature” to photograph a huge protest in Bath.
Barcelona…
I love these trips with my younger children. When they’re on their own that is, together it’s sibling rivalry central and I feel as though I’m with an old married couple with all the pointless bickering. No offence to the ‘old married couple community’ by the way. They’ll disagree about everything and anything, it was the colour of the sky couple of weeks ago and accusations from both sides of playing Devils Advocate. Well, I’m Judge Harper presiding and the sky is actually violet, that’s a fact. As I’m always telling them, everything is about perception and that includes the bloody sky. On their own it’s a different story. You can bond, enjoy the most wonderful conversations, life is easy. I found that in Scotland, New York and Washington DC with Louis and so it was with Amélie in Barcelona. A pure delight to be in her company.
Photographically speaking that’s not the best frame. ‘Form’ becomes irrelevant when ‘content’ is what I’m interested in. I like this shot, because that smile is specifically for me and I could cry that she would gift me that. We usually look at our own photos subjectively, they’re personal. Actually, this is a problem for some street photographers on social media and can’t understand why there’s zero interest. We might love a shot for all kinds of reasons; we were looking for layers or certain colours on that session and delighted we found them. Maybe we had a really bad day and it was the only decent shot we got. Or, as in this case, it simply features someone we love. In particular it’s how we felt the moment the shutter was released. We thought it exceptional, there was meaning to us, emotion that no one else can possibly perceive and therefore not interesting to them. Another example below. I’d just had a shower, changed for the evening and felt pretty good as I stood on my balcony. It’s not going to hold any universal appeal; Neither the photo or me after a shower.
We stayed in a boutique hotel, at the heart of the city, Plaça de Catalunya. At the top of Las Ramblas which will be well known to anyone who has visited Barcelona. I did warn Amélie that we were there to soak up the atmosphere, enjoy the culture and therefore no shopping. I can never understand why people travel and then waste time in shops that are universally available. With that in mind the first stop on the first day was Zara, someone forgot to pack some vitals. Not me in case you’re wondering. We had a list of places we’d like to see or go into. Park Güell to begin with, a park with some architectural interest. That’ll be nice to have a stroll around at ten in the morning, especially as we were “off season”, or so I thought. When we arrived I found a familiar story, you need to pre-book tickets. I went online which is the only way of obtaining them; ‘fully booked for the next eight days’ was the message and that pretty much set the tone for other places we had planned.
I’ve written about this before. For some reason I still think that I can just turn up as we did years ago before travel became so accessible. Everything has become like some kind of historic theme park. You’re in Paris and it’s 1985, stroll past the Eiffel Tower and think about going up. You walk to the entrance and you’re in. None of that four hour queue malarkey we have nowadays. Or you’re driving to London through Wiltshire along the A303 in the 1960’s and spot Stonehenge. Take a left up a lane, lump the car on a verge, walk up to the stones. You can touch them, dance around naked if the mood takes you and be back into the car before you can say ‘warlocks’. Not a chance now. You need to park at the visitor centre, get a bus and walk around with hundreds of others behind a roped off area. You’ll need to book in advance. Anyway, same as the La Sagrada Familia, you need tickets or fast track passes. It all reminds me of the dreaded Disneyland.
It’s billed as the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Two questions spring to mind. Firstly, how many unfinished Catholic churches are there? Secondly, they’ve been working on it since 1882, why isn’t it finished? Lack of funds held things up initially, but they’re raking in the chips now alright. €26 gets you inside a “House of God” which you might presume should be free to enter. We didn’t go in, it’s not that interesting. The rest of Barcelona is though. We relaxed, enjoyed some wonderful Tapas, went to a flamenco show (I’m always impressed with flamenco), walked along the beach and harbour. We also visited the Picasso museum and Moco which is Barcelona’s museum of contemporary art. You know how you find certain street photographers who call themselves “artists”. Pretentious and an overdose of hubris for the large part perhaps. I’m going to whisper this very quietly. keep it to yourself: “They’re usually to be found in New York. You’ll see them on YouTube swaggering around with their analogue cameras. They’re not that good. NYC is like shooting fish in a barrel from a street perspective ”. They belong to “street collectives” which as my friend Kev pointed out; “Isn’t that just what we used to call a camera club!”. Admittedly there’s creativity involved, there are a few fantastic photographers in Manhattan, but “artist” seems a little far fetched when compared with what was on display from actual artists at Moco:
We finished with a ride to the top of Montjuïc on the funicular. With the risk of sounding like Goldilocks the weather was just right for exploring a city, not too hot and not too cold. We walked miles around Barcelona, saw what we wanted to see. It was relaxing, stress free and really everything that you’d possibly want from a city break. The hotel and location were excellent. The flights on time and no hassle at the airports. What more can I say? Here’s some assorted snaps and then we’ll move on to the Seeing Red part of this blog. A final word though. In the grid below you’ll notice the last photo. We were crossing the road in Las Ramblas, it was very crowded, a lot of people about. Just before I took that shot I looked up and the transvestite in the window was looking specifically at me, following up with a smile and a wave. Amélie noticed and thought it absolutely hilarious. Seriously, is this what it’s come to! :
A Funeral For Nature…
Somewhere in the archives of this blog there’s a post where I was talking about being in Bristol and nothing happening. This was a few years ago and not much has changed, this Street Photography thing is ridiculously brutal at times. You go to a huge amount of effort and for most part get nothing. It’s not unlike a BBC comedy drama “Detectorists” I’ve been watching on Netflix and about a group who spend their spare time walking around fields with metal detectors searching for artefacts or gold. Mostly they discover drink can ring pulls from the 1980’s. The point one character makes is that it’s not about the gold (for that we can say ‘Glory Shot’), it would be nice of course, it’s more the process and is regularly a fruitless endeavour. He doesn’t expect anyone else to understand why he does it. Man I’ve digressed, what was I saying? Oh yes. Suddenly around the corner came these people dressed in red. They were protesting against the destruction of nature. Out of the blue a few weeks ago I received an email from the organisers to photograph a huge protest they had planned in Bath.
I say “protest”, but it’s more performance art. When I saw them in Bristol there were around eight, now we had three hundred or so. The event was called “A Funeral For Nature”. Essentially the Red Rebels would be escorting the funeral of Mother Nature. The procession, along with mourners dressed in black, would navigate around the city centre and finish at Bath Abbey. I have to say that it was extremely well organised. It’s hard to argue against their premise, nature is dying, and admire the artistry, that said I haven’t joined Extinction Rebellion, merely asked to photograph an event. I think XR shoot themselves in the foot often, protesting by throwing a can of soup over a priceless piece of art just pisses people off and prevents support. The great thing about this protest was that I couldn’t see how anyone could be pissed off, though they were. You should have heard some of the abuse hurled at them, wow.
I wasn’t the only invited photographer, there were a few others requested by the organiser Rob. This was a huge event. I began in one of the buildings where a number of Red Rebels and Pallbearers were preparing and practicing. Myself and I believe two other invited photographers. I knew that other than this opportunity it would be just a sea red walking through Bath and so I tried to make the most of it. It really is fantastic how they coordinated themselves, from the costume to the make up, to the performance. A very nice group of people, they were all extremely kind and caring. Others weren’t. I’ll enlarge on that in a moment.
As the cohort I was photographing emerged from their building/changing room I realised that it may not just be me who was photographically interested. The press had gathered, some travelling down from London. Okay, it’s their livelihood, how they earn a crust, but there’s no need for any rudeness or unpleasantness. There was a slight edginess and sense of desperation to get a shot from these photographers. I moved away from the media scrum and tried to get closer further down.
In fact I did everything possible to distance myself from them. There was another photographer there, a very pleasant lady. She was told by one guy to “get out of the f***ing way”. Call me old fashioned, but that’s no way to talk to anyone, let alone a fellow photographer or for that matter a woman. I wish I was there when he’d said that to her. The procession winded its way through Bath, up to the Circus and then back to the Abbey. Here’s a few more shots as we made our way to the Circus (Wikipedia The Circus):
Once at the circus we met up with the Mourners and the Pallbearers who carried a Mother Nature figure in a funeral bier constructed from willow.
They circled the Circle. Believe me if you want to get a shot it ain’t easy, especially shooting with a rangefinder and 28mm prime lens. Other photographers were equipped with mighty zooms and autofocus. I decided that we’d all be shooting the same and I’d just document the event for myself. If any shots were used then fine, but I wasn’t getting paid and there’ll be names that know who you need to know to get their work in the press regardless of any other considerations. Additionally my photography isn’t impactful, I like scenes not close ups. Scenes give you some context, close ups don’t, but then if I was an editor those zoomed in photos are the kind of shots I’d possibly want.
Off through Bath we went, heading towards the Abbey. Me, 300 people dressed in Red and a photographic media hoard added to by the general public with iPhones and anyone else who happened to have a camera. Here we are stationary and I’d managed to fight my way through a couple of rows of photographers, just these to go:
I decided to get to the front. As I crouched to take the next shot a press photographer next to me nudged me as I was releasing the shutter and said “Don’t do that, out the way”. Seriously! They were stood still, motionless, plenty of time for everyone to get the exact same shot…
In order to prevent a “Seeing Red: Photographer punches Photographer at Funeral” newspaper headline and accompanying photos I moved down the line, grabbed a few shots and then went behind the hoard. To be perfectly honest I’d had enough. I lost interest and went into my usual mode in Bath, ergo people and pigeons in a street! Let’s be honest, before that I was just taking the dreaded “people walking along’ street shots, albeit the people were all dressed in red.
The Abbey and surroundings were packed, you couldn’t move. I couldn’t get close to the speaker who was the environmentalist Chris Packham. He’s a sort of celebrity/tv personality and outspoken proponent of the cause. I don’t expect anyone outside of the UK will have heard of him, I only vaguely recognised him. Once again I grabbed what I could, here’s what I got and feel that is a good point to end this particular blogpost. I liked the pigeon shot…just saying!
Thank you for taking the time to read my 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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