Proper back.
Hiyarh, so here we are, how is your year going?? The year here is going quite well (touching the wood) with just a few things but hey that’s balance isn’t it.
Feel like I’m back proper now so welcome back to the blog, as I said the other week, I’m determined to give sbh more time in 2023 and here I am after my little last Friday off, Fridays is sbh day so I’ll put together the thoughts, ideas and archive trawl here and you can get it once a week.
Going to shake it up a bit and add some new scribbles in here and there and I’ve also made a few decisions on directions for past futures that I’ll share here, I’m going to:
Draw a line under missing blogs, no point writing them and sticking them in to be forgotten, so I shall do them afresh and you can capture them as they were meant. It does unfortunately you’ll miss the gravy episode at christams in M&S vegiie aisle, the carrying of shit shoes while wearing shit shoes, the rant about them up the East Lancs and a few more but it’s prob no great loss, those subjects may reappear again once they’ve been rewitnessed.
Going to invest some time in the ideas that I came up with so really, really want to do some work on the C.A.N.T manifesto, for those who don’t know it’s my campaign against blandness (that’s my pet hate) with this generation that they literally all look the same, they seem not to be sentient, make nothing new thought wise and they can’t stop wearing those bloody ubiquitous nikes… C.A.N.T stands for the ‘Campaign against Nike trainers’ and it’s best said in a “yourenotmymother” cock-er-knee accent.thankyoubye.
Changing ‘Overheard on the dancefloor’ to ‘Overheard in the supermarket’ this has to be replaced as its so long since I overheard anything on a danbcefloor that it feels a bit nostal’sic’, saying that I may flick between the two depending on how lucid my memory gets/is/was. And this one shows my life and what it is now.
Return back to things I love, one of them is fashion so I’m thinking there may be a few fashion fashion posts, thinking about what it was then, what I pick up on, what it is now etc. It’s not that I’m late to the fashslashparty, it’s just taken me this long to put some coherent thoughts into it…in order to come up with something that has value and contributes…that’s the words, there’s more to come on the images think, further down.
There will also be the regular trawls through the archive, including increased ones through the pre digital archive which will also act as a memory test and hopefully wont cause any aggravation, expect to see some creative masking of identities in case I think it may upset. The problem with this archive is that it’s a little too recent, as in people are still sensitive to its uses. Another development that I feel I need to comment/am best placed to make a comment on is the continued anger (backlash a good work or is pushback better?) against the exploitative use of club images too, thinking that NYE’s picture as well as other incidents and I have got to take these into account, will definitely be exploring that in the future.
Speaking of that I may incorporate comments I receive about the archive as I pass through life, bumped into someone I know from the dancefloor from years ago. One thing I remembered about them (not their name as I’m terrible with them) is that they were adamant then about not having their pictures made, so much so that I always avoided getting their picture even if they were in the background, anyway after the usual pleasantries of “still working, still alive I see” they said, “oh how lovely are your pictures up anywhere so I can see myself as I was back then?” I chuckled and said no cause you never let me make your picture…q up embarrassing silences and moving on. Isnt it funny how people’s memories wander back and forget the things that were the absolute fundamental about them, forgetting the things that summed up their character and what I (people) remember about them, now there’s a title for a blog.
That’s one of the problems of looking back, so to cnuteract that when looking back it’s also important to look forwards as I look into the phootorrre (phonetically speaking that should read ‘fyOOchUH’).
I’m trying to firm up some future directions on the image front too, sbh was always about clubbing and model shoots (loosely tied into fash/portraiture) and as I don’t think I’ll be returning regularly to any dancefloors but would still like to make some new work, strongly feel that I’d like to make some more ‘fashslashmodelslashportraiture’ type work.
I think there are some good reasons to return to ‘FaAshph00grphy’ now and only partly because of the love I have making those images…especially like those with a bit of appeal, a bit of zaza, wowo, lovelysexy. I am wary though with this return, I’ll need to see how it goes as the model selection will be vital not sure on the approach models have now and what my standing is in wanting to do this kinda work so will have to try the waters before I fully commit. I really, really DONOT want to be counted in the same genre as the previous “pervy-sexpest-sleazeball-photographers” of the ‘90’s/’00’s.
I will need to be careful how to label it as I’m solely about the image creation so that may take some work to find, explain, make but believe it’s work worth doing. It is a Nightmare that it was called glamour/sleaze/ladmag previously as that has certain style elements worth repeating but as I want something classier, fun but mainly classier, it needs a strong identity of what it is/isn’t.
I’m thinking of calling/going with just putting people in front of the lens with fashionable clothes (theirs) with an added selection of a little more fun/angles/moods, but I do need a title as I’m thinking of one and I can’t get it so far I’ve got
Bawdy / indelicate / smutty / base / scurrilous / vulgar / inappropriately /
But none of them seem to work, they don’t seem to sum it up as what I intend it to be, I need one that encompasses all it…!!!!...oh isn’t it funny how the universe listens (and sometimes provides) as I’m thinking of what this should be and looking for something that represents a general overarching sbh mood, then what happens but up one pops, so please, please, please see this one by Bella Hadid on insta it’s truly a m a z i n g .
So there it is, the sketched-out plan and now sbh has a new year signpost for moving forward, that’s beautiful, love.
Need an image for all this so I went with a random snap, I’ve been copying over my cd archive recently and did a randomly generated image search on jpgs and there was over 3k so I selected the 2023rd image and here it is.
Now this is what I’m talking about identification, I have no idea who these people are, if they are still alive or what they are up to so I have disguised their identities as I wouldn’t want to cause any embarrassment, it was taken in the very late 90’s/ early 2000 and its from a large well known club in the village, it’s a scan of a neg/slide made then, so if you know or recognise these people then give me a shout so I can ask ‘em if they are ok with it being seen on the internet, as I’m thinking this was only available in print so there’s no previous digital footprint here with this picture !
picture of two people in a nightyclub in the north of england in the late 90’s early 00’s, hugging and enjoying the moment looking into the camera while the strobe plays out.
Also including some new work form old work ideas as I done a bit of a play around with a colagemontage of fashslashclub as a bit of fun, does it new work?
A colagemontage of a fashun image and of a nightclub scene overlayed together.
Right then let’s push into it then and here we go then with 2023, I hope that this year treats you well, sending love and love out to the universe.
Ciao Bella.