Waiting by J's volvo

My friend J is the most unlikely person in the world to own a Volvo. Nevertheless sometimes our expectations are confounded ... J's choice of vehicle is an example of one of those. Anyway, recently her Volvo radio turned itself off and in order to turn it back on again a security code was required. No worries, thought J, I'll just guess it. About as likely as guessing someone's ATM card PIN but this was J. Unsurprisingly motoring through the sunny streets of London randomly punching numbers she guessed wrong. In order to re-set the code on the radio she had to leave her key in the Number 1 position of the ignition for 3 hours when, hey presto, she would have another opportunity to enter her code number (now cleverly retrieved from the Volvo dealership). So two Saturday mornings ago we all sat around in a London street waiting three hours as J's Volvo's radio re-set itself. T&L cooked us breakfast. It was lovely. What an inexplicable joy it was when the radio told us it was ready to accept a code again. This is a picture of M waiting by the Volvo:

More winding on the roll...

Winding on the roll

It occurred to me just now, as I was scanning some photos in, that sometimes the photographs that please me the most - or, if not the most then at least more than they ought - are ones that are essentially mistakes. Unintentional success stories, if you like. Out of focus shots, or ones at the beginning of the film roll where I've wound the film on are two that spring to mind.
Because I use rangefinder cameras for both 35mm and medium format, with its clear, bright, apparently focussed viewfinder, I sometimes have a moment of madness where I forget to focus. The odd thing is that even though I don't think much of these - they are genuine mistakes - when I scan them (because I scan just about everything) I sometimes get attracted by something in them.
Likewise the beginning of the film roll can be lovely, even if it's just pointed at the floor. I suppose it's the odd angles or the unexpected or unanticipated framing. There's a point in a film I saw recently - The Science of Sleep (a film, incidently, that I absolutely fell in love with) in which one character say to another something along the lines, "It's difficult to try to achieve chaos. Everything tries to sort itself into its own order." It was probably more eloquently put in the film, but it made me think - these mistakes and accidents produce some interesting results precisely because they're so. If I tried to take interesting out of focus shots, or beginning of the roll type framing I'd probably fail dismally.

(All the photographs in this post are "winding on the roll" shots taken in 2006).

Hotel room, Birmingham (with television)

Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.

Another weekend, another trip to Birmingham. In order not to turn into a complete corporate slob I eschewed the taxi ride to the hotel and walked there instead. On the back of the town hall (no less) I was struck again by the faint absurdity of having an enormous television mounted there. Every day, apparently, they just have the tele on, as if it was someone’s front room rather than a public square. When I passed it this afternoon there was some inane BBC late afternoon game show playing. I watched several fat arsed morons turn their chubby faces towards the screen, transfixed by the inanity of it. Just watching it for no reason other than it was there and it was on.

What I want to know is why this public space has to be dominated by a great big television – playing the same sort of ordinary mind numbing rubbish that millions of people watch on TV at home. Does the mayor of Birmingham think that the populace is unable to sit in a public square without a television to babysit them? Isn’t it bad enough that millions of otherwise productive hours are wasted by the population watching nonsense every year at home? Does this ignorance have to be foisted on those who’ve managed to drag themselves off the couch and onto the street as well?

Of all the things that irritate me (and yes, there are lots – I am a grumpy sod) television (at least, 99% of it and, more specifically, the way people over-rely on it) is probably up there at the top of the list. It is very definitely, as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy called it, the drug of the nation.


(lyrics - Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy)


30 march 19:00