May 15th, 2008 admin
“Welcome to our beautiful town, Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. Campden is one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in the UK. Take a pictorial tour and get a taste of Olde Cotswold England - but if you really want to appreciate the feeling of staying in an old cotswold stone house in a town, hardly touched by the centuries, you’ll just have to come and visit us.” from www.chippingcampden.co.uk
This is one of the only places I’ve come across that actually looks like the postcard. Chipping Campden is eerily picturesque, in a manicured, clipped and tidy way. With so much talk in the media about what it means to be English and about notions of community, identity and stereotypes, it was quite strange to visit a town that felt pathologically, quintessentially English.
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May 11th, 2008 admin
Today I was photographing at the Cotswold Water Park, a 40 square mile wetland area south of Cirencester. The Water Park is the catchment area of the Upper Thames. Back in 1967, it was designated the Cotswold Water Park by a Joint Committee formed from the four local authorities - Gloucestershire & Wiltshire County Councils, and Cotswold & North Wilts District Councils. Many of the lakes are flooded gravel excavation pits. Gravel extraction began in the area over 50 years ago. Because the water table is so high, the first quarries were dug wet; today, however, quarries are de-watered. When extraction is complete, all pumps are switched off and the holes fill naturally with water. There are 140 lakes in the park, controlled by 40 different owners, many of whom use their lakes almost entirely as private property, private clubs or for private developments.
I spent most of the day photographing at the Keynes Country Park with its large beach area and lush green wooded backdrop. The lake was packed with families and groups of friends enjoying the May sunshine. The scene reminded me of a photograph I’d taken in Yekaterinburg for my book on Russia, Motherland (also taken in May).
Victory Day Picnic, Yekaterinburg, May 2005
Interestingly enough, having photographed a family barbequeing on the edge of the woodland, I discovered they were actually from Slovakia. Dusen and his wife have lived in Stroud for the past three years where they work as vets. When I asked them about their future plans they told me they’d be returning to Slovakia because they wanted to bring up their children in their ‘homeland’. This sense of belonging echoed the relationship that many Russian’s feel for their ‘motherland’ or rodina in Russian.
Rosamund Bartlett, who wrote the introduction to my book, described the idea of the rodina as such-
“Rodina might just about be the most emotive word in the Russian language. The fact that it is also impossible to translate adequately says something about its close relationship to questions of national destiny, the Russian sense of self and the enduring belief in the country’s messianic future. The Russian motherland is something apart. ‘Every nation has a motherland,’ wrote the religious philosopher Georgy Fedotov in 1915, ‘but only we have Russia.’ The deepest source of patriotism in Russia accordingly lies not in pride in national achievements or military glory, but in love for the motherland, whose most visible expression is the extraordinary, almost physical attachment which Russians have for their native landscape – an attachment which they are often at a loss to fathom.”
This sense of belonging and attachment to a physical place is one of the motivations for my England journey. I suppose in some ways I’m on a quest to discover what my own homeland means to me.
Posted in ENGLISHNESS, ON THE JOB | No Comments »
May 11th, 2008 admin
There’s an interesting feature in today’s Independent on Sunday Review on the secret resurgence of Morris dancing!
You can read “Hey nonny no, no, no: Goths and pagans are reinventing morris dancing” by Cole Moreton here. Photographs are by Tom Pilston. The article also features the Long Men Morris who I photographed on May 1st - see my blog entry below.
Posted in EVENTS & PASTIMES | No Comments »
May 10th, 2008 admin
It seems that the PR company charged with promoting the new edition of the Rough Guide to England have been peddling the headline grabbing quote “The English are overweight, binge-drinking reality TV addicts.” It’s certainly been successful given the amount of news coverage it’s got in the past 48 hours.
Apparently the Rough Guide accuses the English of being quarrelsome, contradictory and “obsessed with toffs and C-list celebrities” and labelling English people as “insular, self-important and irritating”. It goes on to say that political debate on issues such as immigration, Islamic terrorism and street crime is “served up with liberal dollops of celebrity chit-chat. Even the world’s most remote communities are on first-name terms with its princes, footballers and pop stars.”
However, the guide also pays the country some veiled compliments. For example, England is “a country of animal-loving, tea-drinking, charity donors, where queuing remains a national pastime and bastions of civilisation, like Radio 4, are jealously protected”. They conclude that “Of the 200-plus destinations across the world that Rough Guides covers, there is none so fascinating, beautiful and culturally diverse, yet as insular, self-important and irritating, as England.”
According to The Independent, the guide offers some less-than-complimentary opinions on some of the country’s towns and cities. It describes Blackpool, arguably one of Britain’s premiere seaside resorts, as “shamelessly brash”. Derby is “unexciting”, Plymouth is “bland” and, as for the English Riviera, Torquay, “St Tropez it ain’t” is The Rough Guide’s unforgiving verdict.
Given current suspicion towards travel guide writers, I wonder if those involved in writing this edition actually visited England!
It’s certainly got some local people riled. Here are some comments in the Gloucestershire Echo. I’ll let you know if I agree as we’re off to Gloucestershire later this week.
Posted in ENGLISHNESS | No Comments »
May 10th, 2008 admin
This past week has seen us travelling through Berkshire and Wiltshire. We’re currently in the historic Roman town of Cirencester having just photographed the Swindon Kite Festival in Lydiard Park (somewhat spoiled by a distinct lack of wind!) and Cheltenham vs Eton at Cirencester Polo Club.
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May 7th, 2008 admin
I’ve just read Jeremy Paxman’s book The English: A Portrait of a People.
I particularly liked his assessment that while the French Revolution invented the Citizen, the English creation is the Game. Under the heading ‘The Ideal Englishman’ Paxman writes-
“Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a game of soccer at Rugby School. Tennis was redeveloped by the Marylebone Cricket Club and the first of the world-famous Wimbledon tournaments was held in 1877. Englishmen set the standard distances for running, swimming and rowing competitions and developed the first modern horse-races. Contemporary hockey dates from the codification of rules by the Hockey Association in 1886, competitive swimming from the formation of the English Amateur Swimming Association in 1869, modern mountaineering can be dates from the 1854 attempt on the Wetterhorn by Sir Alfred Wills. The English invented goalposts, racing boats and stopwatches and were the first to breed modern racehorses. Even when they imported sports from abroad, like polo or skiing, the English laid down the rules. The first padded boxing glove was worn by the English prize-fighter Jack Broughton in the mid-eighteenth century, the Marquess of Queensbury codification of the rules of boxing followed over a century later. The list goes on.”
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May 7th, 2008 admin
Well it looks like I’m in good company. One of my early influences and fellow British photographer, Tom Stoddart, is working on a series called This England which, in his own words, is “a photographic journey, to create images which show the full diversity of life here - the energy, the humour and the variety of faces and places that combine to make England what it is today. The images will be a mix of documentary-style photographs and simple portraits. They will be used in different ways: including a high quality book, a travelling exhibition, in magazines and on the worldwide web. ’This England’ will be enlightening and informative for those who see the pictures - and I hope it will also give pleasure to the people who are kind enough to allow me to photograph them.”
I wish Tom well and look forward to passing him on the road this summer.
Posted in MISCELLANEOUS | No Comments »
May 7th, 2008 admin
This Bank Holiday weekend saw us head West from Brighton taking in West Wittering Beach, the Wickerman Festival at the Beltain Ancient Farm, Lawnmower Racing in Billingshurst and the Midhurst Carnival at Cowdray Ruins.
Here are a couple of images from our first few days on the road.
Day 1 - Base camp at Scotts Farm campsite in East Wittering
Day 2 - The Wickerman ready to burn at Beltane Ancient Farm
Day 3 - And grown men lawnmower racing in Billingshurst
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May 2nd, 2008 admin
We’re off. A day later than planned, but when you’re also packing with a two-and-a-half year old in tow, things take a little longer. As with any new venture, we’re starting with a feeling of both elation and trepidation. But hey, if we can survive a year in Russia, then what’s a few months around England!
I’ve always been a fan of the road-trip, partly thanks to the work of some of my early photographic influences notably Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Joel Sternfield and of course Stephen Shore. I mention the latter because he’s just about to publish a new book with Phaidon aptly titled Stephen Shore: A Road Trip Journal.
Here’s an article from the New York Times in 2004 called Travels With Walker, Robert and Andy about the ”on the road” tradition in photography.
Anyway, I hope you’ll join me on the blog to see how we get on this summer.
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May 1st, 2008 admin
I’ve just come across an intriguing project called The Big Picture launched by the BBC and Arts Council which is asking participants to take a photograph which says “Englishness” to the viewer. It’s open to anyone living in the West Midlands. You’ll find more details on their website.
Posted in RESEARCH | No Comments »