So, this archive does not belong to me it is was a part of my father archive. I asked him some time ago if I could have some photos from his own collection, mainly in the hope of get some photos of my mum who died 14 nearly 15 years ago at the age of 49. He gave me a large of number of photographs including images that content people, places and events that I am aware of but was never there to witness.
The images I picked from these photos are all the same place, but all taken at various times I think they comprise of at least three different dates but contain two Christmas parties. Most of these photos contain people have never seen before, the photos are placed on the file box they came in, then I took their photography’s. The finally image has glare, the reflection on the surface obscures the bottom corner. I'm not entirely sure if this adds or the detracts from the image, the colour of the print clearly much older than the rest. The series of photos start off with one person in the main point of focus a landlady? Standing behind the bar, the number of people increase in each image 2, 3, 4 all are customers and is clearly a party. I'm guessing is around mid-80s I would have been in my teens 13 or 14. It shows a sense of working class and drinking culture. Within the series there are two different kinds of portrait, the aware and the unaware and there seems to be several things occurring from engaging conversations to boredom maybe even awkward silence. There is the sense of the party and there is a grouping of gender men talking to men under the influence with there pints and the women sitting quietly together looking far more reserved with there half pints, back in the day when it was un-ladylike to drink pints. The landlady I am guessing being the perfect hostess letting her hair, allowing her regular customers the joys of a locking at the time approaches 2am. It brings back memories of sitting quietly in a pub pack of crisp and an orange squash with brother and sister, mum and dad chatting with all the adults. Being asked if “Are you okay you seem very quiet” I was always very quiet, I can still can be very quiet and I still get asked the same old questions “are you okay” for quite a long time I thought there was something wrong with me, I felt like an outsider. Maybe I selected these images because they are parties, that are normally a place of large groups of people, talking of all the time. Don’t get me wrong I like a party, but I am the one on the edge of it, they are not my go to environment. Give me a small group any day. Of course, I have learnt that being deeply introverted is okay and there is nothing wrong with me, my daughter is like me, but I find myself asking the same bloody irritating question “Are you okay”.
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