#29
Cover by Keef Charles
The British have a wonderful trait that unites them all, it’s a mixture of that ‘stiff upper lip’, humour and madness.
Despite having very formal language, an Englishman will never tell you directly that you are bothering him but he will tell you that he fears you are bothering him. You see, they are distinguished even by their extravagant use of language.
When I was little I wanted to marry a British writer, have a Morris Mini-Minor Traveller and five children, as well as many animals. I know that whilst that’s not very interesting to everyone, it serves to explain the love with which this number was built. I wanted to study in the UK, but my father's death meant I had to change my plans. So I went to the Island many years later. And my eldest daughter studied there for four years.
I wrote two books set in England, I breathed the countryside, the sea, the social differences. It’s a reality that ranges from Dickens' books to Ken Loach's films.
The title of this issue of the magazine - Weathering Heights - is a play on words between weather, the daily problem of the British, and the title of a masterpiece of world literature Wuthering Heights (by Emily Brontë), which in a certain sense also represents the spirit that pervades the Island.
We don't want to talk about stereotypes. Nor can we represent the reality of the UK with a single issue, but we want to give readers a taste of, a feeling for the British, discovered through the filter of our various photographers. Not all are British, but all have chosen to live on the island. And what emerges above all is the folly of these people, these descendants of conquerors.
Martin Parr is not the only one who can portray this madness. Our photographers, some more famous than others, are proof of this. It’s true to say that they all have, in different ways, a sociological vision. An interesting article by Anne Worthington, which is different in style from the others, introduces us to another, often unknown, aspect of British life.
In this issue, we offer more than just a glimpse of the island that wanted to break away from Europe. We offer the spirit of the British.
Thanks to Keef Charles who helped me put this number together
Keef Charles, I was born in 1958. As kids whose father was in Royal Air Force, we travelled a lot, home and abroad. He loved to use his camera. For a number of years, I worked for foreign companies, travelling fairly extensively as part of my job. Living and working abroad has made a difference in how I perceive and view things. Looking at life through the lens has always felt special, capturing moments that somehow help anchor me to life. I must admit that I didn’t serious about my photography until I discovered the Street genre in 2016, I didn’t start to feel the significance until I joined the editorial team of Progressive-Street Photography in 2019. I love to capture moments, moods and memories. Both story and keepsake. They are not simple images but slices of life; both mine and protagonists’ within my shots.
Website: https://www.progressive-street.com/photographers#/keef-charles/ Books: Brief Encounter, Somewhere between memories and dreams
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My name is John Gill and I was born, and still live, in Yorkshire, UK. The vast majority of my photographs are taken in the local area, all are taken candidly on the streets or in cafes. I just try and capture real life and ordinary people. Together with my wife, Bridget, we started a project called 'After the Coal Dust' documenting life in the former industrial areas of the North of England. The project is ongoing and we have been fortunate to have had several exhibitions both in the UK and overseas.
Website: https://www.johngill.photography/ book: “AFTER THE COAL DUST”
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Trevor Gwin, I am a 59-year-old photographer. I grew up in the south of England in Essex and Cornwall but moved north to the mill town of Burnley in 1980. I trained as a mental health nurse shortly after and still work with people with dementia. I have always had a parallel life as an artist and in the 90s I gained a degree in fine art. I was initially a painter and exhibited paintings in Manchester, Liverpool and elsewhere in the north, I was also shortlisted for the prestigious New Contemporaries exhibition in 1998. I started out using photography as research for my paintings but it has gradually become my creative focus. I have always photographed people in the street even before I knew what 'street photography' was. I feel my work is influenced by painters like Goya and Carravagio as well as Saul Leiter, Vivian Maier and Bill Brandt. I continue to live in Burnley where I now have a wonderful family.
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Gisela Szlatoszlavek “You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.” -Joel Meyerowitz As a photographer Gisela Szlatoszlavek brings her own style of street photography. Gisela a published street photographer released her now sold-out book, That Golden Mile (2021) and has featured in Amateur Photographer Magazine (2021). Gisela also forms part of the Instagram collective f/8documentary, focusing on documentary photography from the British Isles. Gisela a Self-taught photographer from Greater Manchester, can be found most weekends in the seaside town of Blackpool. Gisela’s personal statement reads… “ I focus on working-class life, I am a part of that life and express that realness in my images.”
Instagram – Book: That Golden Mile
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David Goold is a full-time geologist and a lunchtime photographer with an interest in many photographic genres. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he grew up in the beautiful Stirlingshire countryside where city life and living remained an idle curiosity until a freelance career took him on a weekly 900-mile round trip commute to London. The result has been the development of a passion for recording the evidence of human life on the city streets. David began his photographic journey at a young age with a Boots Comet 100 Instamatic-like camera and quickly decided to pursue the field as a complete amateur. Today he wanders the pavements and hillsides with a range of compact digital and medium format film cameras making impromptu images with humour and satire.
Website: https://www.davidgoold.com/ Books: Everything is Fine, And Now, What?
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Andre Bogaert I'm a people photographer from London. I'm from the "it's not what you point, it's what you point it at that counts" school of thought so what kit I use is not really too important. Most of my photography is digital but I like to give the photos a "film" look, a Tri X high contrast effect. It looks right to me. My favourite Henri Cartier Bresson quote "Sharpness is such a bourgeois concept"
Website: https://www.bogaert.co.uk/ – EBook: Midnight Diner
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Stephen Leslie is a writer and photographer from London working exclusively on film. His photographs have been featured in the Guardian, Eyeshot magazine and in numerous other publications and websites. In 2018 his book Sparks was published by Penguin / Unbound, it is a combination of street photography and fictional stories inspired by the images. He is currently writing the sequel.
Website: www.stephenleslie.co.uk – Book: Sparks: Adventures in Street Photography
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Anna Lohmann was born and raised in the 1980s in Germany, where she studied media & communications and politics. She financed her studies by working as a barista and writing articles for newspapers. She also worked half a year as a journalist in Spain. After having achieved the University degree Anna was eventually trained as a TV journalist at the German public broadcast NDR/ARD. Following this, she worked as a live reporter, author and filmmaker. In 2020 she moved to London/UK where she discovered her passion for street photography and became a member of the Royal Photographic Society. Anna was awarded third place in the Italian Street Photo Festival 2021 and was among the selected photographers at the Urban Photo Awards 2021. Shots of hers have been exhibited in England and Italy.
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Dmitry Stepanenko Born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1987, Dmitry started doing street photography after moving to the UK in 2010 and it quickly became his primary interest. In 2013 he became one of the founding members of an international street photography collective called The Street Collective. Dmitry's first personal exhibition was held at the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odessa, Ukraine in 2017, followed by a personal exhibition at Stour Space in London. Apart from that, Dmitry took part in a number of group exhibitions across the world and was published in various photographic magazines. In 2017 his first book "Heavy Colour" was published in the UK. Dmitry is a co-founder and Creative Director at the London Street Photography Festival.
Website: http://www.dmitrystepanenko.com/ – Book: HEAVY COLOUR
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Gareth Bragdon I was born in Nashua, New Hampshire but spent my entire childhood and most of my teens on American Military bases in Germany. It was not America nor was it Germany but rather some weird in-between. When we finally moved back to the states it was a bit of a culture shock. The concrete suburbia and Bush-era politics were off-putting and eventually lead to my brother and me moving to Scotland with the intent of moving to mainland Europe. The two of us ended up settling in Edinburgh and have been unable to make it to the intended goal due to unforeseen adversities such as a chronic illness. For my brother and me, photography was born out of a mixture of minimum wage poverty and cabin fever boredom. There was always that internal need for a creativity hole that needed to be filled. We were exposed to the concept of street photography via documentary and photography books. It was the random nature of it and that it could be done on a budget of fuck all besides getting a hold of a camera and that it was right out your door that made it so compelling.
Instagram – Book: »Off-Beat«
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For over 35 years, the American/British photographer Richard Bram has been walking the streets of the world in search of the special moments of everyday life. He has worked on large public events and private intimate moments, always looking for that significant gesture to animate his photographs. His approach is straight: He doesn't set up the photos or alter the scene; the photograph is either there or it is not. Born in Philadelphia, USA, in 1952, Bram has been a professional photographer since 1984. He was a founding member of in-public, now UP Photographers, the first international street photography collective. In addition to being regularly published in traditional and digital magazines, he regularly writes and lectures on street photography. Today, based in London, he hopes to be on the move again soon in search of new images. Three books of his work have been published, "Richard Bram: Street Photography" (2006), “Richard Bram: NEW YORK” (2016) and “Short Stories” (2020). In 2020, Bram received the honour of a major retrospective exhibition at the Mannheimer Kunstverein of Mannheim, Germany. His work has been seen in over forty solo and group exhibitions around the world and is part of major museum collections in America and Europe. He now makes his home on the banks of the River Thames in east London where he observes the water, light and air of that great river.
Website: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Richard_Bram – Books – Short Stories
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Anne Worthington is a writer and photographer based in the north of England. She has worked all over the UK as a documentary photographer, working closely with people over extended periods of time. Her novel, The Unheard, will be published by Confingo Press in 2022. She was awarded the Michael Schmidt Prize in 2018. The 'After the Coal Dust' book was released in 2020.
https://britishculturearchive.co.uk/anne-worthington-east-manchester-2000s-british-culture-archive/
Backcover: Stephen Leslie
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