tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-324225712024-02-02T19:36:32.913+00:00AS I PLEASE | PHOTOS & WORDSPHILIP WOLMUTH, PHOTOGRAPHERPHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-11353034189329028082021-03-23T15:23:00.005+00:002021-03-23T15:28:11.933+00:00In Memory of Philip 1950-2021<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNZcQvRfpibz1Id_pzLS7PoeLG78a-bbl1jpKN42XW4oSLylDMn4_2g4CjoKBcQcW_R6jTbAEqRHieZ12de0Ax5_CqiIam3d-KC5WbLzP26er7IgNGSNm3oIRngvA4ZdPxUm2/s2048/phil.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNZcQvRfpibz1Id_pzLS7PoeLG78a-bbl1jpKN42XW4oSLylDMn4_2g4CjoKBcQcW_R6jTbAEqRHieZ12de0Ax5_CqiIam3d-KC5WbLzP26er7IgNGSNm3oIRngvA4ZdPxUm2/w500-h333/phil.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><p>We are very sad to share with you that Philip died in February, having lived with cancer for some years. He became very ill in December and died at home with his family.</p><p>We plan to keep his website and archives accessible. Please bear with us as we work this out. For now, you can still use the contact form for enquiries.</p><p>Here are some recent links about Philip's life and work:</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/15/philip-wolmuth-obituary" target="_blank">The Guardian - Other Lives</a> </p><p><a href="https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photos-capturing-the-soul-of-notting-hill-in-the-70s/" target="_blank">Huck Magazine - Photos Capturing the Soul of Notting Hill in the 70s</a> </p><p><a href="https://www.caferoyalbooks.com/shop/philip-wolmuth-london-series-2-books" target="_blank">Cafe Royal Books - Notting Hill in the 1970s and Kings Cross 1989-90 </a><br /></p><p>Jane, Anna and Eva </p><p>(Philip's partner and daughters)<br /></p>PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-19828847113624964892020-05-12T16:44:00.002+01:002020-11-09T12:51:19.210+00:00Viral Rides<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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Like many others, I took to my bike for
daily exercise when the lockdown began. I'd forgotten the pleasures
of two wheels, and found the switch from walking to cycling made it
easier to keep my distance from oblivious pedestrians with social
distancing amnesia. But after a few days of aimless forays I got
bored. I decided to take a camera with me, with the intention of
bringing back at least one useable picture from every trip.</div>
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A bike is a wonderful thing. It gets
you to places without hassle, at little cost and minimal planning.
But bringing a camera along is very different from photographing on
foot. If something catches your eye you have to stop, check the
traffic, check for bicycle thieves, put the bike somewhere where it isn't
going to trip up a pedestrian or get crushed by a bus, before you can
even get the camera out of its bag.
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So by the time you're in position, the
bike is safe, and your camera set, the perfectly framed incident,
or moment of light and shade, that you had spotted from the saddle
has most likely been and gone.<br />
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But not always. I don't know what my
collection of images does, or will, add up to once the pandemic has
become a distant memory, if that ever happens, but the fruits of my cycle expeditions
in and around North West London over the last few weeks are enough to keep
me pedalling. More pictures <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/Viral-Rides-London-in-the-time-of-Covid-19/G0000kzdbQv0a3E4/C0000X3VHM7lV9_w%20%20%20gallery">here</a>.</div>
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Maybe it's talk of 'The Blitz Spirit'
reawakened by the coronvirus pandemic that has prompted me to see echos of
wartime stiff upper lippery in the latest batch of scans from my
archive.
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In the mid 1970s memory of the Second
World War was still strong, and in some of the photographs I took
around that time, of pensioners' lunch clubs and other community
support groups in North Paddington, there is an unmistakable military
bearing to many of the men, neatly turned out in jacket, collar and
tie.
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And it was not just the men. These
shots are from a Women's Voluntary Service lunch club on the Harrow
Road, where the aprons worn by the staff still had WVS Civil Defence
badges sewn into them. More photos from North Paddington in the
1970s <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/North-Paddington-1975-1983/G0000STgMuEI..w4/C0000X3VHM7lV9_w">here</a>.</div>
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P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm }</style>PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-72224745386415136532020-01-30T15:31:00.000+00:002020-01-30T15:31:26.052+00:00HS2: Too Late For Some<br />
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<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Stan Passmore, 2013</i></td></tr>
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When I met Stan Passmore and his friend
George Phillips in 2013 they were both facing the prospect of the
demolition of their homes on the Regent's Park Estate, to make way
for the HS2 high speed rail terminus at the adjacent Euston station.</div>
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<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>George Phillips, 2013</i></td></tr>
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Stan, then aged 87, had lived in his
fourth floor flat in the Eskdale block since 1961. His near neighbour
George, then aged 94, had lived in his since it was built in 1955.
Both told me they hoped to die before the bulldozers arrived. George
achieved his wish not long after, but Stan, who died earlier this
month, lived just long enough to see his former home turned
into a pile of rubble. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img p="" src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Y7erdk_jaH8/s/500/I0000Y7erdk_jaH8.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Eskdale (pink block on right), Regent's Park Estate, 2013</i></td></tr>
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Euston is now one giant construction
site. Many hundreds of homes have been demolished, lives disrupted,
businesses closed, graves dug up, ancient trees felled. And yet,
even at this late stage in the progress of this misconceived project,
the politicians are still debating whether to proceed. Whatever they
decide, it will be too late for Eskdale and its former residents.
More pictures <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/HS2-Euston-Beyond/G0000.Wdk2YAR.Qg/C0000X3VHM7lV9_w">here</a>. More words <a href="https://philipwolmuth.blogspot.com/search?q=+HS2">here</a>.</div>
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PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-11273861308413888052019-10-24T14:54:00.000+01:002019-10-25T09:51:06.788+01:00And Now For Something Completely Different....<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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Around 25 years ago, not long before I
moved from my home of 14 years by the Grand Union Canal in North
Paddington, a near neighbour began secretly embellishing the back
yard of his one bedroom housing association flat with an
extraordinary collection of home-made artworks.</div>
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Gerard 'Gerry' Dalton, who died last
month at the age of 83, left behind an astonishing number of crudely
modelled and painted statuettes that fill his back yard and line a
narrow 50 metre strip of land that runs between the canal and the
Victorian terrace that overlooks it. There is no public access, and
the display is largely hidden from view by two rows of neatly clipped
bushes. As things stand, the property will be cleared and
re-possessed by Genesis, the housing association that owns it, on
31<sup>st</sup> October.</div>
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<br />
<img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000cQaAc8jiZMA/s/500/I0000cQaAc8jiZMA.jpg" /></div>
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<br />
According to a small ad hoc group of
admirers who have started <a href="https://www.change.org/p/save-monumental-body-of-site-specific-outsider-art-in-west-london">a
crowd-funding campaign</a> to preserve the works in situ, there are
around 200 concrete and mixed media sculptures, 170 wall mounted
works and a 50 metre long mural.
</div>
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It is hard to know what to make of
them. Irish-born Dalton, at various times a station porter, factory
hand, and catering worker, clearly had a mischievous take on the
historical record. The concrete statuettes – sculptures, artworks,
monuments, call them what you will - are between two and three feet
high, each with a roughly cast plinth, many of which are inscribed
with the names of what appears to be a random selection of mostly
long dead public figures. <span style="font-weight: normal;">Emperor
Vespasian, Prince Albert, assorted other royals, obscure aristocrats,
Marcus Aurelius, Hercules, and Lord Lucan all get a look in. All the figures have painted red eyes. What was he trying to
say?</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Inside
the flat, every inch of wall space is covered with framed pictures,
mostly cut from magazines, with additions of paint by the artist. On
the floors of the bedroom and living room are gaudily painted wooden
models of Hampton Court, Buckingham Palace and various other stately
homes.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Jprmp2_z0Z4/s/500/I0000Jprmp2_z0Z4.jpg" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Given
the quantity of work on display, both inside and out, the flat is
surprisingly clean. This presents further puzzles: where did all
this productive labour take place? Casting concrete is a messy
business. No sacks of cement are evident, nor the tools necessary to
mix and model it. And how did several tons of the stuff get there? </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I
guess the unanswered questions just add to the mystery of what the
campaigners call a ”monumental body of site specific
outsider art”. Whatever its significance, the campaign to save the
collection has, according to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/18/rock-stars-museum-bosses-unite-save-magical-kingdom-built-imaginative/">The
Telegraph</a> and <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stars-fight-to-save-art-at-gerry-daltons-pompeii-h2j6c6fll">The
Times</a>, attracted some high profile supporters, including Jarvis
Cocker, Nicholas Serota, Sir Charles Saumarez Smith CBE, Louis
Platman, curator at the Geffrye Museum, the artist Richard Wentworth
CBE and the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">If it survives the 31st October deadline (Genesis, not Brexit), maybe
all will become clearer. </span>More pictures <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/Gerard-Dalton-Artworks/G0000iBIy9bazgag">here</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
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<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><span itemprop="caption"><i><b>Seamus Clarke in his sub-standard flat before renovation, Walterton Estate, 1993</b></i></span></td></tr>
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<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Another scanning session has
resurrected a set of photos from the campaign by
residents of two North Paddington estates to save their council-owned
homes from sale to a private developer. Explanation below. <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/Walterton-Elgin-Community-Homes-WECH/G00000del850xf_I">More
pictures here</a>. </div>
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In 1985, with the Greater London
Council on the verge of abolition, Walterton and Elgin, two of its estates
in the north of the borough of Westminster, were handed over to
Westminster City Council.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
The two estates, one comprised of
Victorian terraces, the other of two 1960s towers surrounded by
low-rise concrete blocks, were in poor condition. Without any
consultation, the council immediately began drawing up plans to sell them off to private developers.</div>
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<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>WEAG posters, Walterton Estate, 1987</b></i></td></tr>
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Residents responded by forming the
Walterton and Elgin Action Group (WEAG). At very short notice, more than 200 tenants
attended a meeting of the council's housing committee to demand that
their needs and wishes should take priority.
</div>
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It was the beginning of a seven year
campaign, and WEAG, with a programme of inventive direct action and assistance from a wide range of sympathetic housing professionals,
legal advisers and local Labour councillors, went on to draw up its
own plan to save the homes for local people in need of rented
housing. It lobbied council meetings, paid unannounced visits to
the offices of property developers, signed petitions, and flooded the
area with posters publicising its struggle.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000rhYSNIu5P3E/s/500/I0000rhYSNIu5P3E.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Unannounced WEAG visit to Regalian Property Company, 1987</b></i></td></tr>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Conservative led council, under the
leadership of Dame Shirley Porter and concurrently fighting
accusations of gerrymandering over its Building Stable Communities
programme, resisted all the way. But in April 1992, the tenants and
residents were victorious, their newly-formed Walterton and Elgin
Community Homes (WECH) taking over the ownership and control of 921
homes, together with a dowry of £22 million to cover the cost of
repairs and renovations. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 0px; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000gwnuCOlcbxI/s/500/I0000gwnuCOlcbxI.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></b></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><b><span itemprop="caption"><i>Removing asbestos from a flat in Chantry Point, Elgin Estate, 1995</i></span></b></td></tr>
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<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-75049785238256057492019-04-05T17:07:00.001+01:002019-04-05T18:24:34.816+01:00Public Sector Workplaces 1981-1991<br />
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<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Southwark Council, Lugard Road Kitchens, 1985</b></i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
These photographs are from a set of newly scanned black
and white negatives I shot in the 1980s, at a time when much of my
work was commissioned by the National Union of Public Employees
(NUPE) and the National Association of Government Officers (NALGO).
Others were taken for the Popular Planning Unit of the Greater London
Council, then led by Ken Livingstone, and for a variety of other
publications and organisations. More photos <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/Public-Sector-Workplaces-1981-1991/G0000NyZqRef26aQ" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<a href="https://bit.ly/2UBs3dm"><style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It was a time of rapid change and
struggle in the public sector, with the radical “contracting out”
privatisation policies of the Thatcher government compounding the
impact of the 1970s public spending cuts under Labour that had
culminated in the Winter of Discontent of 1978-1979.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000vfEYM1db.tk/s/500/I0000vfEYM1db.tk.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Domestics occupy administrator's office, St.Mary's Hospital, 1981</b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
These policies were disastrous both for
the workers who provided our services, cutting jobs, pay and
conditions in the NHS, local government and elsewhere, and for the
service users who relied on them.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
They weren't good for photographers
either. Claims of commercial confidentiality, and a growing
obsession with written consent forms, made access to contracted out
workplaces much more difficult to obtain.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
More text <a href="https://bit.ly/2FUrOAJ">here.</a></div>
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</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="412" src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Dly1hip8Ikg/s/500/I0000Dly1hip8Ikg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Contracted out domestic worker, St.Charles Hospital, Notting Hill, 1986</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="427" src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000kiavcRoPrlM/s/500/I0000kiavcRoPrlM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Manchester City Council refuse incinerator, 1987</span></b></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-29692658395201841962018-12-11T15:02:00.000+00:002018-12-11T15:02:01.094+00:00Brexit For Beginners<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000PvugrwxuyZ4/s/500/I0000PvugrwxuyZ4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Paris 1996</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
From Powell to pandemonium: an assortment of Brexit-related images from my library can be found <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/Brexit-for-Beginners/G0000h690anzQAOc" target="_blank">here</a>. I wish they told a story, but nobody else can make much sense of it either. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000W5WeSV5jcSE/s/330/I0000W5WeSV5jcSE.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Enoch Powell 1983</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Aa47z5oXRUU/s/330/I0000Aa47z5oXRUU.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Dover 2004</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00006L20dFgtymk/s/500/I00006L20dFgtymk.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Nigel Farage, Margate 2015</i></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00000q55YgjRR.s/s/500/I00000q55YgjRR.s.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Westminster 2018</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-39654790777202756382018-11-29T14:12:00.000+00:002018-11-29T14:12:32.331+00:00Demolishing South Kilburn<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000tM5_6jCRQhA/s/500/I0000tM5_6jCRQhA.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>South Kilburn Estate, 22-05-18</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></div>
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</div>
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<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">On
South Kilburn Estate new concrete shells are rising from the rubble
that was once Gloucester House and Durham Court. I've <a href="https://bit.ly/2FQLhFN">written
before</a> about Brent Council's 15 year estate regeneration scheme,
and the implications of the changes of tenure that are at its core,
but none of that captures the extraordinary visual impact made by the
tearing down of people's homes, whatever the tenure. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">The most recent demolition phase lasted around six months. A bigger selection of
images from that period is <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/Demolishing-South-Kilburn/G00002bOcnQhqV2c/">here</a>.
More words and pictures <a href="https://bit.ly/2FQLhFN">here</a>.</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000bLiuMr8.GdM/s/500/I0000bLiuMr8.GdM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>South Kilburn, 22-3-18</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000oMOmTjf2k.I/s/500/I0000oMOmTjf2k.I.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>South Kilburn Estate, 1-5-18</i></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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</div>
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Ch6AlswVMxQ/s/500/I0000Ch6AlswVMxQ.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>South Kilburn, 22-5-18</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-3856831449276340172018-10-24T11:29:00.000+01:002018-10-24T22:45:51.623+01:00More at The Corner<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000ynRe1FTDGNE/s/500/I0000ynRe1FTDGNE.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Over recent months Speakers' Corner has
taken on a new lease of life, not all of it healthy. The 'home of
free speech' has become the arena for a weekly gladiatorial contest
between Islamophobic English nationalists and a fluid group of young
Muslim men, as eager to defend their religion as their opponents are
to insult it. The result has been much noise, little enlightenment.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The conflict began in March, when the
Austrian far-right Generation Identity leader Martin Sellner was
refused entry to the UK and deported. The following week English
Defence League founder Tommy Robinson and a large number of his
supporters descended on Speakers' Corner to protest at what they
regarded as a denial of their right to free speech. Some of them have been around
ever since, apparently happy to have found an easily accessible
target for their anger.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000cLL11YNYAiU/s/500/I0000cLL11YNYAiU.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Testosterone levels are high (very few
women are involved), and police intervention has become a regular
feature. After some years during which there were often none to be
seen at the Corner on a Sunday afternoon, police are now present in
force, their vans strategically parked and rows of constables
lined up to step in and separate the two groups when they overheat.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000utSnkj0Ksoo/s/500/I0000utSnkj0Ksoo.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In another new development, the clashes
are now available to the world beyond in the form of hours of
mostly unedited, often chaotic footage posted on YouTube. Everyone is
either filming or being filmed, sometimes both at the same time, and
the resulting broadcasts can pick up 20,000 or more views within hours of posting.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So the place has got a lot busier, and
although endless religious arguments remain its most prominent (and
least interesting) feature, crowd numbers are well up, there are
still some discussions worth a listen - and still the occasional frisson
when the police go on manoeuvres. More 2018 pictures <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/Speakers-Corner-2018/G0000SiD6xhHJ8qY/C0000X3VHM7lV9_w">here</a>, older photos from my book <a href="https://bit.ly/2OM7EjD" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000QU9wR7c7Zf8/s/500/I0000QU9wR7c7Zf8.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-25226039171747643422018-02-13T17:58:00.000+00:002018-02-13T17:58:53.459+00:00Return to Speakers' Corner<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000FhBnIP4ODNs/s/500/I0000FhBnIP4ODNs.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Speakers' Corner 2017</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Is it just winter, or is Speakers'
Corner in terminal decline? On a recent visit – my first for over
a year – religion, always a dominant presence, was the only thing
on offer, mostly in the form of squabbles between Christian and
Muslim preachers and hecklers. And there weren't more than three or
four of those. I don't remember ever seeing such an unimpressive
bunch.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It was the last, rather miserable,
Sunday of 2017. Dull and damp, with occasional spots of rain, and
darkness threatening by mid-afternoon. So maybe not a fair basis for
judgement. I will be back to check. I hope I'm wrong.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
For a record of how it used to be, my
book <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/speakers-corner/9780750961066/"><i>Speakers'
Corner, Debate, Democracy and Disturbing the Peace</i></a> is still
on sale at all good bookshops.</div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-52612606597231714582018-02-02T12:42:00.000+00:002018-02-02T12:43:08.823+00:00 Lendlease: Someone Has Blundered<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000lCQKYjmH5Rc/s/500/I0000lCQKYjmH5Rc.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><b><i>Elephant Park construction site, Southwark</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Lendlease's controversial deal with
Haringey Council may be looking precarious, but the developer is
still going strong in Southwark, where it is replacing <span style="font-weight: normal;">1194
social rented flats on the</span> once publicly owned Heygate Estate
with a paltry 74. A further 500 of a total of 2500 new homes in its Elephant
Park scheme will be let at so-called 'affordable' rents, and the rest
sold off. Purchase of a one-bed, shared-ownership
flat requires a minimum household income of around £60K.<br />
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Y8m.WDGWp.Q/s/500/I0000Y8m.WDGWp.Q.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><b><i>The now demolished Heygate Estate, 2002</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-32511776275786802812018-01-23T15:26:00.000+00:002018-05-29T16:24:07.379+01:00The London Clearances (continued)<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000RZNVW2TY5Hw/s/500/I0000RZNVW2TY5Hw.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Walterton Road, North Paddington 1975</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
My first useful work as a photographer
came about through involvement with housing campaigners at the tail
end of the slum clearance programmes of the 1960s and 70s. In
London, streets of poorly maintained, privately rented Victorian
terraces were being torn down and replaced by a brave new world of
modern homes in publicly owned estates of concrete apartment blocks.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Forty years on, that world has turned
full circle. Now it is the 'castles in the sky' that are coming
down, streets are all the rage, and council housing, now renamed 'social', is
struggling to survive.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000z33eDhmAaTA/s/500/I0000z33eDhmAaTA.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Gloucester House and the rubble of Durham Court, South Kilburn Estate, 2018</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Across the road from the sub-standard
flat that was my home back in 1975 (toilet and cold water sink on the
shared landing, no bathroom), work has begun on Phase 2b of Brent
Council's 15 year South Kilburn Estate regeneration scheme.
Demolition of the low rise Durham Court blocks is underway, and the
now deserted 18 storey Gloucester House awaits the wrecking crew.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If all goes according to plan, by 2029,
when the final phase is scheduled for completion, 2400 new homes will
have been built, 1200 for private sale, and 1200 let at social rent
to existing secure tenants.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000ZPujbZ_wBYI/s/500/I0000ZPujbZ_wBYI.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Partly demolished blocks, Durham Court, South Kilburn Estate</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The buildings and landscaping completed
so far are impressive, a big improvement on the bleak brutalist
concrete they have replaced, and the scheme has attracted much
praise. The council has also been lauded for its financial strategy,
using income from the private sales to fund the homes let at social
rents.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So what's not to like? In a convincing piece on Haringey's controversial partnership deal with
Australian developer Lendlease on the <a href="https://redbrickblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/will-haringeys-hdv-tackle-homelessness/">Red
Brick blog</a>, Steve Hilditch argues that the most straightforward
criterion for assessing the wave of regeneration deals being done by
councils across the capital should be the number of social rented
homes there will be at the end of the process.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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“<i>Thousands of mainly social rented homes will be knocked down
and thousands of mainly private homes will be built. There will be
many more homes overall, but, how will the proposed mix of market and
sub-market homes tackle homelessness and the needs of people on the
waiting list? The type and tenure of new homes is as important as how many
homes are built in total. Social rent remains the only truly
affordable option for many people on lower incomes.”</i><br />
<br />
On that measure, the figures for South Kilburn don't stack up. By
2029, 2400 new
homes will have replaced 1610. Of the latter, 1420 were occupied by
secure tenants and 190 by leaseholders. It's hard to know whether the
prices leaseholders are getting for their compulsorily purchased
homes match the prices demanded for the new (unlikely). But it is
certain that 1420 secure tenants will not fit into the 1200 homes
available for social rent. It is probable that enough of them will have been rehoused elsewhere to make
the scheme work, but the net effect will be to reduce the number of
social rent homes available across the borough<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm;</style>, and to clear even more people on low or average incomes out of
central London.<br />
<br />
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000vTTS8bf7laA/s/500/I0000vTTS8bf7laA.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Kilburn Quarter, completed phase 2a of South Kilburn Estate regeneration scheme</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />
Brent, like many others London councils, has been forced into this
trade-off between private sales and publicly owned social rentals by
central government funding cuts and the long-term disempowerment of
local authorities. The new estate looks like it's going to be a nice
place to live, and will provide much improved homes for the tenants
who are rehoused on it - albeit at higher so-called 'target' social
rents. It will also increase the number of homes available for
private sale and market rental – in itself not a bad thing, as long
as they're occupied once bought. It's just a pity it won't be of any
help in cutting the waiting list and housing the homeless. More pictures <a href="https://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/The-London-Clearances/G0000ErfOU_VvKMs">here</a>.
More words and pictures <a href="https://philipwolmuth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/slum-clearance-revisited.html">here</a>
and <a href="https://philipwolmuth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/the-london-clearances.html">here</a>.PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-70514190588364377242018-01-14T17:40:00.000+00:002018-01-15T10:28:31.973+00:00HS2. The Wrecking Begins<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000KaGgik3xUKs/s/500/I0000KaGgik3xUKs.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i>Reverend Anne Stevens and local resident Jo Hurford, Euston Square Gardens</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
On Friday the Reverend Anne Stevens,
vicar of St.Pancras Church, spent two hours chained to a 100 year-old
plane tree outside Euston station, whilst local residents handed out
leaflets to passing commuters. Work has already started around the
planned London end of the HS2 high speed rail link to Birmingham, but the protest marked a significant escalation in the
disruption which will turn the area into a building site for an
estimated 17 years. On Monday Euston Square Gardens will be fenced
off, and the felling of its century-old trees will begin, clearing the
park to make way for construction vehicles, expected to average 650 trucks a day.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As many have pointed out, HS2 as
planned is seriously flawed. It is extremely expensive (and getting
pricier by the week), poorly integrated with the existing network,
and its London terminal is in the wrong place, a densely populated
area already home to three of the capital's principal railway stations. To cap it all comes
news that Carillion, one of the major contractors involved in
construction of the new line, is in serious financial difficulty.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Whilst all taxpayers will be forking out the cash for this, local residents have the added nightmare of living through
it, windows closed, day in day out for almost two decades. More pictures <a href="https://www.photoshelter.com/mem/images/index#/l/G0000.Wdk2YAR.Qg/" target="_blank">here</a>. More words and pictures <a href="https://philipwolmuth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/money-down-train.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://philipwolmuth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/why-should-there-be-losers.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000NPU0gQuwkpw/s/500/I0000NPU0gQuwkpw.jpg" />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-21065384703588157422018-01-02T15:09:00.000+00:002018-06-14T16:39:40.500+01:00An Archival Impulse<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>
<br />
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm;">
<span style="color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I000083rGk8_r4eU/s/500/I000083rGk8_r4eU.jpg" /></span></span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm; text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Committee Meeting, 510 Centre, North Paddington 1978</b></i></span> </span></span></span></div>
In the spirit of archivism, I'm making accessible an article I wrote
for the British Journal of Photography in 2010 to mark the demise of
Photoworks Westminster (formerly North Paddington Community Darkroom), a
community-based photography project that I set up in the 510 Centre, a busy grant-funded advice
and community centre at 510 Harrow Road, in 1976. A PDF of the piece can be downloaded
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/15Hm44AWHo-7RH5cb_EgIRdWjEYwotVy6/view?ths=true" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
A PDF of my book, <i>That Was Then, This Is Now</i>, which describes North Paddington context in which the project evolved, can be downloaded <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=16d87fVihxME7VZccj8dyd65J4JDnlYrk" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
This
archival impulse has been prompted by a request from the <a href="http://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/" target="_blank">Four Corners </a>
project in Bethnal Green which, in addition to documenting the heritage
of its own film work, is creating <a href="http://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/four-corners-archive" target="_blank">a new archive</a>
exploring the photographic practice of its onetime neighbour, the Half
Moon Photography Workshop (later Camerawork), from its creation in 1972
to its closure in 2004.<br />
<br />
The travelling exhibitions,
workshops and, above all, the roughly quarterly issues of Camerawork
magazine (1976-85), were hugely influential at a time when a wave of
community-based photography projects were springing up in various parts
of the capital and elsewhere. As a self-taught photographer working in
uncharted territory, the opportunity to read about and discuss the work
of those with greater knowledge and experience was invaluable. I
contributed what I could, but learned a lot more.<br />
<br />
For those wishing to explore this bygone world further, there is now also a <a href="http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/Library/Special-Collections-and-Archives/London-History/North-Paddington-Community-Darkroom" target="_blank">North Paddington Community Darkroom Archive</a>
at the Bishopsgate Institute, which includes a collection of laminated
exhibition panels dating from the late 1970s and early 1980s.<br />
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<br />
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm; text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000XIBtUU297K4/s/500/I0000XIBtUU297K4.jpg" /></span></span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm; text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="color: #272727; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile Gardens, North Paddington 1983</span></span></b></i></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm; text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="color: #272727; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif;">
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</span></span></b></i></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm;">
<span style="color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000pUTI8H5nJik/s/500/I0000pUTI8H5nJik.jpg" /></span></span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm; text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dominica Democratic Association meeting, 510 Centre, 1977</span></b></i> </span></span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.21cm; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-84673286050627497262017-10-12T16:32:00.000+01:002017-10-12T16:44:08.871+01:00The Dustbin of History: Kodachromes<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm;</style>
<br />
<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style><span style="font-size: small;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00004ZgzJf8i2qo/s/500/I00004ZgzJf8i2qo.jpg" />
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It feels like sacrilege,
but I am in the process of binning large numbers of Kodachromes. </span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In the days of colour
film, Kodachrome was the gold standard. It's what the National
Geographic photographers used, despite its now unthinkably slow speed
(64 ASA, unless you were a masochist and went for the 25). It had
other drawbacks: it had to be sent back to Kodak for processing, so
couldn't be used on jobs that required a fast turnaround, and, to get
the best out of it, accurate exposure was essential. But, correctly
exposed, it produced transparencies with great colour, contrast and sharpness,
and reputedly better archival stability than any other film. I used
it on virtually all my foreign trips through the 1980s and 1990s.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was only when picture
desks started going digital, and image distribution switched from
Royal Mail or motorcycle courier to FTP and email, that
another disadvantage was revealed: Kodachrome's unique emulsion
structure made it quite tricky to scan. Getting the colour and
contrast right was not straightforward, and Digital ICE automated
dust-removal, which worked well on other colour film stocks, could
not be used. That meant dust and scratches had to be removed by hand
in Photoshop. Scanning Kodachromes was hard work.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">However, that's not why
they're in the bin. Distributing images shot on colour transparency
film to multiple publications meant shooting multiple frames, or making duplicates after the
event. After each trip one set went
into my own filing cabinet, and selections of 'similars' went off to
the various picture libraries that also distributed my work. Over the last few years they have all come back, like long lost homing pigeons:
many agencies have closed, and those that haven't no longer deal
in hard copies. </span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<style type="text/css"><font size="3">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</font></style>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Once an image has been
digitised, identical copies can be made effortlessly, with no loss in
quality. There's no need for 'seconds' or spares. So, although I
can't bring myself to throw away the original of anything worth
scanning, I've finally got round to trawling through the stacks of
returned suspension files, comparing 'similars', keeping the best,
and dumping the rest. What I'm doing is completely logical - it
just feels like an unforgivable sin.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Pictured above is
a binful of hundreds of slides from two trips to the Dominican
Republic, for Christian Aid in 1983, and Oxfam in 1991. Scans of
some of those I've kept are <a href="http://www.philipwolmuth.com/gallery/Dominican-Republic-1983-1991/G0000Sxo36fFU3Z4">here</a>.</span></i></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000nUfA1eaok8U/s/500/I0000nUfA1eaok8U.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Dominican Republic 1991</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-23723890944172508212017-10-05T17:24:00.000+01:002017-10-05T17:32:18.902+01:00Rodney Bickerstaffe, 1945-2017<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000fOnfX4QhY18/s/500/I0000fOnfX4QhY18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000fOnfX4QhY18/s/500/I0000fOnfX4QhY18.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">NUPE Conference 1988</span></b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For most of the 1980s the National
Union of Public Employees (NUPE) was one of my most regular, and most
enjoyable, sources of work. Its members were the unsung heroes of
our public services – ambulance drivers, cleaners, carers,
caretakers, cooks, dustmen, home helps, hospital porters and other
NHS ancillary staff, street cleaners and more – and my commissions for
the NUPE Journal gave me the opportunity to visit a huge variety of
workplaces and meet the people who worked in them (more about that
<a href="https://philipwolmuth.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/missing-from-record-what-has-happened.html">here</a>).
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The monthly assignments also meant I
frequently photographed the union's General Secretary, Rodney
Bickerstaffe, whose untimely passing was announced this week. It was
always a pleasure. He was wise, witty, warm and, above all, a
fantastic public speaker. He will be sorely missed.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="263" src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00005dRA670RjvU/s/500/I00005dRA670RjvU.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Speaking for a national minimum wage at the TUC 1986</span></b></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
</div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-70362150219148225752017-05-04T17:17:00.000+01:002017-05-09T21:06:09.797+01:00No Resting Place <img src="https://c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000NWPeOLK3U_M/s/500/I0000NWPeOLK3U_M.jpg" />
<br />
<br />
At the beginning of this year, prompted by what seemed to be a recent significant rise in the numbers of people sleeping rough in central London, I set about documenting some of the many dark doorways and uninviting corners in which anxious, disturbed or destitute men and women now spend their days and nights.<br />
<br />
I decided to focus on the places, rather than
the people who use them, in order to highlight the harsh locations in which rough
sleepers find themselves, without identifying the often
vulnerable individuals who use them. Not all the photographs succeed in doing this - parts of faces are visible in one or two. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Psgr7gRjQaw/s/500/I0000Psgr7gRjQaw.jpg" /><br />
<br />
The pictures were taken on and off from January through March, and now the Greater London Authority has released figures for the numbers of rough sleepers recorded in the capital during that time. I was not surprised. They showed an increase of 7% on the same period last year - to 2,751 individuals over the three months. Nationally, rough sleeping has risen by 37% since 2010.<br />
<br />
Each person has their own story, but together the bodies trying to keep warm on cold hard pavements are the most visible symptoms of the current crises in housing and adult social care provision in one of the richest countries in the world.
Shameful. More pictures <a href="http://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/No-Resting-Place/G0000Bhpn_tI8L1w/C0000X3VHM7lV9_w" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000WKC9kveKW_U/s/500/I0000WKC9kveKW_U.jpg" />PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-39470465646356193072017-02-07T16:29:00.000+00:002017-05-04T17:23:07.262+01:00The Waste Land<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src='https://c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000EaCbiRV8e4I/s/500/I0000EaCbiRV8e4I.jpg' /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">End of the day on London Bridge 2016</span></b></i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>Unreal city,</i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,</i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,</i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>I had not thought death had undone so many.</i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>Sighs, short and infrequent,were exhaled,</i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.</i></div>
<i>Flowed up the hill and down King William Street... </i><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i></i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>(from The Waste Land, 1922)</b></span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">These pictures, recent additions to my <a href="http://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/London-in-50/G0000rxsIxkxz6UQ" target="_blank">London in 50</a> project, we</span>re inspired
by TS Eliot's description of commuters crossing London Bridge and
dragging themselves to their deathly work in the City of London.
Re-reading The Waste Land, written in 1922, I imagine them in black
& white, ghostly shadows in the "brown fog". But although my
pictures were taken on a sunny evening as the financiers and their clerks walked in the
opposite direction, their day's work done, nothing much
seems to have changed in almost a century. They still look miserable.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src='https://c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I000025AOkTmkM_0/s/500/I000025AOkTmkM_0.jpg' /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">End of the day on London Bridge 2016</span></b></i></div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-88022771293458713322016-08-04T16:34:00.000+01:002016-08-04T16:34:58.818+01:00Bringing It All Back Home<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000IC57D5Ijg_A/s/500/I0000IC57D5Ijg_A.jpg" /> </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
In the National Gallery
it's <a href="http://philipwolmuth.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=access+all+areas" target="_blank">Van Gogh's Sunflowers</a>. In the Louvre it's the Mona Lisa. And in
Florence it's Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (above). It seems that
every major gallery has one iconic work that is the principal focus
of selfie attention.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Around these 'trophy'
artworks the hushed reverence that was once the default gallery mode
has been swept away by smartphone-toting tourists elbowing their way to a
clear view on their screens or, even worse, blocking everyone else's
by posing for a selfie. Anyone wishing to peacefully contemplate the
actual painting in front of them is in for a hard time.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<br />
<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000bRLKDDjrBsA/s/500/I0000bRLKDDjrBsA.jpg" /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>Collecting such
photographs is one of the more explicable idiocies of tourism.
Perhaps what I have been doing - taking pictures of people taking
those pictures – is idiocy squared, but tourism and its idiocies
fascinate and repel me in equal measure. Being a tourist traipsing
around Europe's big cities, with no connection to anyone who lives
there, carefully channeled through a string of 'must-see' landmarks
to which no native gives a second glance, can be a deathly
experience. Suddenly alighting on something recognisable, both to
the viewer and to their Facebook friends back home, makes a connection between
the real world and this transient state of novelty and
boredom. Maybe that's what
photography is all about. </div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000FO9yipoGcTQ/s/500/I0000FO9yipoGcTQ.jpg" /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Florence 2016
</span></i></b></div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-19673077080868823552016-04-09T19:37:00.000+01:002018-01-17T13:10:14.487+00:00More Market Failures<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000K24rHewVo3I/s/500/I0000K24rHewVo3I.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><b>Nine
Elms regeneration zone</b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><b> </b></i></span>There is a striking
disjunction between the desperate shortage of affordable housing in
the capital, and the extraordinary panorama of cranes, pile-drivers
and high-rise residential blocks in various states of construction
visible from almost anywhere in the city with a view.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Even more
extraordinary, at least to someone unfamiliar with London's
dysfunctional property market, is the fact that many of the newly
completed apartments transforming the skyline are empty, bought
off-plan by overseas investors as convenient assets in which to
stash their cash. But now it appears that all is not well in
the luxury homes trade.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000871BjDXzPII/s/500/I0000871BjDXzPII.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><b>Battersea
Power Station</b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
Last month Morgan
Stanley warned that prices of new, upmarket London flats could fall
by as much as 20% this year, and the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/london-property-nervous-battersea-power-station-investors-slash-asking-prices-re-sell-1547647">International
Business Times</a> reported that Chinese investors who bought
apartments off-plan in the Battersea power station development are
having second thoughts now the time has come to pay the balance on
their relatively small up-front deposits. Those in the know are
clearly expecting trouble: although pre-tax profits at the estate
agent Foxtons only fell by 3% last year, investors knocked 33% of the
share price. If these are the first signs of a bursting bubble, it
would be good news for anyone who thinks of four walls and a roof as
home, rather than an offshore shelter for their dodgy money.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
More pictures <a href="http://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/The-London-Clearances/G0000ErfOU_VvKMs/C00001lN3jq4wKH0">here</a>.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00006FyLczuCXfk/s/500/I00006FyLczuCXfk.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><b>Construction
of Alto Apartments, Wembley</b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-75912431952748271922016-02-26T17:26:00.000+00:002016-02-26T17:39:53.779+00:00A Chorus of Disapproval<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000OoSC.fi7YO8/s/500/I0000OoSC.fi7YO8.jpg" /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Members of the ENO chorus in rehearsal, 1998</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i> </i></b></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The chorus at the
English National Opera has just voted for strike action in protest at
proposals to cut four jobs and reduce the current year-long contracts
for the remaining 40 singers to nine months. The cuts follow a 30%
reduction in the ENO's annual Arts Council grant.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In 1998 I spent a very
enjoyable three weeks dropping in on rehearsals for the ENO's world
premiere of Gavin Bryars' Doctor Ox's Experiment, shooting backstage,
in various rehearsal rooms and even, occasionally, on-stage, for a
spread in Opera Now magazine. There's a lot of hanging around in
rehearsals and I spent much of it in the very good company of the
chorus. I don't know how many of today's strikers were there back
then, but they were a diverse, humourous, and pleasingly
stroppy bunch. I hope they win. More pictures <a href="http://www.philipwolmuth.com/gallery/ENO-Doctor-Oxs-Experiment/G0000WzCLTxBkhOw">here</a>.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000_LXDSFlgwWM/s/500/I0000_LXDSFlgwWM.jpg" /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Director Atom Egoyan and the ENO chorus in rehearsal, 1998</i></b></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<br />
<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000xM8lko8YE7A/s/500/I0000xM8lko8YE7A.jpg" /><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Rehearsal for ENO's Doctor Ox's Experiment, 1998</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
</div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-82752712618248211022016-02-19T10:48:00.000+00:002016-02-19T11:07:48.023+00:00London in 50<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Fwkf92bc_gI/s/500/I0000Fwkf92bc_gI.jpg" /><br />
<br />
I've created a rotating gallery of pictures taken in my wanderings
around the city, some on my way to or from commissioned shoots, a few,
requiring special access, by prior arrangement. <a href="http://www.philipwolmuth.com/gallery/London-in-50/G0000rxsIxkxz6UQ/C0000GOq5GMchhBQ" target="_blank"><b>London in 50</b></a> is a work in
progress, definitely not definitive. I've delved into the archives for
some, but intend that older images will be displaced by new as the
gallery evolves.PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-48673975852570253642015-12-31T16:40:00.000+00:002015-12-31T18:36:31.772+00:00Dam Nonsense<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000WWQc1mX2ZGg/s/500/I0000WWQc1mX2ZGg.jpg" /><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Hampstead Ponds Project </i></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Campaigners who failed to stop a £22 million flood defence programme currently underway on Hampstead Heath might do well to reconsider their position following the catastrophic flooding that has devastated northern towns and cities over the last week. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many local groups and individuals put up a sustained fight against the Hampstead Heath Ponds Project, largely based on concerns over environmental damage to a unique and much loved open space. The 16 month dam strengthening and spillway construction works across 12 of the heath's 30 ponds, which began in April, has undoubtedly caused significant localised disruption but, as events up north have shown, blocked-off paths, the loss of a few trees, and some unsightly construction equipment are trivial compared to the damage to homes, businesses, and the environment that would result if the existing dams were to fail. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the arguments used by the <a href="http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/environment/battle_over_hampstead_heath_ponds_dam_project_reignites_after_new_government_information_emerges_1_4035242" target="_blank">Dam Nonsense</a> campaign was that newly weakened government legislation rendered much of the work unnecessary. A much more sensible argument is that the floods in the north demonstrate that government attempts to justify cuts in spending on flood defences by such manoeuvres are extremely foolish – and extraordinarily costly. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00008mzNziWwor8/s/500/I00008mzNziWwor8.jpg" /><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>Hampstead Ponds Project</i></b></span>
</div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32422571.post-26256581364241325132015-11-20T18:16:00.000+00:002015-12-31T15:30:15.187+00:00Uber alles: we're all in this together<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>
<br />
<style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { }</style>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000jF5NNkibRtc/s/500/I0000jF5NNkibRtc.jpg" /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Drivers' protest, 12-11-15</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When Shadow Chancellor
John McDonnell speaks of an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/nov/20/john-mcdonnell-to-unveil-socialism-with-an-ipad-economic-plan">army
of self-employed workers who have been casualised by the internet</a>,
he could be talking about the 100 or so Uber drivers who protested
outside the company's London HQ last week (above). But he could also
have been talking about some of the freelance photographers
documenting their demonstration, hoping to make a sale through one of
the big online news photo agencies.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The positions of the
two groups are remarkably similar: both provide their own, expensive,
equipment; neither have guaranteed hours of work or income; in both
cases, terms, conditions and rates are set by the company; and in
both cases there seems to be an endless supply of service deliverers
struggling to make a living from ever-decreasing rates of pay. The
drivers' protest, sparked by an imposed 5% increase in commission,
was not the first time they have lost out financially through changes
imposed from above.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In a way, Uber is quite
honest about its role. The big photo agencies hide behind bland
titles. The names of Alamy, Getty, Corbis and the rest promise
nothing. Perhaps only Demotix hints at some sort of (non-existent)
egalitarian enterprise.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But although Uber calls
its drivers 'partners', the company's real relationship to its
workforce is pretty much as described by its moniker. In German, of
course.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Many of the drivers
have now joined the GMB. Hopefully collective action, with its
backing, will bring results. It would be good to see photographers
attempt something similar.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
More pictures <a href="http://philipwolmuth.photoshelter.com/gallery/employment-jobs-pay-and-conditions/G0000by5raPsSpnM/C00001lN3jq4wKH0">here</a>.</div>
PHILIP WOLMUTHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15565828420413122220noreply@blogger.com0