It’s been a whole month since my last Project 4 x 4 x 4 blogpost, and this isn’t even the one I planned on writing - I have a whole list of articles waiting to be written. Life has been busy recently, and there is lots of exciting stuff going on with my photography practice: you are likely to hear more about it soon!
With that in mind I am going to present you with an opportunity to immerse yourself in a variety of sounds that I have collected along the way. I have attempted to maintain an awareness of the sensory nature of my travels by keeping my phone on silent and absorbing what I can through my senses. There is a sound-recording device on my kit-list which accompanies me on every shoot. Initially I thought I would ask questions of the people I meet and record their responses. This proved hard to incorporate rigidly, but I do get to record people on occasion: mostly it is used for me to make voice notes (talk to myself) or to record peripheral noise.
All you have to do is sit back, and keep your finger by the volume control. Enjoy!
Southend On Sea - not a final destination, but somewhere about four hours into my convoluted trip to Great Wakering last summer. I had to take a bus from Southend, and I know the layout of the town, so I decided to head to the seafront and grab some chips. Before that I was hit by a wall of sound emanating from Adventure Island, and I can hear now that I went for a short wander along the seafront. Putting this in the context of people being squished together as they share screams of fear and excitement makes it even more magical. I love this!
Engines of Industry.
In one village I visited I met three teenage boys in a park, and got chatting. Because they were under eighteen I would have needed parental permission to photograph them: One of them said he would get the model-release form signed by his parents and meet me the next day: that never happened. However, they were happy to pull some questions from a bag, and this is the last of three.
I was awkwardly trying to photograph the image below, whilst holding an umbrella. It was my first rainy-day shoot and Polling Day for the General Election; 12th December 2019. A gentleman approached and asked who I was working for: he was convinced that I was recording for radio, even after the explanation I gave him, but he was very keen to have his views recorded. The sound is muffled in places due to the heavy rain, but you can hear me attempting to stay neutral whilst Mr. Welcome predicts a future many people would have preferred.
