I’m not entirely sure why but this has been the slowest moving and probably the most delicate project I’ve ever worked on as a journalist. I’ve been thinking about doing some work on the Romanian Roma who live near my home in Manchester since last summer and but only started trying to make contact with them in December. Since then it’s been a series of false starts, red herrings and frustrations for all kinds of reasons, not least enormous language and cultural barriers and issues of trust. There are problems with community cohesion in the area so there are sensitivities on all sides. I feel like I’m walking a tightrope and am braced for complaints. Read the full feature here. Part two – the Roma perspective – will run next week.
I spent yesterday taking pictures of Alan, a 68-year-old former head teacher with Alzheimer’s Disease. He is taking part in a project to raise awareness of the stigma faced by people with mental illness. I have lots of photos and audio to plough through and send to my colleagues at Inspired Youth, whose project this is, who will combine them with other material to create a multimedia piece. But Alan left quite an impression on me. He is the first Alzheimer’s sufferer I have met and it was a priviledge to hear his story. A former head teacher whose first love was literature and who can still quote Samuel Beckett and other famous writers, he has sadly been robbed of the ability to read. His decreased spacial-awareness, rambling gait and tendency to break randomly into song leads many people to assume he’s drunk and to tut and comment accordingly. But as he kept telling us: “I get by”.
On my way to catch an early train to Liverpool, I bumped into Martin, one of the guys that made the biggest impression on me during my couple of months taking pictures at the Booth Centre. Back then, Martin – a gentle and sensitive alcoholic – seemed to be on an upward trajectory….cutting down his daily intake of killer white cider and spending all the time he could on the centre’s allotment. In May he vanished, before coming back to Manchester from wherever he’d been over the past few weeks.
Meeting him close to my home – he’s now living in a nearby hostel – was troubling because he was almost unrecognisable. In the past two months he’s had a stroke which has partially paralysed one side of his body and left one of his eyes almost closed. He’s also been diagnosed with some form of cancer and his voice is little more than a croak. What shocked me most though was that all the light and hope had vanished and how openly he shared his desire to die.
“I’m 50 years old and I’ve had enough, I just want to be down there,” he told me, pointing at the pavement. “They keep trying to get me to take some tablets for the cancer but I’m not interested. It’s time to go.” I had no idea what to say other than to make sympathetic noises. Martin’s asked me to show him the photos I took during my few months at the Booth Centre, so I’m going to make sure I honour that. I plan to do some training on participatory photography workshops and would one day like to find some funding to do some more in-depth work with the folks there.
I heard a quite astounding quote this weekend. An entry from the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1954:
“The mental age of the average adult gypsy is thought to be about that of a child of ten. Gypsies have never accomplished anything of great significance in writing, painting, music, science or social organisation. Quarrelsome, quick to anger or laughter, they are unthinkingly but not deliberately cruel. They are ostentatious and boastful, but lack bravery.”
Although I’d hope few people would believe that nowadays, prejudice and ignorance are alive and well. At the same time, however, there seems to be a new generation of educated and politically-conscious young Roma in countries across Europe, who are working to challenge the harmful stereotypes and misunderstandings of old and to improve the situation of their people – the most marginalised community in every country.
Over the weekend I’ve met Roma Gypsies from Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Portugal, Lithuania and Sweden as well as from across the UK. They are proud of who they are and their energy was infectious. I learned a lot and laughed even more.
(Some of the famous names reputed to have Gypsy roots include Charlie Chaplin, Rita Hayworth, Elvis Presley, Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton and Eric Cantona).
I’m having a weird few weeks where I’m frantically busy and oddly quiet almost at the same time. I’m taking few photos yet thinking constantly about photography. I’m completely exhausted yet can’t sleep because my mind is racing. I’ve been magazine editing this week, which is always an interesting experience in which I spend most of my time re-writing other people’s stories and correcting their grammar and then read so many edited pages that my eyes and mind go numb. Whereas last week I had little to do because none of my interviews worked out, this week I was juggling the day shifts with a series of interviews I’ve been chasing for ages and which finally came about. Now I’m off to Cumbria for the weekend to photograph a Gypsy, Traveller and Roma event and next week I’ll be attending an intensive workshop connected with next year’s Liverpool international photography festival, Look 2011. There are some very diverse photographers taking part so it should be an interesting week. With 10-hour days and a 60 minute commute on either end, I doubt I’ll get the chance to do very much blogging.
My Istanbul Roma gallery was kindly featured on The Travel Photographer blog this week. Photographer Tewfic El-Sawy – who was an instructor at the Foundry workshop where I shot the work – uses this space to highlight images from around the world which catch his eye. I also enjoy his regular rants. Check him out…
I’ve reached something of a brick wall with my regeneration project and am having to think about new ways of moving forward with it and funding it. I only ever had a few clients which were interested in this as a subject and one has no commissioning budget whatsoever this year. The other is limited and in any case doesn’t cover the geographical area affected by housing market renewal, the policy I’ve been mainly covering. Besides, I’m becoming more and more dissatisfied with editorial as a means to support this work, which has accidentally turned into something of a long-term project. Not something I intended, believe me, but it feels like something I should stick with.
This is something I’ve been giving quite a bit of thought to recently, even more so since the project got a shout-out in the Guardian. There must be some but I can’t think of any other independent (and therefore permanently skint) writer- journalists who have tried to cover a subject in this kind of long-form way – unless it’s for a book.
There are of course many examples of photographers who do this all the time, and it seems to me that they are increasingly funding their work through grants. I haven’t investigated this fully but from a day or so of online research I’m not convinced that I am going to fit into the various pigeonholes – I’m a journalist and certainly not an artist so surely arts grants are out. I’m not a charity so charitable trusts are out. And so on and so forth. Some people seem to seek support from relevant foundations or organisations in their field but there’s not point in me going to any regeneration bodies, housing associations or similar because they don’t tend to like my work in this field. I can’t think of other organisations which will have any money to spare – all the housing campaign groups I’m aware of seem to seek donations for themselves on their websites.
I’m still looking but it’s quite an alien world. When applying for these things you need business plans, budget forecasts and timetables. Then there is the question of dissemination. How can I get the work out there if no one will print the stories in the first place? And I still need to find a focus for the project. Overwhelming is not the word.
What is certain is that unless I find a solution, I’m going to be unable to do anything other than the occasional story – and even then I won’t get beyond the North West. I want to spend more time in the more far-flung – and for me forgotten – areas affected by HMR, such as Gateshead, Middlesbrough and Hull. But with university fees to pay later this year and another 18 months of studies to finance, even the train fares are looking unlikely. To do things properly I would want to spend a few days at least in each place. So for now the research continues….
Please check out my latest Street Fighters story, below:
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“No regrets”
Eve Maley, Stoke on Trent
Eve and John Maley lived in their Stoke on Trent home for 43 years. But the 19-terrace block (above) – overlooking a Victorian park – was condemned five years ago after council surveyors declared them unfit to live in.
The Maleys and their neighbours spent thousands of pounds of their own money fighting the authorities – fighting them through a public inquiry and several high court hearings. They reached the end of the road in November 2009, and the final residents were forced to move on.
Despite the battle taking five years of their retirement and costing £12,000, Eve insists she would do it all again.
The Northwood scheme is being funded through the government’s controversial Housing Market Renewal scheme.
** I have consolidated all my regeneration work – including four years worth of written pieces and more recent multimedia pieces – on a dedicated website, STREET FIGHTERS. Please check it out **
I’ve spent a few days this week travelling to various locations in the north of England to meet buskers for a story I’m working on. Despite the rain I’ve managed to photograph some pretty diverse performers in Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Stockport, and I’m heading to Merseyside tomorrow, weather permitting. For the first time I’m shooting a commissioned work assignment on film, as a challenge for myself really and to try to force myself to think more and slow down. I’m using my Bronica and am relieved that the replacement back I’ve been given by the guy I bought it from seems to have done the trick and stopped the light leaks. It’s been a little hairy waiting for the first few films back but I thought I’d take the risk. I’m enjoying the process of using film very much but waiting for the processed negatives is a chore for someone as impatient as me…
