Proem: 'ngs was FAB...' - by Luc

'ngs was FAB …'

 facilitator  acquaintances  buddies

 ( fundamentally Anthony’s baby )

freely appropriating Bowie

Fox’y-artful bounty

flattery – albeit banterish

flaming auburn beauty

 French adventure Biker…

= fostering amicable bonds

   funding & budget

  falldowns & backups

+ flexibility  and  – boundaries

fibromyalgic, Aspergic, bi-polar’d

femme–andro–boyish

fifties ‘adolescent’ = bewilderment,

   fugitive – acting bandit –

  feisty,  ( also bothersome )

   fetching  &  borrowing

  fettling  &  busying

f ‘ ing and blinding…

frivolity, angst, boredom

f***ing awesome brownies !

Funky artsy Brighton’s

Fotos-automatic-Booth

‘fame’  ·  autobiography  ·  ‘blagging’

Facebook and Blogger

( Fotobook:  Albelli,  Blurb ?? )

frequenting accessible ‘bogs’

filing,  albumising,  blogs

flora,  architecture,  bus-rides,

fooderies and beverages:

framed and boxed

 fearsome ‘assel-blad:

flash-fed as batteries-bled

flotsam-astray beaches

February awash: battered

  

fotopostering about Brighton

fallen,  awry,  binned:

fear-some?  awe-some?  bother-some?

furthering  &  bettering:

futile?  fascinating?

articulate?  anodyne?

banal?  brave?

finite analysis bafflesome…

finally…    

(flags & banners  •  flowers & badges)

… actualised book

= FAB !!

©  Luc(e) Raesmith

 with thanks to Pringle-jumper'd Shaun Levin for encouraging and

 editing creative writing for Queer in Brighton

re frequenting accessible ‘bogs’ - see the transgenderqueer space fotovideo 
in homage to the accessible public convenience at:
http://offthetrolleyproductions.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/transgenderqueerspace/

Live... by Edward

After all the weeks of work we put into creating our portraits, it was pretty exciting to finally see them, in all their giantness, up on the walls around brighton.

 

I was kinda surprised that when I found my poster I actually felt very self conscious. There are perhaps levels of being out.

 

Being out as trans to your friends and families is one thing, being out as T in a room of LGBT people who assume you're G is another thing. Having your face on the wall facing the seafront, identifying yourself as queer - thats a whole new world of out.

Taking part in the project was sometimes difficult for me, but only because I was unsure of how I fit the word 'queer' into my life, and how to find images that showed that. I didn't find the idea of being out as queer difficult, until I was on the side of a building.

Not that I regret doing it. I am just extremely lucky, that I have not faced intimidation on a regular basis because of my identity. I came out at my own pace, in my own time. I am unused to feeling exposed.

Queering the Photobooth: Postering the City... by Luc

I got lucky.  By 3pm the sun was shining over the relatively calm-looking sea and any ominous storm clouds were staying inland, when I joined Anthony and the postering crew on Madeira Drive, the Brighton seafront close to the Pier and the Wheel.

  

The crew at this point included Sarah from Photoworks behind a camera, Sean from the University on pasting duty and Andy from itv with tripod and film camera.  They had battled the earlier wind and wet to hang half of the Queering the Photobooth posters in the city centre and outlying streets.

Just managing to slap-and-brush wallpaper paste onto the walls, and then backs of the quadrant posters (of the full 3m tall portraits), half of the collaborative portrait images had already been placed at the University of Brighton, Southover Street, North Road, Thistle Hotel by the Brighton Town Hall and on Dyke Road down from Seven Dials.

On the ‘mezzanine’ level walkway above Madeira Drive I could be of minor assistance with posters flapping in the ‘breeze’ alongside dab-hand-daubers and ladder-nippy Sean and Anthony, but it was good to join in with this, the culmination action of the not going shopping project.

Anthony got to be interviewed for itv on his role as photo artist and book editor for the Queer in Brighton project, and I (unexpectedly) got to say a few words as 'just another [Trans*] person' and participant of ngs, standing beside my still-gloopy but dramatic portrait (wow: that seriously expensive Hasselblad brought out every detail of leather tie texture and testosterone-fuelled stubble!)

                            

It was hoped to hang all 10 of the portraits along this stretch of wall on Madeira Drive, but the paste ran out when Fox’s portraits were hung; everyone’s energy was flagging as the light began to dim around 5 o’clock. Cups of tea and fries from a nearby burger bar* were needed (*not one sponsoring those unlawfully-queer-unfriendly winter olympics…)

Another day of weather-beating was needed to hang the remaining posters.  But the questions remained: how long would the portraits ‘hold fast’ in this £15-billion-costly storming wind, rain and hail? And, could I get the wallpaper paste off my wool hat & coat and leather trousers?

Cheers, Anthony: this beat going shopping!

Documenting the Photographer... by edward

The first stage of the project has been coming to a close and we have started to return to our regular lives. Anthony and I went out one cold afternoon, just the two of us with the hefty camera equipment and flash and a strip of AA batteries to quickly capture Anthony's final portrait.

We passed through the south lanes, the promenade, the big wheel and kept going down marine parade, away from the crowds until there was just sea. It was only three o' clock but the light was failing already so we had to be quick. Anthony waved down a passerby to take a few shots of us on his phone.

QueeRealising the PhotoBooth: Take 3... by Luc

JB, AL & SM - B&H, 23.11.13

‘It’s a wrap!’ declared the still excited/tired director;

the only shots to go: AL’s own portrait(s) à la plage…

’twas mighty fortunate how vacant the UoB boardroom was –

Švankmajer’s cine+ surreality thru-the-window-wall below –

and how the UoF let the precious H4-Hasselblad off site…

Weather, too, shone brass-monkey’d° & blue-sky’d on that shoot,

ridding angst re aches-to-come from human-tripod posture(s)

and flash†gun-upholding triceps-testing stance…

Photograffic’d; photobooth’d; photosynergised.

! Hasta luego QiB amigos / amigas / amiges ¡

Mosaic of images captured at
Jan Švankmajer's exhibition:
'The Inner Life of Objects'
at the University of Brighton
in conjunction with Cinecity 11
14.11.13

† Q:: How Many Surrealists Does It Take To Change The Flashbulb? 

   A:: Cod'n'Chips Twice, Table 6

Queering the Photobooth: Take 2... by Luc

Saturday & Sunday, 9&10/11/13  (not 12 + no Ten)

creative=anArchy : capturing&captioning

& in the queer-grafitti-quadrant corner:

(R2L) Kelly, Charlie, Kate

 Matt: cool in the hot seat

(on-AL-perspective: not-so-cool...)

softer flash&focus on Fox

(and super=FAB studio flooring)

¿ tweeter @ #twittern ?

(Fox gets Flash'd again)

= Kate in the promenade booth +

Ed, Anthony & Hasselblad in the fast lane

(Harry on the hard shoulder)

3 o'clock cloudscape

(last-o'-the-light)

laughtering with intent...

 a Ketchup & condiment Kodak moment

  + Luc: JQaP behind the SG3 LCD...

and...  dis-spelling* some Queer myths:

'there's no such thing as bikesexuality'

'homosapienality can be cured'

'we're jender qwe're & we're not he're'

Queers Face Inner Queer Space

* &/or malappropriatisms

What is queer?

A five letter word, just like label

Reclaimed and ‘brand’ new
14 Scrabble points
A playground daddy slur
Beautiful otherness
Does it really matter?

After many weeks away, it was good to be back and not going shopping. However my lightness of being was soon eclipsed by my turn on the chair facing the lens. I had enjoyed the photo booth but in this re-creation I felt strangely unrehearsed and beaten by the flash gun’s menacing strobe. I was in the headmaster’s office or the inquisitor’s chair. Despite being amongst friends, it was all a bit queer and there was no comfort zone.

The pictures themselves did nothing to make me feel any better. My first reaction was horror at seeing my age writ large by piercing unforgiving digital technology. There appeared to be none of the softness and romance of the photo booth in these images. The thought of seeing my face blown up and pasted on walls also filled me with dread. I found myself considering withdrawing from the project rather than confront the many demons ram raiding my brittle self-esteem. But then like a retreating wave the fear subsided as she emerged before me.  I could see my mother’s features woven into my own, the line of her chin; the grey warmth of her eyes. Mesmerised I revisited each picture in turn, greedy to see more of her. Tears welled in my eyes as I channelled the ever present sense of loss with a joy at seeing her alive in me. She died proud of me, another five letter word.

Shopping list

White
Average
Short
Husky
Queer
54

My arm hurts... by Matt

I've always been tall - it's a physical trait that has never escaped me. I used to be self-conscious of it, not helped by people peering up at me (even as a child) and asking me how the air is 'up there' or inquiring if my mother put my feet in grow-bags at night.

Hilarious and keen observations, obviously.

Being tall has its uses, once you grow out of the awkward stooping gait acquired by attending infant and primary schools that only cater to children of 'average or below' height. I can reach high shelves, see over things and other people, and for some inexplicable reason I am more likely to be asked to tackle the opening of a difficult jar of pickled onions at Christmas. I find that tea towels are the best method for the latter task.

I don't have any pictures of the process of taking portraits because my tallness was being utilised for one very important task: Holding up the light thingy as Ed so succinctly put in his blog post.

We were trying (and I think we succeeded in doing so) to capture the photobooth style that we had discovered was a most excellent fun  thing to do in the very first sessions of not going shopping. But where those snaps had been in the very forgiving black and white, these shots were to be in full colour.

I've certainly not shied away from taking pictures of myself, I even set it out as a challenge in my head to overcome my hatred of viewing pictures of me. My journey over the past year has been, at times, melodramatic to say the least. In fact I was chatting to a friend over WhatsApp the other day and he remarked that my life had become a bit 'Jezza Kyle' (Jeremy Kyle, in case you were wondering) of late.I used to fear chaos as I thought it marked me out as unable to cope but I'm slowly realising that the secret to chaos is to be within the eye of the storm as much as I can.

And so the seemingly mundane task of holding up flash box whilst all around me people chatted, took photos, were having their photo taken, adjusting tripods and lens focus, and making a lot of tea and coffee allowed me to relax and take stock of the project.

I'll admit that I've felt a lack of focus of late. I am no longer shackled by the camera, although I certainly see things in a new way. I can see a good photo opp where once before I would have sailed by and then cooed over someone else's photograph of the event.But I don't instinctively reach for the camera now. I can relax.

Saturday's session was a rekindling of the energy and enthusiasm that I felt in the first sessions of the project and I was buzzing that we were actually taking portraits. I felt part of the experience more than I ever have before. Certainly more than I did all those weeks ago when I felt irrelevant to the project and expressed my thoughts on Facebook.

I can't wait until this Saturday's session. We'll be doing it all over again and my arms will hurt a bit but it's totally worth it.

Portrait Making 2.11.13 : an Acrostic Account... by Luc

AND 'QUEERING THE PHOTOBOOTH' SHOOT: 1...

Assembled, (nearly not shopping) at
North Laine NewWritingSouth studio space:

Dandy-fied & product-coiffed; bespectacled - or no?

Quentin Crisp-esque, sartorial Luc:

Uses lost&found hair bunjies for hanging faux curtain

(Enjoys pinning & stapling & duct taping drape).

Entertaining, the Hallowe'en costumised banter.

Rubberised lens parts: look&lust but daren't touch…

Interesting donuts - via Matt - defo for dunking;

Neo-iced-latte cuppa ('it's not Camp...') for quaffing.

Glistening* foreheads on flash-gun-glare testing.

Tripod legs to adjust-for-all; first jpegs-to-laptop: transfer all.

'Head's too low. Go for more person, less curtain!'

Expletives (spl)uttered [& grimaces] but no 'Say cheese!' grins.

'Portraits R Us!': JB’s up first (in autumnal sweater);

Harry's shirt collar 'matches the curtain exactly!'

[Off to the Laine shops for yes, yet more batteries]

Tattoos on show today: on arms & on torsos.

(O + Cmnd brings up Slideshow on Preview)

Black-jacketed Ed poses bemused on the blue chair;

On his iPhone, Fox: documenting & txting.

Orlando arrives: fashionably late; now unleashed…

Testing focus / ISO / aperture: 'our' Anthony.

(Harold Wilson-Lucalike: humorous moment)

Sarah’s tonsorial artistry session:

Hair – G D Rossetti-red – tumbling on turquoise.

'Oh, Orlando!' as he straddles available trouser'd leg…

[Of course, the pooch-shoot upstages the whole show!]

Tesserae'd grainy thumbnails for an 18-shot mosaic:

1 excited/tired director; 7 snapped-happy (or not-so) 'narcissists'...

* 'cis-men perspire & cis-women glow; trans* persons alternately glisten &/or sparkle'

Where on the rainbow are you? ... by Sarah

One of the most amazing things about taking part in Not Going Shopping is being able to talk about identity with people from such diverse backgrounds and across different generations. I could spend a whole weekend talking about what labels mean now, what they meant back then and what they might mean in the future. Anyway, I came across this quote after the workshop on Saturday just passed and made a drawing of all the people I like (not including the special place in my heart for people who can fix bikes).

What I love about being queer is the ability to grow and transform my sexuality. The recognition that our sexualities are complex and ever evolving, just as every other part of us, is a blissfully freeing thing. Regardless of anything else in the entire world, I am not bound by anyone else’s rules beside my own. Queer is freedom, possibility and space.-Kim Crosby, Toronto

Photos Postering Space Search ... by Luc

One of the outcomes planned for Not Going Shopping is to display posters on public walls around Brighton & Hove.

Over coffees and teas at Cafe Delice in the North Laine, the group discussed how this would look and how the participants would go about locating some postering spaces. The general agreement was that the images would be displayed in non-central, non-tourist spaces about the city; places that were not necessarily associated with any queer culture or lifestyle or venues.

I suggested that we take on chosen areas of the city to peruse and locate suitable walls. These would be photographed by the participant - and located on Google maps - in order for folk at QinB partners, Photoworks to liaise with the relevant Council admin person re the logistics and permission for postering in the chosen locations.

My chosen area was Tarner - because I am an allotment gardening volunteer for the Brighton Unemployed Centre and Families Project located in the area; I visit the Centre on a regular basis to use its facilities plus eat lunch there. I also 'spotted' a couple of other poster-able walls: on my journey from Seven Dials home district down toward New England Street - as I volunteer for Mind in their office on that street; in the London Road area, an above-eye-level wall space viewed through a busy surgery's stairwell window... 

A photo video ('assembled' in iMovie) charts my wall space search in these areas:

24 hours ... by Harry

Taking part in Not Going Shopping has been like climbing a step ladder and seeing the patterns of your carpet with new light streaming through the windows. My perspectives on queer have been rewoven with new and stimulating thread and a revitalised coat of many colours now hangs in my closet. Wonderful people have made my mind tumble and twirl with the added bonus of many preconceptions and labels being left at the door. I am queer, I really am here and on this occasion I am not going shopping.

I left the last session feeling inspired by the quality of work and some of the photos here are my homage to the honesty, beauty and brilliance I saw displayed.

My life is threaded by an ever changing musical landscape and one of my current obsessions is the Scott Walker infused yelp of Daughn Gibson. He sounds as good as he looks and last night I had the delight of being up close but not quite as a personal as my fantasies would like.

When I returned home energised and still buzzing I logged on to one of the many dubious sites I use to see what was cooking in the Brighton & Hove kitchen. My approach is to send out lots of lines in the hope of hooking something good enough to eat. It's rare that these late night rummages lead to anything but tonight a young gentleman I've been chatting to for months suddenly seemed keen so I sped into town. He was reluctant to have photos taken but I managed to get these. I know it's depraved but I particularly like the semen still glistening on his belly. Hell awaits...

Monday dawned bright and sunny and filled with the vigour of my recent liaison I headed to London for the day. These were taken on my walk to the station.

The Pompeii exhibition exceeded my expectations and I was deeply moved by it. No photos allowed sadly but I never tire of the beauty of the Sir Norman Foster designed Great Court. If only all buildings could be so well conceived.

The train journey home was relaxing and I took the time to catch up on some reading. I took this picture of the reversed reflection as I boarded.

I took a different route back to my car when I left the station and came across more stickers, street art and a stunning passion flower in full bloom.

I use the car to listen to new records and at the moment 'Immunity' by Jon Hopkins is on high rotation. Sometimes and often unexpectedly music will hard wire into me and produce a euphoric or strong emotional response. On the journey home 'Abandon Window' had the hairs standing on my arms and tears pouring from my eyes. I felt my mother strongly and the music exactly tracked the pain that can surface like a river of sorrow. When I reached my drive, I took these portraits.

You can listen to the piece here if you choose to -

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/sc1IkYwKCtM%26source=uds%26autoplay=1

My home is my sanctuary and tonight the most beautiful of sunsets once again danced over my haven of peace.

Savour the light,
the shapes she draws.
Painted prism textures,
and a 1,000 blessings.

Jai Guru Deva OM