Mathmagic Land, Arab Strap, and the Linguistics of Limmy
Or: Dispatches #05
Tomorrow, I wake up and take a flight across Europe to Glasgow. Home to see my family. Marta joins me on Saturday for our traditional drive up to Glencoe, then back the same evening to Kelvingrove Bandstand in Glasgow for The Delgados. The next day, finally, Marta has her 2022 birthday gift; a night at Scotland's high-end spa resort, Stobo Castle. There's talk of a couple of hours kayaking on St. Mary's Loch too. Eek. After that, Marta is back in Poland to look after our pets, and I have a week of photography at the Edinburgh Festival. Not what one might call a relaxing trip, but one full of photography I can show you all sometime in the future.
Mateusz Franczak
Speaking of my pictures, those chosen for today's Dispatches are portraits of Polish musician, Mateusz Franczak. We worked on 2 sessions together for my recent school assignment. As a street photographer, more accustomed to natural light than studio strobes, these sessions were a great opportunity for me to brush up on my lighting patterns. I'm very pleased with how the photographs turned out. I am a huge fan of Mateusz's music and you can listen to his last single here. You can also find his first two albums on my record label, too many fireworks.
Inbox-Zero
Last week, my cat Rima woke me up around 3 in the morning. Unable to get back to sleep I opened my email, remembered a newsletter I had read about Inbox-zero and seemed to think that this very moment was the time I should confront it. My Gmail account shrunk from 18,000 emails to 65 and my inbox sits empty. It would be a delightful success if, over the last few days, I hadn't discovered email after email, now deleted in my frenzy, that maybe I might need in the future. Ah, it's done now, and it feels good! Tidy.
A Quick Note About Paid Tiers
It has been 4 months since splitting Photos, mostly into the monthly issue and the Dispatches round-up, and about a month now since I began participating in the wider Substack community. In that shorter period of time, it is both bewildering and humbling how our niche street photography community has grown here. Doubled. Thank you all.
Some of the more eagle-eyed among you, or those who have subscribed recently, may have noticed that I have switched on Pledges. For those unaware, Pledges allow readers to commit to paying for the newsletter should I decide to open up for paid subscribers soon.
Photos, mostly, will be part of my freelancing income stream as I continue to study for my photography degree, teach, and continue with great diligence to avoid any return to corporate life - no thank you. Nevertheless, Photos, mostly, and Dispatches will always be free. Paid subscriptions, when I enable them, will be for additional content, and I have some creative new ideas coming when certain subscriber milestones are met.
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Ok, let's get on with it...
What's been happening this month
Though I was never a big Sinead O'Connor fan, Marta was, so it was a sad day to learn of her passing. Hat tip to Andrew Eberlin for sharing this, a Guardian article on Andrew Catlin's early photoshoot with the singer.
Underlying biases of AI systems continue to be a problem. An Asian MIT student asks AI for a professional headshot. It turns her white.
Last month’s recommended photographer, Daidō Moriyama has a new retrospective exhibition in Berlin.
Despite it being a commercial for Orange, I love this film. It’s captivating and clever, and it’ll put a number of football fans to shame, including me.
With the climate crisis, war in Ukraine, and Belarus acting like the raptors testing the fences on the border of Poland, the world is looking a little bleak, so let’s end with a little levity, and the Comedy Pet Photography Awards.
Dispatches from Substack
In the online ocean of often mediocre street photography, there are islands of good work to be discovered. One recent find is Doug Golden's excellent The Hasid and the Statue. I've always thought that a measure of a great photo is if on seeing it, the exclamation is I wish I had taken that. And for this photograph, it was.
Some other really good work I found this month was in a post from Jerome Whittingham. The first and fourth photographs in his Audience Development Plan post are excellent.
I had been planning to post Charlene Storey’s post on failures in film photography (ok, I cheated, there it is!), but then Charlene wrote a wonderful post about using Substack’s Notes feature for connection and I felt everyone needs to read this one.
Jonathon Shafi of the Independence Captured newsletter published a fascinating interview with Gavin Brewis, a member of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit, discussing his PhD research investigating Ned Culture between 1995 and 2008.
And finally, earlier this month, to bring photographers and photography writers together on the Substack platform, I began a small initiative called Photostack. Check it out if you want to be added to the list, or if you want to find other photography-focused newsletters.
Recommendations
Photographer
In a slight departure from your regularly scheduled programming this month, I won't be recommending a single photographer, but a website that hosts the work of a number of them. The British Cultural Archive is an independent archive and non-profit set up to preserve the changes in British culture and society through documentary photography. Within the voluminous archive, there are many galleries from across the British land. From Bristol to Glasgow, these photographs are an unmissable resource and I recommend spending a couple of hours browsing through them. I did.
Music
I recently discovered an interview with Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch where he discussed the writing of The Boy with the Arab Strap. While I had always thought it a coincidence, I learned that the song was written when the band were on tour with Falkirk band, Arab Strap. While I had always believed Stuart was being a little cheeky in referencing a notorious sex aid, it transpires that he was none-the-wiser and the Arab Strap in his title referred to the band - something the Strap's Aidan Moffat was apparently none-too-happy about. That little vignette of Scottish indie trivia had completely passed me by. Anyway, it's the Stirlingshire boys who are recommended today, specifically an Arab Strap festival show from last year that I found on Youtube on Monday. It is tremendous. Enjoy.
Book
I have yet to see Oppenheimer but my book recommendation for this month, apropos of the movie, comes with a hat-tip to my friend Dan for turning me on to this one. In a recent Diversions issue of his Desire Paths newsletter, he discussed the August 31st 1946 edition of The New Yorker which consisted of a single, 68-page long, ~30,000-word story by the war correspondent and novelist John Hersey. It tells the stories of 6 survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima, and later, it became a book of its own. I am in the midst of reading it as recommend it today. It feels like it should be considered an essential companion to the Nolan film.
TV
In the digest of Issue 9 of Photos, mostly, I included a Top 5 of my favourite sketches from Scottish comedian Brian Limmond's Limmy's Show. In rewatching a tonne of episodes to choose my favourite clips, I came across this educational 15 minutes from Michael Lindsey. Titled The Linguistics of Limmy's Show, it delves into the Glaswegian dialect and the Scots language. well worth some time whether you're Scottish or you're not.
Interesting
For all the reasons we may malign the modern internet, there are little curios that, without it, would pass us by. I, for instance, had never heard of Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land. I can only speak for myself, but maybe it wasn't so well known in the UK? From comments under the Youtube video, though, across the pond, it seems to be remembered fondly indeed. As I watched it, I discovered a beautiful riff on the golden ratio. Wonderful. Thanks, Donald.
And Finally…
Look out for Issue 10 of Photos, mostly coming on 29th August.
If you’ve enjoyed Dispatches #5, I’d be very grateful if you could subscribe, share, and recommend it to any street photography-loving friends. It really does help more than you would think.
This newsletter is free to read, however, I've recently left corporate life and returned to school, so if you like what I do, please consider buying me a roll of film. You can do so by clicking here, or by aiming your camera at the QR code below.
I'm partial to some of that Tri-X 400 if you're asking. Thank you!
Thanks for including me, Neil. I’m was so excited to see that you liked my photo. I always enjoy reading your articles, so it was amazing to see my name included!
Another melee of great content, Neil! Thanks for sharing. I think I’m part of the Photo Stack tribe but let me know if there’s a place I need to sign up to?