Photography News 09

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Bleeding London: Are you in?

POINTS OF CONTACT TOUPLOADYOUR IMAGES http://rps-upf.org FOREVENTS, MEETUPSAND NEWS: RPS London region blog http://bit. ly/1tSYlKw

FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/bleedinglondon

It’s your chance to get involved in the most ambitious photo project London has ever seen. This initiative, launched by RPS London, aims to photograph every avenue, road and street in the London A-Z – that’s a mere 73,000 entries

MEETUP http://bit.ly/1hBe5KU

TWITTER @bleedinglondon

If you live in the London region or are planning to visit the capital before the end of October, you can sign up and get involved in this ambitious and massive photo project. Basically, the aim is to photograph every street in the London A-Z. The idea of the Bleeding London photo project is based on the Whitbread shortlisted novel of the same name written by Geoff Nicholson – see the panel. “I read the book when it came out,” says Del Barrett ARPS, the project’s organiser. “Normally I read a book and forget about it within a week, but Bleeding London really stuck with me. So when I tramp around the streets of London I often think of Stuart [one of the main characters from the book] and what he says and sees and I thought to myself ‘you know, I could do this as a photo project’ but realised I needed help so I talked to the RPS. It is completely behind the project because they can see it getting so many people engaged with photography, especially as we are encouraging the smartphone user, the new generation of photographers and some might join the Society. It’d be great too if someone got their RPS distinction based on their work for this project.” With London constantly growing, deciding what was to be included must have been difficult. “After a lot of discussion with the A-Z we established that if you take the standard London A-Z Street Atlas the perimeter has not changed since Geoff’s book came out in 1997 so that is what we are using,” Del explained. “It has 73,000 entries. “London is changing so much I thought it would be fantastic to have a record of what it’s like right now. You might say, what about Google Street View, but the thing is that all you get is a view of the street. In Bleeding London we want pictures of all types. We want portraits, pictures of the architecture, of rubbish lying in the street – we want an eclectic mix. “We have a different suggestion for people to shoot every day on the RPS and Facebook websites and photographers can earn bonus points with the photographer having the most winning an Olympus OM-D camera. For example, on 29 May we suggested streets related to cheese, while back on 5 May we had feral furniture suggested by Geoff. We now have one photographer completely obsessed with abandoned furniture and she goes out hunting for it. “It’s interesting too that people are learning a lot about London. People are even debating things like apostrophes: why does Earl’s Court have one but Barons Court doesn’t? Stewart’s Grove in SW3 has three different signs, one with an apostrophe, one without and one handwritten. “We have a whole network of people organising walks and details will be on various websites. We’re using Meetup groups and London Independent Photography is involved too. “We aim to have postmasters for all the postcode districts and while they don’t have to walk every

Bleeding London: the book “I originally arrived in London from Sheffield in 1977 and the book came out 20 years after that,” says author Geoff Nicholson (pictured right). “I was one of those people who went

street they are responsible for setting up walks and identifying gaps here and there to shoot. We have 20- 30 postmasters at the moment, but we need 120 so we are appealing for more. “Any pictures taken from 7 March this year are eligible and any imaging device can be used –- the Instagrammers are really into this and producing some amazing pictures. Any subject is good too and you don’t have to include the street sign in the picture – although taking a shot of any sign is good because it might be needed later for verification. “We have an end date of 31 October, but we are leaving ourselves two months to do a sweep-up exercise because we don’t want the project to fail just because someone forgot to walk one street. Next year, we plan to have an exhibition and a book. For images to be considered for the exhibition, they must be uploaded to the ultimate portfolio site for Bleeding London, http://rps-upf.org. “We want more people to sign up to the project and maybe join the RPS. So far, we have 800 people signed up and everyone is welcome.” π To find out more about Bleeding London and to register, go to www.bleedinglondon.co.uk, and if you want to be a postmaster email london@ rps.org. You can also help the cause by buying the book or Kindle version through the Bleeding London website.

out walking or exploring at the weekend. At first it was Piccadilly or Trafalgar Square but that gets old very quickly, and it was always a big thrill going to see friends at Tooting Beck or somewhere different. I was moving every three months too – if you charted my progress you will see that I lived in every unpleasant part of London for a while. “As a writer, there is no point doing anything without thinking ‘is there a book or feature in this’ so I had the idea of having a character who was actively exploring London in my head for a long time. One of the three main characters, Stuart, is trying to walk down every street in London using his standard A-Z and he draws a black line as he goes so by the end of his project every street in London is blacked out. “Mick, one of the other characters – I got the idea for himwhen years later I went back to Sheffield for a year where I met so many people who said ‘oh, you lived in the London, that’s a bleeding awful place’; usually the opinion was based on one visit. “So there’s one character who is in London on a revenge mission, gets lost, needs a map and ultimately gets seduced by the place and the other is the ultimate Londoner exploring the city and keeping a written diary of the walks he does. “When Del approached me with the idea of showing London in pictures rather than words, I thought this was the visual realisation of the idea in the novel. I am the sort of guy who likes to say ‘yes’ so when Del emailed me late last year with the idea of a photo project and exhibition, I said ‘sure’ and expected never to hear from her again but here we are launching the project.”

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Issue 9 | Photography News