Queer Journeys Through Suburbia

Queer Journeys Through Suburbia utilises photography to explore the multi-layered British suburban landscape with a particular interest in invisible, othered LGBTQIA+ inhabitants. The primary focus of my research is to explore how LGBTQIA+ individuals navigate and engage with the British suburban landscape in the 21st century. Of particular interest is how these journeys through the physical world are made guided by digital technologies. GPS technologies incorporated into dating apps like Grindr have provided discreet ways for marginalised individuals to meet others in their local area.

This work also aims to tell personal stories about journeys through suburbia that would not usually be heard. It is also concerned with the body as a political tool, and how the physical act of walking references generations of pilgrimages, protests and marches. The act of walking is central to this project, in part because my own creative practice revolves around a creative meditation incited by walking with my camera, but also because these short, local journeys are often on two feet. LGBTQIA+ culture thrives in the UK in urban areas, with bars, clubs and community centres but these are not so readily available outside of the city and not appropriate for those who like MSM or WSW do not identify with the mainstream interpretation of gay, lesbian or queer, etc.

I am using re-walking and photography to document personal queer journeys through suburbia, telling visual tales of how the British landscape is multi-layered, and inhabited and navigated by all kinds of diverse creatures.

Comments

A Lovely Pair of Pins

I knew the expression 'pins' referring to legs but had to Google what the Cockney rhyming slang comes from. It looks like 'pins & pegs', but there are some great alternatives like 'bacon & eggs' and 'dolly pegs'. I think I might start trying to incorporate more Cockney into my everyday speak, I do have London roots but they are more South (Saff) London than East London, where I think it originates. Anyway this is all to illustrate a new picture that sits quite neatly with an older picture. So brogues, legs and a sea view from my two main muses. This might be turning into a set... Oh by the way the top view is Morecambe Bay and the lower image is from The Wirral looking across towards Wales. The North West of England is a beautiful place, with some stylish residents.

Hold Your Hair In Deep Devotion

At last after a week of being indoors, I walked into the light! I went solo and had a photography day in Liverpool, just what the doctor ordered, as they say. I'm a bit out of words at the moment and was going to include a Philip Larkin poem, but I've been thinking that Alex Turner is my modern day poet hero and this is my favourite track on AM, tucked away at the end. He's in his twenties and yet the words suggest a time before he was born, filling my head with images and memories. I've included a link to the track if you want to listen to The Arctic Monkey doing their thing whilst taking in my pictures... UPDATE Well since writing the above it has been pointed out to me that the song is actually based on a poem by John Cooper Clarke, which makes sense of the time frame (being written in the early Eighties) and the fact that I responded to the lyrics like a poem. Apparently Alex Turner first heard it read by his English teacher whilst at school. So mayb...

Linda McCartney Video Commission

If you'd like to access my cyanotype video workshops, they are still live on The Walker Art Gallery website: Cyanotype prints for beginners Advanced cyanotype prints

Marc Provins

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