They’ve still got a couple of minutes before the departure of the 12:21 from Leeds to Doncaster. But we run anyway in these situations, don’t we; almost instinctively. It takes a certain confidence not to do so.
This is Leeds railway station, at what should be peak time on a Saturday morning.
You may think this desperately depressing scene is justified and necessary. I do not. When a crime has been committed the good investigator first asks — cui bono? It means ‘who benefits’? And who does benefit from all this — if we are not travelling, not spending money in the same places we were spending it last October, seeing friends, partying in nightclubs, going to Elland Road or wherever? I name Rupert Murdoch, Jim Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt and all their kin as people with the most profoud vested interest in keeping us locked up through the spreading of fear and this year’s sudden, digitally-driven enhancement of what Michel Foucault called the carceral state. If I’m wrong, sue me. If you don’t like it, defy it.
Somehow the little guy on the pedestrian crossing sign just adds to the concept. We are now all islands. Or, supposed to be, by official decree.
More monochrome, but it felt right. The position of the half-seen guard may or may not be a sign of despair at the state of the local train service.
A Saturday night out in Leeds. However, there are no photos of that, thanks to fascist doormen who seemed to be worried that my Mario Testino-style gear (cost of camera, £250) would somehow be a threat to image rights the world over. So here, instead, is the architectual centrepiece of the place where, many years ago — 25 this year, in fact (good grief) — I first came as a student. It’s still a cool building. And all in all a nicer campus than the one I presently work on (sorry, Manchester, but it’s true).
Once again, Leeds becomes the place to change trains when on the way to somewhere else for an evening out: but once again it was quite fertile territory for photography today, bathed in golden late afternoon light. I had a couple to choose from today but in the end went with this one due to the randomly bendy child. Like a stray piece of wind just tried to whisk him away.
It was in 1990 that I first heard the band Primal Scream, when my then-flatmate Dave played me their eponymous second album. In the two and a half decades since they have released some complete shite, it has to be said, but also many moments of brilliance (like the whole album XTRMNTR for a start). And in those 26 years despite never giving up on them and them refusing to turn into their own tribute band (like so many of their peers) I have never seen them live.
Until today 🙂
The first of what should be three days’ photos from Leeds. Today was spent there working, at least until 5pm… the next two will not be work. This is the kind of shot that only really works if one gets the symmetry exactly right, so what do you think?
Back in January 2015 Ellie (left, at that time aged 8 months) and Maggie (right) appeared on the blog in consecutive days; here they are together. Hard to credit that in the intervening 18 months Ellie has grown from a baby into a little girl with an entire functioning vocabulary. Time passes, we all change…
Another trip down South, meaning another morning change of trains at Leeds station — so many shots have been taken here. I like the general pinkness of this shot and the everyday stance of the two human subjects. Mundane it may be, but attractive, I think.
Being 42 