March Read­ing I

In the Bonesetter’s Wait­ing Room, The Making of Home and Woman on the Edge of Time. Indi­an medi­cine, social history, the brutal­ity of psychi­at­ric hospit­als and ecofem­in­ist utopi­as.

Published
Categorised as Books

Daniel Mead­ows, Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr

Recently I went to two exhib­i­tions of Brit­ish social photo­graph­ers’ work of the 60s and 70s. Daniel Mead­ows at the Library of Birm­ing­ham, and Only in England- Tony Ray Jones and Martin Parr at the Science Museum. All three photo­graph­ers were contem­por­ar­ies and friends, work­ing on simil­ar topics of noti­cing the arrest­ing and unusu­al in ordin­ary people in every­day settings. All photo­graphs in this entry are from the photo­graph­ers’ own websites.

Birm­ing­ham Pen Museum

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While I was in Birm­ing­ham, I visited the Pen Museum. Because I gave a small dona­tion, one of the kind volun­teers essen­tially gave me a person­al guided tour.

DDR Museum

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I’m fascin­ated by the history of the Cold War. Both the polit­ic­al side, and the social history of people’s every­day lives. I’ve always been extra fascin­ated by the former DDR, both because I can speak the language and because they tried so hard to be a “model” Iron Curtain soci­ety. You read about people being “intern­al emigrés”. Being a good comrade and work­er on the surface, but intern­ally escap­ing to their own world via drink or just plain daydream­ing. I suppose that’s what I’d do in the situ­ation. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject, but I’m currently writ­ing a zine about the trip this summer, so I’ll save them for there.

Starkes Vier­tel- photos of Dresden Neustadt in the 70s and 80s

When I was in Dresden, I bought a photo­graphy book by a local photo­graph­er. Günter Starke lived in Dresden Neustadt, the area just across the river from the histor­ic­al centre, in the 70s and 80s, and took a lot of photos. Despite the name, Neustadt is full of old build­ings that escaped bomb­ing during the war (it’s only new compared to the baroque city centre), and in the commun­ist days, the local coun­cil concen­trated on build­ing blocks of flats and hous­ing estates to house famil­ies.

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