Written out of history?
Hello again and welcome to another NathanPhoto musing written up here for your convenience. Every now and again there are some subjects that I think, I must write about, then something more current pops up and they get put on the back burner, sometimes they sink without a trace but sometimes they bubble up again, this blog is one of them that bubble back up.
The overall theme this week is History, which when you think about it is quite a funny one, it’s had another little crossover in my research reading recently, where it was mentioned that certain historical elements weren’t really recorded until the widespread use of writing as a tool, as if somehow words were better than pictures to disseminate information…that and the fact that history is usually only written by the victors. Anyway that’s a separate research strand so I bet you’re wondering what is the angle NathanPhoto is going to take on this?
Well before I answer that I want to share a fear about how this blog could sound, possibly like a rant or possibly a sorrowful moan or worse! My intention is for it not to sound anything like that, not at all. I’m going to attempt to write this with a humorous aspect and just like today has been full of laughter I’ll attempt to write it in that vein so if you come across something that sounds quite sad then please frame it with a laugh because that is its intended outcome.
To the subject of history then, in particular the history of NathanPhoto. What’s inspired this, you may ask? Well, let me tell you, it’s a combo of the current wave of nostalgia, (40 years of the Hac) the archive sorting (looking at imagery from 30years ago), writing job applications (Am I good? Am I brilliant? Am I something else?), how sometimes the straight telling of facts doesn’t tell the whole story and a conscious looking forward of what my legacy will be…
Thinking about all of that and as I looked around for certain details, that was when I stumbled on a few rewrites of history by others but affecting my perspective, so I see this blog as an attempt to redress some of that and to establish a balance. I also see this as a possible subject that may run and run and as such will be revisited. Where to start then? I thought I’d start by listing my achievements, there could be some missed out ones due to memory and the mists of time and the usual proviso of in no particular order, I’ll put:
Freelance photographer, worldwide published, attended some of Manchester’s key moments, staff photographer at City Life magazine, somewhat Getty Photographer, sometime M.E.N photographer, chief ‘Ginga’ exhibition photographer, founder and organiser of the ‘This is Manchester’ exhibition, a long standing nightclub photographer both at straight and gay venues, live music photographer and mnore recently photographic tutor.
This is what I’ve done.
Now as per, I can hear a few dissenting voices from the past and today, consisting of some of the establishment and some other possibles. Think they could be possibly protesting, possibly moaning but either way it seems that the end result they are trying for, is to bring me down but I’m afraid that these are facts, for which I have the receipts of, so they can’t be denied in one way. Apply the objective/subjective here.
Which is why I wanted to use my platform to attempt an address of the balance after I read another report of a time in Manchester where I had been (deliberately?) written out of, I thought that maybe I better start answering back some of this rather than just shrugging my shoulders and looking forward.
I was there. I made images. Some good. Some bad. Think the ideas of good/bad can be put down to personal agendas and taste, maybe it’ll swing back in my favour one day. Now as I know most of you like details, I’ll do some odd one’s for you. Being written out of club culture that I worked in for 20+years, being written out of a publication history that I worked for, someone taking my images and crediting to another, taking a show idea that I had and passing off some involvement, when there was none. I could go on, but this is meant to be a light-hearted piece for the future, so I’ll stop there in case it turns to a rant.
I’ll simply restate the fact that:
I was there, and I made images.
I like that, I think I might have that on my tombstone, what you think? To go back to my opening lines, I do not want this to appear sour or bitter so I’ll attempt to lighten the mood with this joke.
Why did the crab suck at photography? ‘cause he only took shellfies
No(w) that’s funny..
Ok I’ll stop with the jokes and move onto the image, but what to use?
Many I can use from the archive, but I thought I’ll use a recent one from a successful trip last month and one I’m starting to like more and more as an example of a pure NathanPhoto image, here it is:
Caption reads: a street image taken in Europe of a person readjusting their sock after the trainer has possibly pulled it down, the generic nature of the shoes are included here as a comment on the uniform blandness of tourist destinations and what you can expect to see in this Glocal culture.
As ever you can let me know any thoughts, ideas or feedback on the usual channels.
Thank you for reading…