CJ: FEATURES; SANDY CARSON, NEW PHOTO BOOK 'PRETTY MUCH' ESSAY BY, CHLOE JUNO

September 23, 2021

I’ve been loving Sandy's photography for years, over on Instagram, and every now and then we chat about photos, creative stuff, and life, so when he asked me to write a response to the photos he‘s taken over 2020, the year that changed everything, it felt like a natural yes. I was nervous as I’m dyslexic, but whilst viewing his work the words seemed to flow. My best friend since I was two, checked it all over, she always seems to be there when I need her, big love to you Nel. Sandy’s photos took me on a journey to Austin, Texas, a place I have not been to, but I connected right away, so much was relatable to my lockdown experience. Thank you for asking me Sandy, it’s given me the writing bug!

Order the book Ain’t Bad

Title : Pretty Much

Text By: Chloe Juno

Details : Edition Size 300
9″ x 7″, 96 pages Hard Cover, Perfect Bound
ISBN: 978-1-944005-49-8
Published by: Aint–Bad Fall 2021

‘In his latest body of work, Sandy Carson turns his wry wit to cataloging the year 2020, an uncertain and unprecedented time where the world began navigating the ‘new normal. On the street or just around the corner, a timeless, heartfelt, and absurdist lens joins with Sandy’s hopeful approach to storytelling, inviting the observer to take a deep breath, buckle up and hold on just a bit longer. It’s a gentle reminder that someday, these days will be worth remembering. Pretty much’. Ain’t Bad

2020, PRETTY MUCH, Book Cover, Copyright Sandy Carson Order the book Ain’t Bad — 2020, PRETTY MUCH, Book Cover, Copyright Sandy Carson
Order the book Ain’t Bad

2020, PRETTY MUCH, Copyright Sandy Carson Order the book Ain’t Bad — 2020, PRETTY MUCH, Copyright Sandy Carson
Order the book Ain’t Bad

Walking around the streets thinking and observing, taking in the hugeness of the situation. I miss hugging friends and family; I hope I can soon. What shall I make for dinner? The shelves are empty. Have I got any toilet roll? Fixing my own broken dental filling. Empty streets, reminiscent of a film I haven’t even seen, but yet I am walking around the set. A new language: ‘Social distancing’, ‘the new normal’, ‘lockdown’, these are ‘unprecedented times’, ‘you’re on mute’. Chloe Juno

CJ: FEATURES; PACO POYATO 'THE INVISIBLE WALL' BERLIN 2021

September 4, 2021

Featuring Paco Poyato

CJ: I have followed Paco’s work on Instagram for some time now, loving his portraiture and eye on life. Paco showed me his recent work ‘ The Invisible Wall’ Which was made whilst a resident artist with GlogauAIR Berlin. We are living in a time when borders are closing for various reasons, physical walls may have been torn down but invisible ones still exist. It’s a joy to edit and share Paco’s work. His eye for color and portraiture is bang on point. Would be so good to see this work in a photobook.

THE INVISIBLE WALL / BERLIN 2021

PP: 31 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The political, ideological, and in some cases physical frontier not only divided Germany but the entire world into two axes; one of capitalist character and his nemesis, the communist.

Today the physical Wall does not exist, but there is an invisible one that continues to divide the country, and it can be measured in wages, infrastructure, education, unemployment; political and economic differences that tip the balance in favor of the West.

A barrier that has been reinforced thanks to the global financial crises that have occurred in recent years, widening the gap between rich and poor, ending the so-called middle class.

The idea behind this work is to attest to this reality that is still in force today, through the study of the landscape, both urban and human, to show that division that is still latent between the western and eastern parts of Berlin, taking the German capital as an example of what is happening in the country.

There is one of those iconic moments of the fall of the Wall with which we can make an analogy of the events that occurred since its demolition until today; This is the song that David Hasselhoff sang on 1989 Christmas Eve at the Brandenburg Gate -on the East side of Berlin, a few weeks after the work to tear down the Wall began-, which announced that change and airs of freedom yearned for by the inhabitants of the GDR, and at the same time, like an oracle, predicted what was going to be the destiny of its inhabitants from this moment on.

The song was “Looking for Freedom”, and it had a chorus for its banner, which said ...

I’ve been looking for freedom. I've been looking so long

I've been looking for freedom

Still, the search goes on

As we can see, to this day that "searching for freedom" is still underway, since the change has not been as expected, at least for the inhabitants of the former GDR.

Paco Poyato Spain-based visual artist working in photography. The themes of his works share an interest in issues related to the current consumer society and globalization. His aim being reflecting how these two concepts alter his closest reality, understanding globalization as the loss of the individual’s identity, in favor of a model that responds to criteria closely linked to the control of power and banality. To date his work specializes in delving into the reality of different human groups that are created around a common cause that identifies them as such. A vision characterized by photographing human collectives that have shared common experiences that, in some way, serve to build, mark and also define the individual identity of its members.

https://stillthesearchgoeson.tumblr.com/

Puschkinallee, Alt-Treptow, Berlin, (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Puschkinallee, Alt-Treptow, Berlin, (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Ernst-Thälmann-Park, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Ernst-Thälmann-Park, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Karl-Marx-Straße, Neukölln, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Karl-Marx-Straße, Neukölln, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Warschauer Straße, Friedrichshain, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Warschauer Straße, Friedrichshain, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Objet Trouvé, Wedding, Berlin, (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Objet Trouvé, Wedding, Berlin, (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Tempelhofer Feld, Tempelhof/Neukölln, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Tempelhofer Feld, Tempelhof/Neukölln, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Checkpoint Charlie, Friedrichstraße, Kreuzberg, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Checkpoint Charlie, Friedrichstraße, Kreuzberg, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Alte Jakobstraße, Friedrichshain/Kreuzberg, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Alte Jakobstraße, Friedrichshain/Kreuzberg, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Panoramapunkt, Alte Potsdamer Straße, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Panoramapunkt, Alte Potsdamer Straße, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Objet Trouvé, Schöneberg, Berlin, (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Objet Trouvé, Schöneberg, Berlin, (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Friedrichstraße, Mitte, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Friedrichstraße, Mitte, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Kurfürstendamm, Charlottenburg/Wilmersdorf, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Kurfürstendamm, Charlottenburg/Wilmersdorf, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Skalitzer Straße, Kreuzberg, Berlin (2010) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Skalitzer Straße, Kreuzberg, Berlin (2010) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Bornholmer Straße, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin (2021) Copyright Paco Poyato — **Bornholmer Straße, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin (2021) Copyright** Paco Poyato

Objet Trouvé, Kreuzberg, Berlin, 2021 Copyright Paco Poyato — Objet Trouvé, Kreuzberg, Berlin, 2021 **Copyright** Paco Poyato

Hardenberg Straße, Charlottenburg, Berlin, 2021 Copyright Paco Poyato Follow Paco Poyato https://stillthesearchgoeson.tumblr.com/ — **Hardenberg Straße, Charlottenburg, Berlin, 2021 Copyright** Paco Poyato
Follow Paco Poyato https://stillthesearchgoeson.tumblr.com/

PHOTO SPARKS: BROS by HONEY SALVADORI September 1989

August 10, 2019

A single image by a photographer that sparks and ignites something within me.

It’s a great moment for a photo editor when an image comes in that nails a certain mood and embodies the story.

BROS 1980’s BRITISH BOY BAND “when will I will I be famous, when will I see my picture in the papers”

CJ: Honey and I have followed each other for a while now on social media and I have loved learning about all the work, she has done, her street photography and music/band photography for Q magazine and Vox magazine. After five years of covering bands on tour for those magazines, she went on to work with Picture Publicity at the BBC and Channel 4 as well as producing documentary features for magazines including Elle, Marie Claire and Moda (Italy). Her work is represented in numerous collections including the National Portrait Gallery who acquired this photograph of Bros as well as some other portraits for the permanent collection.

A set of images that stood out personally to me, are photos backstage with Bros. When I was a teenager I saw Bros at The Dome in Brighton, it was totally bonkers crazy nuts, girls screaming we love you Matt, Luke, and Craig (not me! but I was there) and I did have ripped jeans and a bomber jacket, so enough said! I think at the time it may have been my dream to be in Honey's shoes.

Honey how did this great image happen? I love it!

Limo Life, Bros on Tour, USA, September, 1989 Copyright Honey Salvadori

HS: The job photographing Bros for Q magazine was initially a routine commission. I was working on a regular basis for the magazine, mostly taking pictures in hotel rooms, where an artist would be installed for Press and PR sessions. Most people wouldn’t have expected to see Bros in the pages of Q, least of all the people who worked at Q. But they accepted the invitation from Bros’ management to photograph them in Minneapolis on a US tour where they were being introduced to the American market by pop star Debbie Gibson.

When I was asked to do the pictures, my immediate reaction was to question what sort of pictures Q wanted. “You’ll think of something” was their reply! So I packed my sense of humour in my camera bag. We spent a couple of days with them, during which I tried to blend into the background, so that they’d accept me avoiding posed clichés, and concentrated on reportage photographs. This proved easier to do with Luke than Matt, but I persevered.

This photograph happened by chance. We met them in the hotel lobby as they were going to do a radio interview and I just invited myself along for the ride to the Radio station. I took a few predictable snaps, then they both spontaneously yawned…I quickly snapped the picture. I couldn’t believe my luck!! They were a bit surprised when I took this but didn’t react much at all. Until it was published. Then they expressed their shock live on Saturday morning TV!! This was of course very good for me…I woke up on Monday morning discovering that I had a career!! So I’ll always be grateful to Bros for having a sleepy car journey and for over-reacting to the result!