cybertect
It's grim up north (London)
Note to mods: I cleared this with editor before posting.
As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a photographer in my spare time, and also a bit of a musician; mostly bass, but sometimes guitar, mandolin and I've recently decided to get to grips with keyboards.
As a result of the the musical bit, I've spent a lot of time shopping along Denmark Street over the last thirty five years or so and a recent-ish office move to Covent Garden has put it right on my doorstep.
With the departure of the 12 Bar Club to the Holloway Road in January and a large construction project, St Giles Circus, about to swallow up the remains of Denmark Place just to the north, there's been a lot of press about Denmark Street being on its last legs, with a fairly high profile campaign to 'save' it.
What I found, when spending any amount of time talking to the people running the music shops, was that they themselves were rather more positive about things than that.
I'd already started taking photos of the shops along Denmark Street and I thought it was worth turning this into a proper project, exploring this and to document the street as it is now and, over the longer term, what happens to it as St Giles Circus is built. To my surprise, it seems that no one else is doing this. There's plenty of camera crews and journalists looking for a sound bite, but no one looking over a longer period.
To this end, I've started gathering stories from the people that work there and taking photographs to accompany them. I've a bunch of the music shops on the street already agreed to participate and I've set up a web site to publish them.
http://streetofsound.uk
Over the course of the next few months and years I'd like to talk to the developers, the council, protesters, musicians who buy stuff on Denmark Street and other people involved in the debate about the street's future. The 12 Bar and Sax.co.uk who have moved out would be obvious candidates too.
One of the keys is that this is to be a long-term project. I want to revisit people during the development is going on and after the dust has all settled (quite literally) to see if and how their outlook changes as things unfold.
The first story is about Graham Noden, who's been repairing guitars in the basement of Andy's/Hank's since 1983
As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a photographer in my spare time, and also a bit of a musician; mostly bass, but sometimes guitar, mandolin and I've recently decided to get to grips with keyboards.
As a result of the the musical bit, I've spent a lot of time shopping along Denmark Street over the last thirty five years or so and a recent-ish office move to Covent Garden has put it right on my doorstep.
With the departure of the 12 Bar Club to the Holloway Road in January and a large construction project, St Giles Circus, about to swallow up the remains of Denmark Place just to the north, there's been a lot of press about Denmark Street being on its last legs, with a fairly high profile campaign to 'save' it.
What I found, when spending any amount of time talking to the people running the music shops, was that they themselves were rather more positive about things than that.
I'd already started taking photos of the shops along Denmark Street and I thought it was worth turning this into a proper project, exploring this and to document the street as it is now and, over the longer term, what happens to it as St Giles Circus is built. To my surprise, it seems that no one else is doing this. There's plenty of camera crews and journalists looking for a sound bite, but no one looking over a longer period.
To this end, I've started gathering stories from the people that work there and taking photographs to accompany them. I've a bunch of the music shops on the street already agreed to participate and I've set up a web site to publish them.
http://streetofsound.uk
Over the course of the next few months and years I'd like to talk to the developers, the council, protesters, musicians who buy stuff on Denmark Street and other people involved in the debate about the street's future. The 12 Bar and Sax.co.uk who have moved out would be obvious candidates too.
One of the keys is that this is to be a long-term project. I want to revisit people during the development is going on and after the dust has all settled (quite literally) to see if and how their outlook changes as things unfold.
The first story is about Graham Noden, who's been repairing guitars in the basement of Andy's/Hank's since 1983
