#02 - Pictures in a world where alienation is the main business
Political is cool again. And is not by option.
Hi there,
Have you felt that you work a lot but you don’t know what happens with the results of your work? Do you feel that your work has no meaning? Have you suscribed to a communist newsletter without knowing about it? In this email I talk about a situation that we all feel, we all ache, but is hard to understand, mostly because we are not used to think in the big picture. Talking about that…
Dogspotting
This dog was a good dog. Obviously. He wanted to sniff what was going on. I had stopped to take a picture of the intersection, and then realised they were coming behind. Therefore I decided to open the frame and wait a few extra seconds, as if they - dog - was just invited to be the main character. On the other hand, the guy just passed checking the phone in his own tiny cosmos.
That corner is near our house, and I often walk pass when coming back from the park with Amy. There is something there that makes it interesting, so I’ve been trying to capture what that something is multiple times before.
*Substack does not render images well, so if you are interested in checking them in better quality visit the gallery in this link.
I see that there are so many layers of city history colliding with each other here. There is a lot of transformations that are inscribed in the buildings, and some others are still going on, like the pile of rubish and the deterioration of other buildings. But my questions are always about who gets to use those spaces, how they have been (dis)used and what does it mean for how we connect with each other. Which leads me to the next picure/section.
Cycling as a social practice.
Two notes here. First, I know the title is not the sexyest one. Second, focus on the bike, not the guy’s legs please. This is basically the same area from the previous shots, just 150mt north of the dog’s corner. A massive development with probably thousands of new apartments makes the backdrop to a guy running in front of a fence where a old bike was left to be scanvenged.
If I am taking pictures of people cycling in the city, I could not leave the delivery apps riders out of the frame. Their presence are one of those situations that can be described as hidden in plain sight, almost to the point that their whole ethos is based on being invisible. We buy from highly refined polished crafty food brands that operate through globalised apps. They move from dark kitchens, scavenging old infrastructure, to door fronts using recently imported ebikes. Where does the we end and the they start? And most importantly, when do I start talking about alienation?
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Have you… watched Severance?
At least you have heard of it. Apparently it just became the most watched Apple tv show. And the premise is that there is a group of people that has irrevocably separated their work with the rest of their lives. One world has absolutely no connection with the other. Or so it seems. Alienation is precisely that. I always used this analogy: picture you asking a construction worker what are they doing with the brick on their hand. Alienation is when the worker says building a wall. A critical mind would say building a new tower block of posh flats in East London. Alienation is the process that separates our work from its consequences, these being the economic rewards, but also how they impact other people’s lives and the transformations in our environment. So yeah, the social researcher in me really recommends Severance.
I hope you have finished reading this with the sense of having your eyes and mind stimulated. If so please share this post with that friend that will appreaciate it.