From October 3, I will have sixteen prints on show at the Wyllieum in Greenock, for about a month. They depict Gourock and Greenock, as per the projects discussed here in previous posts.
I'll be doing a short talk about this show at the Wyllieum at 2pm on Saturday October 3.
Here is the introductory text (adapted from that used in my photo book) and some sample images that will be on display:
------------------
From 2022–4, I lived in Gourock and I went shopping in Greenock. I walked around Gourock, and I travelled to Greenock by bus. These images are about the differences and similarities between the two places.
Gourock (current population 10,000) was originally a fishing village, then a seaside resort, and is now a suburban residential area. It has a few shops, but no real economy. Rather, people travel from there to work, mainly by car. Some no doubt have jobs in Greenock, but others commute to Glasgow, which is about an hour away on the motorway. I rented a room here, but the area where I lived is mostly a zone of owner-occupation, with detached or semi-detached houses set back from the street by gardens. However, Gourock also has several areas of public housing, which are more densely inhabited and have more generic architecture.
Greenock (current population 41,000) is a larger regional centre, with local government buildings for Inverclyde Council, a shopping mall, chain supermarkets, etc. But it is itself a satellite of Glasgow, and its nineteenth-century prosperity depended on that proximity: that is, it is closer to the mouth of the Clyde Estuary than Glasgow, so it was easier and cheaper for some ships to unload sugar, tobacco and cotton there rather than continue on to the larger city. The town was also a centre for shipbuilding and related industries. Like many Atlantic ports and old industrial centres, Greenock’s fortunes have fallen, but it retains a busy freight-container terminal – and during the summer cruise ships use the town as a base for day trips. Greenock has greater visible extremes of wealth disparity than Gourock, with larger council estates, including tower blocks, but also very grand individual houses, most of which seem to date back to the town’s heyday.
Suburbia is a place where dogs bark at solitary walkers. Being without a car and being alone are both inherently suspicious states of being – taking photographs is even worse. If I could completely efface myself, I would. I live a marginal existence, and I wanted these photos to express that: to depict not an invasion of privacy, but a reluctance to trespass. A sense of distance and withdrawal, of tactfulness.
The prints will be displayed in pairs, juxtaposing images from Gourock with images of Greenock.
