Karl Lagerfeld said, “What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.” And for me nothing tells the history of our past like being able to see the faces of those that were present at the time, quiet, framed, and immortalised in portraits.
The residency in the Cabin, which runs to the 17th of July aims, as the square comes back to life following the covid restrictions, to document the faces of Osnabruck Square, both past and present, telling their stories of the square for the future. Week one of the Cabin residency with Artcore has got off to a real good start with number of people signing up already to have themselves, their shops and businesses photographed . Over the month the aim is to grow the collection and these will then be exhibited on the 16th and 17th of July. To find out more about the sample portraits below join us on these dates our first four are Linda, Lyn, Pauline, Namig and Dave.
Well, if week one got off to a good start week 2 has been even better. It has been really good to see how people are enthusiastically getting behind the months residency and wanting to take part and to date only one business has decided not to take part and I think even that could change.
I think, apart from the portrait taking, the most interesting part has been meeting the people and joining the links up between the families that go back over a hundred years working and living around the square together. If only bricks and mortar could spill their tales, what would we learn.
The one thing that seems to be coming out to me from the residency is that the cafes and bars on and around the square have played a huge part in peoples lives over the years. From bus drivers to city council workers to market stall holders they all seem to have drawn to the square because of them. Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to has mentioned good beer, cups of hot tea, bacon and sausage cobs and lots of laughter. The square is a place to meet friends and form the heart of what Osnabruck Square is. Our sample photographs today below are Ian, Val, Community Action Derby and Matt.
I cannot believe how quickly the last three weeks have gone and next week the residency will be coming to an end. I was up late last night looking at some of the edited photographs and starting to look at how I put them into the presentation and how I might exhibit them best from the kiosk.
I had chosen right at the start to try and do three photographs in all of everyone., looking at a black and white square image such as you get on Instagram, a landscape and a third in portrait form but in colour. Looking back over the photographs so far, I think it was a good decision. The black and white photos give them a documentary style look and the colour in the third photograph highlights more detail. I also think it it is a nice contrast between the three images of each.
Looking back over the photographs for the exhibition next week I realised I have photographed 72 people in all using or working in and around the square and this isn’t including the square and roads leading to it. The journey has also taken me by zoom to Germany and to Derby’s representative Zoe Chaffey for Osnabruck square there. We also attempted a zoom portrait for the exhibition of Zoe, which seemed quite apt considering the amount of time we have all spent on zoom during the Covid 19 pandemic. I am looking forward to seeing as many of you as we can at the small exhibition at the Kiosk on Osnabruck Square on the launch between 5pm and 7pm on Friday the 16th and on Saturday the 17th between 10am & 4pm
Well, it’s over, and I can’t believe its come to an end and its been a fab journey. I can’t thank all the people to who took part and supported the project. The final exhibition of work consisted of 132 photographs. Of these 93 photographs were portraits and group shots of 72 people photographed in in three ways, two black and white images (one square Instagram sized image to represent the influence of social media today. One landscape layout as in documentary style) and one of each in portrait layout in colour (so that in a hundred years viewers would be able to see colours of clothes, branding and logos etc). The feedback from the public has been excellent and I will be looking in some small way how I can personally keep photographing the square and the people who use it. Below are a few more people who helped make the exhibition the success it was.
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