Fingers crossed, we’ve seen the back end of winter as it was cracking the flags yesterday. I even went for a bike ride, jumping the ferry at Seacombe and managed to get sunburnt on my head.
Save the Caribbean Centre
Sign the petition, save the Caribbean Centre.
https://www.change.org/p/save-l8-caribbean-centre-liverpool-african-caribbean-centre
Book Launch - Gary Millar
Covered the book launch of Gary Millar’s Silent Victims.
have to say it was quite an emotional evening.
Pulp Idol 2025
Just a couple of images from Friday’s event I covered.
Stage lighting is extremely unforgiving and shooting with a shutter at less than 200th of a second to get around digital banding was challenging to say the least.
I also used a 70-300mm lens to get a more crowded sense of depth for the stage images which I feel turned out relatively well and a 35mm for the portraits which again turned out rather nicely, they feel quite natural considering the harshness of the lighting.
That is a Wrap
It’s the second year on the bounce I’ve covered Pulp Idol at the Royal Court. Definitely some challenging lighting conditions but that’s offset by how nice the staff are and the event itself is really entertaining.
I’m pretty busy this week but I’ll try and post some images from the event itself over the next few days and I’ll be covering a book launch at the Quaker’s Centre this coming Thursday.
The Good Ol’ Ricoh
Love the Ricoh GRIII, wish someone would commission me to shoot their event just on a couple of them even if it struggles at really low light😢
This is a Test - Blogging from My Phone
Seeing how easy and creative I can be by blogging from the Squarespace app as opposed to just updating my life on Instagram stories.
Been a massive Shirley Jackson fan since I read The Lottery years ago and the collection of her short works is perfect for my post gym commute home.
From the Ashes...
Really should be blogging stuff on my site as opposed to ranting inanely on Twitter and Instagram. Let’s see how long I can be bothered posting random stuff on here, ey?
Did some work for Writing on the Wall’s book launch (Superheroes: Words are our Power) over at Blackmoor Primary School near Alder Hey and it was great to see the kids enjoying the show put on, it reminded me of my childhood and how exciting it was to be out of lessons and doing something out of the ordinary. Fun times.
Here’s a link to more information regarding the book and the great work WoW do in general.
Why Black Lives Matter - Chantelle
“I have had different experiences of racism, from the overt with name calling in the 90s, and the covert racism when I joined the police. These were all at various levels of nuance and the things that fall in between, the different treatment of you or the way they speak to you, to the assumption that you're quite aggressive because you're Black.
“After I left the police I set up my own business and at this point in my life I was very aware of racist attitudes and assumptions of who I was because of my skin colour and they were very rarely positive – an example being that you are less motivated or educated, despite what you do to challenge that idea. With this in mind it made me very nervous when starting up. I eventually plucked up the courage and sent off my pitches and ideas to companies, to the point where I had a very promising opportunity with a large corporate client.
“I had a really good rapport via email over a period of 6 to 8 weeks, to the point where it was just a case of signing on the dotted line. They invited me into their establishment for a final face-to-face meet-up and it was when the woman I had been speaking to via email saw me. I instantly realised that there was an issue. It was her actual facial expression, it literally dropped with shock. For me, I had gone from building a really nice relationship online with this person to sitting across a desk from them with their little microaggressions – crossed arms, shutting my questions down with short, closed replies. She went above and beyond to try and put me off wanting to do business with their company. Needless to say, I never heard from them again.
“I look back on this experience in 2019 compared to the overt racism I experienced growing up in the 90s and I understand racism hasn't gone away, but rather it has changed its face.
“In a western society it's quite apparent that Black lives don't matter. Look at the current situation with COVID-19, it was clear from the start of this terrible pandemic that a disproportionate of people from BAME backgrounds were dying because of this disease, yet there was no effort to shield people from these backgrounds. We're worthy to do jobs keeping the economy running and people safe but we're not worthy to protect. Black Lives Matter. We as Black people know this, but it's time the establishments and institutions that run the world understand this too.”
Chantelle
Why Black Lives Matter - Jamel
“The places that I've worked throughout my life, I've generally been the only Black person that has worked there and even in a place like Liverpool which is somewhat cosmopolitan, you don't see many Black people in customer facing positions within the city. It's so frustrating and in the places I've worked there are so many microaggressions from White colleagues that they seem just to get away with casual racism and it feels like most of the time as a Black person working in these places you just have to swallow it. Heaven forbid if you get angry or emotional about something going on or you will be labelled as aggressive. You do not want to be labelled as that angry Black man.
“In a music venue I worked in, there was a person that boasted about how he Blacked up for a party as Prince and because he was merely paying homage to his idol, it wasn’t offensive. This was said in front of my manager, to which he remained silent to the point of being apathetic to the whole conversation. I was so utterly frustrated by the whole situation that I posted about it on my Twitter account. Numerous people came forward and said to me ‘we've heard about his behaviour and all the stuff he used to get up to years ago’. I just don't get why they didn't say anything? There were so many other stories that got posted online, after mine, about this particular person’s conduct towards women and other inappropriate behaviour. The people he worked with and the venues he had dealings with must've known this – they just turned a blind eye. The reason being, in my opinion, he had influence and he brought in money for them.
“I worked in a retail store with two other Black people during that time. I'm somewhat more alternative in the way I dress and style myself and there was a White guy who was deeply into Black urban culture and I used to get the sly racist comments from him saying that he was Blacker than me because he was into Hip Hop and styled himself in a more 'Urban' fashion. It's totally frustrating because I know I could be justified in kicking off and being angry but because I'm in a majority White working space, no one's going to have your back at the end of the day, this proved to be the case with the Blackface comments. If I bring it up or make it an issue, then I'm the aggressor in the whole situation.
“All the things that have been happening in Lockdown such as the BLM Protests and the George Floyd murder, it's so important that it's happening in the age of social media. People aren't working – they haven't got other outside factors to take their minds off the movements going on in society. They are able to educate themselves on these things, but if they choose to ignore them then it's purely down to the fact that they don't care. If you are not taking the time out to educate yourself then you do not believe that Black Lives Matter.
“Black Lives Matter because we are just as human as everybody else. As far back as Black people can remember and looking back on our history it has been one of oppression, torment and generational trauma that goes with being Black. If something does not change soon, this cycle will perpetuate itself with our future generations. It is a scary thought, that for everything we've brought to the world, the fact we're still having to fight just to have a normal life is crazy.”
Jamel Burke - 27
