http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-10651854

FANTASTIC stuff.. well deserved and congratulations to DFF and the other cultural champions who have turned the place round.. european money on it’s way :ø)

thanks for your perspective..
you know – i don´t think people will understand how different derry is as a place to enjoy music until they actually go there..

utterly inspiring.

hope to see you there later in the year..

d

Hopefully this is one of many posts in the future.

Being someone from Derry that was very much a part of the scene since 1996 when oldschool techno was at the forefront, I’ve seen some dramatic changes, not just musically, but atmospherically.
The techno venue in question was burnt out by paramilitaries 20ft in front of a police station, they felt that by destroying the only release for young people they would serve justice for the community.

In the midst of all this DeepFriedFunk began, crazy!
But the city needed it, it’s loyalty to staying well underground and commercially hidden was initially/probably the effect of the overall feeling being felt at the time. This ambiguity helped it maintain it’s lastibility, even now as we enter a new era of dissident paramilitaries playing good cop bad cop again.

The story needed to be told, not through the lens of a local, but someone with a fresh perspective.

Nathaniel wrote “Derry is not a war-zone, it’s like most places in the UK, kids getting wasted on the weekends dancing to repetitive electro beats and alleviating the mundane with whatever drugs they can.”

Does there need to be a certain level of violence before it amounts to a war-zone?
It’s true people are getting wasted, but the beats are as diverse as the ages, the “kids” are starting their own events, keeping up the momentum, giving birth to new electronic playgrounds for the drum & bassers and the dubsteppers of now.

It’s not like most places in the UK, I’m now living in Liverpool photographing for Chibuku, inspired by what Dave has done for Derry, I find it impossible to see a remotely similar party.
It’s a different world.

The image of the guy smoking is one of my favourites, the part of the night no one seems to document, and for me, the core of the reason I loved my nights in Derry.

Emmett

That is probably the most important point made here and highlights the danger in doing a long term project… It becomes a thing ahh great stuff that’s what my uncle used to do unless on changes the goal posts

To my mind, a work depicting the carcass of a scene holds just as much artistic possibility as images of a scene at the height of it’s “glory.” Just as photographs of anonymous people can be just as interesting, or more so, than those of Hollywood stars. I agree with John about the necessity of great images standing outside the context of their time, but would add that I think they are much more likely to achieve that if there is a significant artistic vision involved at the time of capture.

photographically one of the things i love is details which become dated..
the outmoded milk carton from the 1980′s in the kitchen of nick wapplingtons ‘living room’..

Of course good stuff transcends time.

it is not for me to convince anyone – minimal research and reading about popular music will bear fruit and i’m not really concerned with discussing whether the scene is dead or not – because i know better.
it’s a non-starter… if the scene had died i would have been able to photograph it dieing
again – no problem for me..

there is no danger with long term projects – i would have happily documented the demise of the music, had that been the case.. as it is it became overtly commercial in the u.k., but to believe that is the whole story is somewhat narrow..
i don’t think nathaniels statement is from a perspective of any real knowledge about the scene or the development of popular music, period, over time.

regardless.. in a long term project is it up to me to decide how the subject is progressing, or does the subject dictate to a degree it’s own path?
no fear.. no problem..

in fact – my website is a hangover.. a semi-gloss marketing tool which desperately needs bringing up to date :ø)

derry is a splinter project which has developed in importance as my own cynicism with the commercial electronic scene, and it´s associated media, has grown.
i´m also continuing working with promoters in the balkans..

for context – there is a great, huge, festival in serbia called EXIT.. so named to mark an ¨exit¨ from war.. intentioned to bring young people together and begin to build new levels of understanding across the youth of the region..
this fascinates me..
the idea that in derry and serbia music is used as a backdrop to peace.. quite aside from the politicians posturing.. it IS bringing together the children of parents who fought wars to get over over their differences… and i can be much more use publicizing this than going to a trouble zone because of my history and temperament… i am not a music photographer, as such, and never hoped to be..

this ¨coming together¨ is something i have witnessed first hand.. been a part of in direct ways in both the north of ireland and the balkans.

as my cynicism with the music press has grown, and as it becomes ever more difficult to gain press for more ethical events who cannot afford substantial advertising in the mags, i have felt much more enabled to show the work i actually care about.. less glossy.. more real. the photos i intend to show more and more are the shots which were never published – would not be – and which would not have won me commissions.. in this sense i now feel free of the shackles of clients..

rather than show just the dancing ravers, i fully intend to do just as you say and leave a no-shine anthropological statement which also addresses much more than simply the commercial wing of the electronic movement.. try to fit in the whole-hog, from my perspective as a deranged addict of music and people.

in 1998 the celtronic festival came about because some friends, students at a music collage in derry, spoke to a tutor about what was needed to get the music scene there buzzing.. and he told them to organize a music festival and he told me he was shocked when they actually did it..

the north of ireland, even in 2004 on my first visit, still had gaping wounds in the music industry following the war – positions to fill in production, distribution and press.

that´s is worth shouting about.. and also sets it apart from the escapist drug fulled nonesense happening in the u.k.. which i repeatedly had to see.
derry came into my career as an antidote.

it is only since leaving the thrashing floor of the music industry to settle back into the gentle familiar folds of the photographic one that i have felt secure enough to begin showing the true nature of what i shot and lived – which was always 15 mins ¨fluff¨ for the magazine / tourist board who funded the trip, and then 3 days ¨RAW¨ for myself.
in that sense my technique has not change – it´s just i do not have to hide the raw shots anymore :ø)

And, from a guy who did his raving in a white suit under a revolving ball of mirrors, I’d like to think your book will be a profound anthropological study for others, thirty years from now.

A small meat issue – why were only three images posted here on BURN, and why wasn’t the essay posted in its entirety?

in the context here they are standard nightclub shots and are not intended to approach the issue politically.. only to illustrate my perspective of being there in conjunction with some currrent positive news about the place.
.
i´m sure in publications they would be swapped out for much more average nightclub shots, if the text were expanded upon..
with distance.. i have a great deal of distance form the work i shot these days – it´s been a couple of years since the week in week out slog.. this distance has allowed me to consider work like this – much more than having a lack of distance has made me choose these three first.
in choosing these three i simply saw them as interesting photographs, and have for a long while been able to remove my personal experience, enjoyment and so on from the editing process.

in a sense i have tried to show photographs which do not look different from anywhere else – i am not trying to contrive a ¨tough¨ story – more i am trying to illustrate in an inclusive manor…

my main concern is with not being ¨believed¨, and that still bemuses me..

in any case – will see what nathaniel comes back with..
:ø)
d

JOHN