Guessed light readings. Sam Strickland / Adam Patterson 2008
My first departure to Bangladesh is looming. I’ll fly out at the beginning of August to shoot for charity Woman and Children First (www.wcf-uk.org) before heading to the north east of the country to start shooting in Sylhet.
My research is taking shape (and its toll on my sleep patterns) even though shooting still seems distant. I’m trying to get a wide range of contacts in the Sylheti community. This goes from famous and wealthy restaurant owners and politicians to workers in Chicken Cottage on Romford Road, to young people involved in drug dealing and music to religious leaders.
I’m also trying to get good contacts in British anthropological circles. I’ve been in touch with a PhD student who has studied Sylheti migration issues for three or four years and works under the UK’s leading light in the area, Dr Katy Gardner (I’ve also been invited to work for the Museum of Childhood in December on a similar thing).
The PhD student and I will be in Sylhet at the same time and will be meeting up. Also, fingers crossed I’ll be photographing the family he’s been working with for two years in London. The parents are taking their five children to Bangladesh (most for the first time) to show them their country of origin. I’m very much hoping to shoot some of this holiday. Exciting but as yet unconfirmed. His advice has been invaluable. It ranges from excellent potential contacts to information about travel and communication in country to “prepare to sweat, it’ll be fucking hot, humid and generally unpleasant.”
I’ve been calling in my East London contacts many of who have been lifelong friends with British-Sylhetis – some of Tower Hamlet’s schools are as much as 95% Sylheti. Although people have been cagey I’m following up some interesting contacts.
I’m also reading a mountain of stuff. From Globalisation, God and Galloway to forums for British-Sylhetis rich with prose like “da dhaka peeps bk hme r dikheads, dey tink dey r superior to Sylhetis.”
The project seems at the same time daunting and exciting. I’m flipping between feeling like I’m going to shoot an amazing project to worrying about wandering around Bangladesh sweating with chronic diarrhea and nothing to point my camera at.
More soon.
Money being made by Bangladeshi migrants working around London’s Brick Lane is transforming the country’s Sylhet district into one of its richest areas.
I would like to document the impact of these remittances on Sylhet and create a diverse and unique portrait of Sylhetis in both Tower Hamlets and Bangladesh. In four phases, including two trips to Bangladesh, I would explore issues of migration, identity, poverty and wealth with still images and sound recordings.
Around 123,000 Bangladeshis (mostly Sylhetis) have come from one of the world’s most deprived countries to become one of London’s most deprived communities in its most deprived borough[1].
Many are involved in the burgeoning restaurant trade. Eighty percent of the 7,200 Indian restaurants in the UK are owned by Bangladeshis, 95% of whom originate from Sylhet[2]. British Indian restaurants serve 2.5million customers a week accounting for two thirds of all eating out in the UK.[3]
As business booms large amounts of money has been reinvested in Sylhet by so-called “Londonis”, or Sylhetis who have emigrated to London [4]. The impact of this has been profound. The money that has flowed home has turned Sylhet, the capital town of the district of the same name, into “one of the richest towns in the country.”[5] Schools, medical facilities, shopping centres, mosques and even a drug rehabilitation centre (dealing, in part, with Sylhetis returning from the UK addicted to heroin) have sprung up in the town and surrounding “Londoni” villages[6].
Life in London for most of these Sylheti benefactors is hard. Tower Hamlets is the third most deprived borough in the UK and many Sylheti residents live in poverty and overcrowded conditions. Tower Hamlets suffers from high levels of crime, unemployment, poor results in education and high rates of drugs and alcohol dependency.[7]
Remittance investment is not always welcome in Sylhet. Some believe the investment is misplaced or done for the wrong reasons. Shopping centres remain unused and palatial houses unlived in. Karim Ali, a London Sylheti, says: “I get irritated because we don’t need so many shopping centres in Sylhet…the guys who are building big houses…it’s their way of saying ‘I made it’. It’s for emotional and psychological reasons.”[8]
I have been in discussion with Sussex University anthropologist Dr Katy Gardner[9] and also the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green about potential collaboration with their art projects which include family visits to Sylhet for young Bangladeshi Londoners[10]. I will also work with Docklands Outreach programme in the Isle of Dogs which focuses on social issues for young Sylhetis.[11]
I am aiming to personify the issues facing these communities by documenting the stories of key individuals and their families.
Through this project I wish to document the Sylheti people who are at the same time divided and united in these two communities. I aim to create a diverse and unique image of migration and its impact on these communities. Despite extensive research I am not aware of any photographer who has so far documented this aspect of Sylhet.
[1] The new Indices of Deprivation 2007 (ID 2007) were published by the Department of Communities and Local Government CLG on 6 December 2007.
[2] Colleen Taylor Sen: Food Culture in India, Greenwood Publishing Group 2004 p 136
[3] http://www.iasuk.org
[4] www.sylhetinlondon.co.uk
[5] Gillan, A: The Guardian, 21 June 2002
[6] Gillan, A: The Guardian, 21 June 2002
[7] The new Indices of Deprivation 2007
[8] Gillan, A: The Guardian, 21 June 2002
[9] A social anthropologist and expert on Sylheti migration.
[10] www.sussex.ac.uk/migration/1-2-2-3.html
[11] www.dockout.org.uk
Advanced photographic procrastination techniques.
A healthy adult female laps spring water from a fresh water supply. 2008
Uncharacteristic salute-like motion. 2008
The adult female surveys the horizon for possible prey (which includes cat biscuits, meat paste from foil packets and the occasional mouse or other small rodent) 2008
Researchers are struggling to understand the above behaviour. 2008
Images taken using advanced animal scanning technology. 2008
Picture panic led me to do an audio slide show about a local evangelical church – the Glorious Revival Eagle Ministry. Here’s a little selection of the images. Please follow the link (GREM) in the side bar to see the full show in glorious technicolour with HR sound, or copy this address into your browser – www.richardquickdesign .com/samstrickland/church
Sam Strickland 2008
After my first idea was shot down with all passengers and crew killed I decided I wanted to make a film.
My good friend and colleague Mr Adam Patterson expressed (after much cajoling) interest in the project and so it began. After discussion Adam came up with the idea of “Work Is”. This was to be a theme whereby each person featured would at some point in their interview being a phrase “work is ……shit” for example.
It seemed like an good simple way to enable us to go gallivanting around Elephant taking pictures, shooting pictures and recording audio. It wasn’t. We put hours and hours of work and effort in. This included: making countless contacts, shooting, recording audio, collecting tripods and cameras, arranging an editing suite, a poet, a roller bladder, meetings, me almost coming to blows over a copy of Final Cut Pro (God bless America), Me and Adam almost coming to blows on a number of occasions, drinking lager and on one occasion offending a gay man with a crippled dog (me not Adam). All this didn’t end in a film but it did result in this lot (credits in italics):
Sam Strickland 2008
George & Esmeralda Sam Strickland 2008
That’s Carol. She wants to be an actress. She was born and raised in the Elephant. We said we’d shoot some head-shots for her if she gave us some contacts and an interview Sam Strickland 2008
Adam Patterson 2008
We booked a studio at LCC for three hours. She turned up two and a half hours late. She seemed to lack the foresight to give us enough time to take some good pictures (strange as she is able to smell the future). We were left fighting off repeated attacks by a plastic hand. It was terrifying.
Sam Strickland 2008
Adam Patterson 2008
The founders of StrickPatt Global – a photographic organisation reminiscent of Google (apart from the wealth, influence and power)
We also took pictures of a fruit seller, a lecturer, an Evening Standard seller, a guy called Brutus, his kids and some artist who was building a front room outside the Heygate Estate.
Adam Patterson 2008
Sam Strickland 2008
This is tiny sample of the 1500+ images taken, 10 hours footage and a couple of hours of Edirol recordings. As the hand in neared Adam became interested in his squatter project and I started an underwhelming project about the Glorious Revival Eagle Ministry. The film didn’t work so I turned to Jesus. That is the film that never was.
While working on the Film that Never Was I met this guy. He’s Joe McDavid and he works for ”the Holy Agenda of Jehovah.”
Sam Strickland 2008
My first idea came off the back of my pigeon project during which I spent a lot of time talking to drunk, miserable, embittered ageing men in working mans clubs.
I wanted to shoot a portrait project about the retired population of the Elephant, record their stories and build a simple multi-media project. The idea was two-fold. I wanted to record the dying language of the cockney. And I wanted some portraits in portfolio. It got shot down by Adam, or was it Ollie?
“What’s the point of shooting black and white in digital?”
Here are some of my test images:
Gary (East London). 2008
Del (Weatherspoons, Elephant & Castle). 2008
Kev (Weatherspoons, Elephant & Castle). 2008
Chris the Lips (East London). 2008
14oz Bundle of Feathers
Pigeons have been raced in the UK for hundreds of years. It is a family affair that can often be traced back through generations. But the sport is now in decline with ageing pigeon fanciers dying and their children and grandchildren more interested in computer games and television than following the traditions of breeding and caring for the feathered athletes.
The fancier is an expert. He knows the birds individual foibles and abilities, the best type of feed for different types of flying and the best pairings of male and female for the best offspring. It is his knowledge of little details and minutiae that can mean the difference between victory or defeat on race day.
Fancying is a social affair with meetings, events, shows, races, auctions and presentations and, although the sport on the whole is in decline, there are still many fanciers around the country who, every Saturday, wait expectantly for their birds to come home. The pigeons are capable of remarkable feats of athleticism, intelligence, endurance, and above all navigation, finding their way home to roost from hundreds of miles away.
Sam Strickland joined fanciers all over the country in the build up to the 2008 racing season. Text and photographs by Sam Strickland.
A pigeon chick hatches in Alby Stockwell’s hand. “In your loft you’re God.” Manor Park, East London.
Keith Turnbull lures young pigeons into his lofts with a distinctive high-pitched whistle. The birds come to associate their owner’s calls with food which helps them to be coaxed in on race day. Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Bernie Bennett examines a young bird’s wing while deciding which of his newly bred pigeons he will put into the 2008 pre-season auction. Dagenham, East London.
A cock escapes from its crate in the back of Shaky Jutla’s white van on route to a release point for a training flight. Junction 14, the M11, Cambridgeshire.
Birds await the auctioneer’s hammer during a pre-season auction at the Leyton House Club in Stratford, East London. Pigeon events are always accompanied by beer: “Pigeon racing is probably the greatest excuse to drink in the world. Most wives winge about the time their husbands spend with their birds. I don’t know why their moaning – while were in the shed at least we’re not playing about with dirty tarts, not unless were a bit lucky.” Big John, Stratford East London.
Boxed and labelled pigeons ready for collection after being sold at the Leyton House Club auction. Stratford, East London.
Bernie Bennett releases a new purchase at this Dagenham lofts. Bernie is known countrywide for his column “Notes from the Igloo” featured in British Homing World magazine. He has written about the sport for almost half a century.
Inside view of Steven and George Chalkley’s loft in Forest Gate, East London. “Pigeon racing is a great leveller – a poor unemployed man can often beat the millionaire, if he works hard enough.” – George Chalkley.
Derek Smith and Brian Foster vaccinate a young pigeon against Paramyxovirus which can cause serious respiratory problems in the birds. Dagenham, East London.
Shaky and Vikram Jutla give their birds a final training flight before the first race of the 2008 season. The Indian cousins who live in West Ham, are among only a handful of Asian fanciers in the UK. Trumpington, Cambridge.
Graham Burton shows the wing stamp of one of his birds. Pigeons are often lost during races and have been known to land, exhausted, hundreds of miles off course, on oil rigs off the coast of Scotland. The birds are returned by riggers, sometimes months after the race in which they were lost.
Nigel and Susan Smithson watch as a young hen flies from her basket during training near Cambridge.
Members of the London North Road Club ring pigeons the night before the first race. Each bird has a numbered ring placed on its leg which will be quickly removed when the bird comes home from racing and inserted into the fancier’s clock to note its time.
Pigeons are loaded onto special transporters late at night. Leyton House Club, East London.
A panorama, made up of three photographs, shows a young family watching the liberation of 639 pigeons from the East Anglian Federation of Racing Pigeons. Wanstead Flats, East London.(PRESS FOR LARGER VERSION)
ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT SAMSTRICKLAND 2008
Street. 2008
