When I arrived at College in 1984 I'd been in the UK Three months.
I was Sixteen and knew nothing about the UK; nothing except for an idyllic life in Malawi growing up in a life of tennis courts, great friends and private pools, sunshine and a boring school.I knew nothing about life.
Phil Shallcross was on the streets of Stoke-On-Trent photographing the real beginning of the post-industrial decline in The Six Towns.
Slum clearances; derelict potbanks, and pit heads rising above the terraced houses of it's employees were the subjects he was processing in the darkroom labs of Newcastle-Under-Lyme College under the tutelage of 'Darkroom Dave' Heath... A tutor we shared in our separate career choices. When Dave knew you had the instinct for photography he pushed you to keep shooting and keep processing, to keep looking for the story that every photograph needs to make it live it's own life. 'The photograph has to the tell the story' was his mantra.
That's what Phil's photographs do. They are the story.
We didn't meet at College. The darkroom at College was common ground to the both of us but we were world's apart and heading in different directions.
I was studying painting for 'A' Level.
A career choice suggested to me by a man in an office in Trinity House, an unloved tower block now long gone, up Hanley. I attended the interview with my Mum and my Gran. It was the new way, the man said.. further education.. the life of the pits was doomed; pottery, dead end.. there was a new future ahead. College.
And so it was. He saved me from the pits and the dust and I didn't even know it.
Before I left for the UK my Dad said, 'here's a thing it might be useful to know as you've made your decision to live in the UK; it'll be useful I feel.' 'Son, you come from a working class history.'
I didn't know what that meant.
We met through Twitter; neither of us can remember the precise circumstances of striking up a conversation but when we did we got to work pretty quickly, which must be a reflection of a mutual energy that came about with this city as the catalyst.
And so it was. He saved me from the pits and the dust and I didn't even know it.
Before I left for the UK my Dad said, 'here's a thing it might be useful to know as you've made your decision to live in the UK; it'll be useful I feel.' 'Son, you come from a working class history.'
I didn't know what that meant.
We met through Twitter; neither of us can remember the precise circumstances of striking up a conversation but when we did we got to work pretty quickly, which must be a reflection of a mutual energy that came about with this city as the catalyst.
I asked Phil if he'd like to collaborate on the 'inner Geographies' of Edgar Broughton's album, for which I saw a whole new way of visual thinking following an intimation by Edgar himself. The seed of the results came from Edgar, in 'digital paintings' of his he'd shown me. Edgar mentioned 'inner Geographies' which sent my imagination into overdrive. It led to the album design completion beyond the album cover ..
Buy the album and you'll see ..: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/shop/?filter_artists=edgar-broughton
Anyhow ... attention evolved, as it always does, to work beyond the horizon.
Edgar and I have been collaborating for a number of years on the relationship of soundscapes in a backdrop of the mythical landscape. The landscape moved.. into an urbanscape. The post-industrial urbanscape of my grounding; Phil's grounding .. and Edgar's desire of dark sound!
The results thus far are the smashing together of three bodies of work through a digital marriage made in the furnaces of the gods!
This will be the work in print; through which the soundscapes can be accessed : https://www.ianrpearsall.co.uk/product-page/meniscus-book
Looking forward ..
Phil Shallcross : https://www.ianrpearsall.co.uk/category/phil-shallcross
Edgar Broughton : http://www.edgarbroughton.com/
Soundscape Collaboration in the Landscape :
The Shaman and the Dog Soldier
Hedgerow Battle
The Secret Lake
The Great Hunt across the Sky
The Brutal & Fabled Box :
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