Connections with the Edge Photo Blog Report #1
After reading Aunty Irene's auto-biography, and having had various talks with Mum and email exchanges with Cousin Sue (the latter reads my blog and has commented on my Skegness post), I reflected and realised that my Grandad Frank Magerison was a bad influence on Gran Lily; and that neither of them had been good for the wellbeing of at least two of their children: Dad and Uncle Neville; both of whom had to be hidden at Frank's Aunty/Aunties when Lily's husband Joe Cook came home for brief periods (Cook didn't know about them). Consequently, I decided not to follow up on my plan to visit the site of the 1920's photo of Frank and Lily in Cleethorpes that I had been sent in 2014. It just didn't seem right. I finished off Trip 3 at Skegness and then went on to see Mum in Knaresborough. I mentioned all this in an email to Cousin Sue and to my great surprise and pleasure a week ago she replied saying 'Uncle Neville and herself wanted some one in the family to look after Uncle Peter's watch (he was Aunty Dot's husband, see Withernsea post), and would I or my son Billy be interested?' I said 'I would be happy to look after the watch and will tell Billy (my Son)'.
Over the past few months some family connections have been clarified and some, it seems, have grown stronger. As my friend Lyn said when I discussed the last month on the phone recently, "we shouldn't judge the actions of the past through the lens of the present". A good point. Knowing is one thing, in terms of being in possession of exclusive inside information. But what I have come to 'know' affects me as I learn about a Grandad I never met and whose existence I only learnt of 17 years ago. For now as least, I have made a conscious decision following Trips 1-3, and having reflected on the conversations and contexts that have emerged, to distance myself from Magerison in terms of his memory. That said, I remain open minded. Sue tells me Aunty Margaret, Frank and Lily's third child, and Margaret's daughter my Cousin Patricia stayed in touch with Magerison. So maybe there is more to the story? There always is!
I was prompted to start this photo stories blog in July 2022 by a small inheritance from Aunty Dot, which I put towards my first ever decent camera. One thing is for sure, it has led to personally important, related and sometimes private conversations with Mum, Cousin Sue, my Niece Sophie, and friends like Frances (Peter's partner), Lyn (one of my oldest friends) and Paul. Having said that, some family and friends look at me and seem to wonder or actually say "why are you doing this John?". Let me try and explain the "why?".
After Covid I had long-term fatigue and then an ongoing but not serious heart issue. They both slowed me down! I can't do hill walking, one of my passions, for now. So creating a personal photo stories project is something helpful for this older guy! The new camera gives me a passport to get out and about and not look sad! Even if the latter perception is just in my head. The project allowed and allows me to talk to family and friends, getting a lot of my personal history straight in my head. I enjoy the road trips and love photography. Setting up my WordPress blog site was fun too. As my friend Lyn commented to me recently on the phone, it is like setting the record straight for Billy and Meghan (my son and daughter). I am getting used to talking to strangers and hearing their stories, but I could do better on this. And, I definitely need to practice my portrait photography skills. Also, I still need to get the overall narrative for 'connections with the edge' to hang together in terms of the semiotics, i.e. how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated. My sadly missed colleague Gunther Kress from the UCL Institute of Education called this Social Semiotics, where we begin from the assumption that signs and messages - the subject matter of semiotics - must always be situated within the context of social relations and processes. This is similar to what I call the Zone of Possibility (Gunther worked with Basil Bernstein who influenced my work), where individuals can overcome the constraints of expectations and power structures to effect desired change. But is this all a meaning of life type thing? Maybe unpacking this stuff could take years? As a serial research Professor I can say that "I really hope so".
This reflective post is a first step of many that I hope will open me up to the meanings I find in the old and the generative yet destructive power of the new. Yes, there are thoughts of recently lost family members and colleagues like Dad, Brother Ian, Aunty Dot and Gunther. But I am visualising the past and seeing how it shaped me and those I am connected to through conversations, old photos and stories, artifacts like Aunty Irene's auto-biography and Uncle Peter's watch, re-visiting locations, new photos and new stories. The places I re-visit are often embedded in beautiful landscapes. Coastal erosion, something that I keep returning to, is an obvious metaphor for what is lost and found in life, the beauty and regret that this natural process reveals, the adaptations that are needed for the now, and the dreams that are imagined as we reach into the liminality of our collective futures on this planet Earth.
The 'Road to Nowhere' Category that I highlight in my blogs can lead somewhere? When I think of my kids Billy and Meghan they seem to lead everywhere. The band Talking Heads warn us in the song 'Road to nowhere' as follows:
"Well, we know where we're goin'
But we don't know where we've been
And we know what we're knowin'
But we can't say what we've seen"
Amen to that sister. Specifically, we need to say what we have seen because the road is glorious.
I am calling Trips 1-5 'Part 1 - Old photos and stories from the coastal edge (1958-1976) - I lived in 10 places up to the age of 14'. Trip 4 is to Rhyl and the date is to be confirmed; it was to weekend of 1st October, 2022, but I had to cancel it so that I can move my Son back to London. My final and 5th trip is to Hale Cornwall, and is being planned. These 5 trips represent the only places from my first 14 years that I have seaside photos and/or stories for.
I have multiple plans for Parts 2 onwards of this photo stories blog (see About). But that is, as they say, another story. However, I will say that Part 2 is sketched out and draws heavily on Halvdan Wettre's photo archive; it is called Part 2 - London in the '80s - Life on the edge of society. I was aged 22 in 1980 and decided to move to Camden Town in London with School friends from Bradford to play indie music and squat. This was living on the edge of society for me and as such this part of my life will have a new section devoted to it in my photo stories blog. I am convinced that the creative people that I encountered at this time really shaped me and helped me to become a successful, but outsider, research Professor and a good father!
John Cook, 24th September, 2022
Note: the featured photo at the top is a sunrise seen from Cromer Pier, 8:30 am 16th September, 2022
Tunstall, East Yorkshire, 5am 21 July, 2022. My first find of a Road to nowhere ...
Mundesley, Norfolk, 15th September, 2022. I had bumped into these lovely Ladies earlier (see Mundesley post for story)