Extract from Soap and Rocket photozine No. 2 ISSN 2399-3065 (9 772399 306001 02) (original publication date not specified)
By Chris Daly
The text was graffitied onto the outsides of six derelict houses on the Heygate Estate in London, circa 2011 – now completely demolished. The site became a magnet for parkour runners / gymnasts, graffiti artists, guerrilla gardeners and political activists. I was there messing around with a new camera & found the writing. I still can’t decide how much of its story is real / factual. Its presentation is exactly how it was written on the houses’ hoardings.
I chose the pictures specifically to act as a foil, or contrast to the much darker subjects covered in the writing & to show images with no ambiguity about their provenance, spontaneity & ‘realness’. A forest. A car. A girl. And so on.
The idea was to use the combination of writing & images to provoke dissonance for the viewer.
Chris Daly is a photographic artist based at CitizenReality.com
Text: Lost words, 46-41 Chearsley, Anon.
No. 46 Chearsley
Marie –
I got picked on ‘cos I was in hand me downs
seventies gear in the eighties
And when I was 12, Christmas presents stopped
They’d never been much
anyway
I started shoplifting, and
one day I got caught
in Tesco’s. They took
me home in a
Police car.
Mum came out the house
Got into the car, and
She punched me in the head
Peter –
I formed a gang
with 5 other lads
and we started going
out to torment
the local shopkeepers
Sue –
I walked up to the altar
I must have been 12, I can remember
going to a meeting in church
in Manchester, and we sang this hymn
….’just as I am, without one plea’….
A lovely hymn
Peter –
I was a racist, sexist little pig
I was known as a trouble causer
a drinker, a fighter. I was small
wore glasses, had a squint
At 12 I had an operation to get
my squint straightened
No. 45 Chearsley
Marie –
I started skipping school
Dean –
I was always late for school
Natalie
When I was 12, Dad For a few months the pain So I ran the
banged his head on was so bad, he was bashing house. We’d just
a board that was his head against the wall. gone decimal, and
hanging outside a Then he died of a brain tumor. there were only
toilet in Kirkgate I was on the doorstep of me who could
market going to a grammar school – work the
difference out
but mum couldn’t cope
No. 44 Chearsley
Tina –
When I was 2, Mum met Wayne
my stepdad.
She had three more children by him,
and she also got battered
for 12 years. She’d get to
the point of leaving him, go
into a refuge, and the he’d
turn up and plead…….
I’ve changed. I have Marie
really. I’ll not hit you again’ She told me my
Back she’d go and back he’d real dads name wasstart hitting her geoff.
No. 43 Chearsley
Marie –
Sue –
He had other children. I was 4
+ I asked my mum mum died when
I was 6
Natalie –
Mum’s one of
my emotional
deamons / she got
her way by emotional Blackmail
Sue – Tina
you need a I didn’t
know
mother….. my dad, my real dad
especially then.
Natalie –
Natalie –
He paid all
She’s a demon the bills. I don’t
in my mind know how he
coped.
Peter –
Mum held the
family together really. Dean –
-Mum was the
one who got us all Mum stuck by
to school, tried to me through everything
stop the fights I remember crying to
her in the car that
when I died I didn’t
want to go somewhere
she wouldn’t be
No. 42 Chearsley
Peter –
The thing you have to remember is its
somebody’s life
Natalie –
And you think
this is happening
in my family
Natalie –
Prior to finding out
I was judgmental
as anyone else
But when it’s your….
Peter –
Dad would go along
with the Police
When they called
at our house…
Took the police’s
word opposed to his own
son’s
Natalie –
Dad managed
to go to work,
run the house,
and look after us
Marie –
I always
knew very
little that
my dad had
been married
before
Sue –
dad remarried
when I was 6, and
moved to Manchester
I didn’t get on
with my stepmother
and I suppose I
blamed my dad for it
Sue –
It was my
own son doing it
Dean –
Dad would
come into my
room, sometimes
he would shout
and tear things
off the wall and
smash them
No. 41 Chearsley
Sue –
Suddenly,
It’s your
family
Natalie –
Not someone
else – you
Dean –
Known them all my life
Paul –
My one and only best mate
Sue –
my son
Peter –
Sometimes
It reminds
me of a
war
zone
Natalie –
We’d heard about it of course
Sue –
It’s anybody’s child now
Dean –
it’s been all funeral’s since
the autumn
Sue –
There are pictures on
the wall of all the young men
who have died
Marie –
There was one on
Christmas eve
Tina –
One 3 weeks before that
Marie –
Another 5 days after