Whilst the DFL Facebook page might be all of a flutter about whether Waitrose is moving to Hastings, JJ Waller has his heart set on a very different consumer outlet. Erica Smith visited Fat Sue’s Cornershop in Bulverhythe Road to see what documentary photographer JJ Waller has been up to in West St Leonards.
Some people have welcomed Lockdown, others have found lack of contact with people debilitating, some have found different ways of coping day to day, others have embraced it and discovered new strengths. HOT’s Lauris Morgan-Griffiths spoke to photographer Roff Smith about how he has kept sane while following his love of photography and the landscape.
HOT photographer Russell Jacobs has been scouring the town in search of photogenic sights, and preferably topical news. He found some at the Source Park, the lower alley behind Claremont, Pelham car park and in Silverhill. Text by Nick Terdre.
In 1991 photographer John Cole came down to Hastings from London to take a few photos of the fishing community. This initial brush with Hastings has, in many ways, been a life changer. What he thought would be a day or two of photography turned into a two-year project. Then eight years later he moved down to Hastings and continued taking photographs of the Hastings fishing community. HOT’s Lauris Morgan-Griffiths spoke to him about his love for the Hastings fishing fleet and the town.
Life in lockdown changed everything. What we once took for granted: meeting friends, going out for work or leisure, even exchanging pleasantries with strangers – was taken from us. Nearly a year on, our society is still coming to terms with the new normal that replaced these commonplaces. Photographer Josie Barnes and writer Dan Flanagan reflect on the changing seasons in this most turbulent of years.
HOT photographer Russell Jacobs has been out and about in Hastings and St Leonards, snapping what comes his way, whether people or buildings in the news or emergencies he comes across. Closure seems to be the theme of the moment – and not necessarily due to lockdown. Text by Nick Terdre.
What did you do during lockdown? It meant different things to different people: to some it was a welcome hiatus; to others a sort of imprisonment; lonely; stuck; lack of concentration; walks; gardening; reading; jigsaws; boxed TV sets; cooking and baking. Some enjoyed it, others hated it. And lots thanked the weather gods for the fine weather. To HOT’s Lauris Morgan-Griffiths a black cloud settled, resulting in a sort of torpor with the occasional action spike. But I did take photographs, as did other members of Photo Hastings – and here I have to declare an interest – as being part of an exhibition We Baked All Our Own Bread: one mischief always leads to another.
Our lives may have shrunk, like snails, into our homes, but the tentacles of Covid stretch far and wide into far reaching sectors. One: the natural world of trees, birds, animals, as we reach out for something, anything, outside our immediate environment. HOT’s Lauris Morgan-Griffiths was thrilled to encounter Ian Wood’s photographs of great apes at the Lucy Bell Gallery.
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