EPPING FOREST
Text
Oliver Griffin
Photography
Adelita Husni-bey Oliver Griffin
Meøus Editions 2012
I had this theory:
For all of my teenage years I would be ignored by all the girls w years after. I strongly believed that this would continue througho in my 30’s onwards, when there would be a change. I wouldn’t sexually attractive. Swoon over me, start talking to me and be a my own company, my work and the life that I had create around practice. The theories of nihilism and what ever I had learnt thro At this point I would be one phase that I would mutter; “Go fuck based practice that I had perfected by being alone all of my life
within my secondary school, this also contended for a couple of out my 20’s. The theory in question would come to a conclusion know what. The female race would then start seeing myself as admiring. By this time in my life I would be feel comfortable with d this illusion of reality; e.g. an amazing self absorbent working ough my photographic education. your self�. Then walk away and carry on with a routine of an art with my large format camera.
Sadly this was not the case...
It turned out that this idea would be have the opposite reaction. A really didn’t want to know you existence, the most desirable crea the female race. All I really knew is that I had 200 sheets of Fuj there was an a lot of boring ‘things’ to photograph in the world…
This is a story of boy and gir
Art school made plate cameras sexy and focused individuals that atures on Earth. It was a good thing that I still didn’t know about ji Velvia 100 in the fridge, 100 sheets EFKE 50 on the shelf and … that’s all I cared about.
rl… and nothing happens.
This story starts with the introduction of a girl: Adelita Husni-bey. ated form the from her masters in photography and had I meet had a Photoshop session at a Lab down the road. We had met of most of my social scene at the time. Most of them being artist chosen. So we talked theory, Bill Jay and the idea of a cycle/filed getting very sick of using it.
It was all very platonic. Between me and her, that is… I was start
Over a series of communications or meetings, I’m not sure wha myself to stay over the night before? But anyway, all is just a blu summer of 2009? and developed soon after, due to the fact tha mouth) could pop the sheets through the E6 machine for free-of with no referencing system. I’m just trying to use my memory an
Were to start from Adelta’s house, situated just off Mare Street, field trip. She knew the area well up to a certain point and we carr
The 5x4 (a Chinese Ebony copy, many have come and gone in t it’s details to be remembered), six Fidelity dark slides, Sekonic L penknife, handkerchief, etc.) all fitted into a well worn Large Had saddle Bag. Within this was a pack lunch for two, with a supply
The Berlebach Report tripod was carried separately; in it’s own remainder of the journey, until I have to leaver her. When the wo my camera bag, underneath the main flap, stretching the leathe started yet and I’m talking about the end…
y. A student at Goldsmiths University, South London. Now graduup with her in Shoredditch, East London, for a coffee after she up a couple of times before hand, as she was an acquaintance ts, but Adelita and my self strangely isolated by the medium that d trip? I had a couple of sheets of Velvia left and to be frank, was
ting to a very grinding relationship with the film stock in question.
at… but will explain late. A day was set and maybe arranged for ur. This book was not supposed to exists. The film was shoot the at my friend (who was studying at the time at University of Falf-charge. All records kept in note books have are archived away nd my gut feeling to carry this narrative along…
, East London, and the nearest starting point for this very minor ried a London A-Z for when we leave the canal (our safety point).
the mean time) with a 65mm lens (long lost and sold on eBay for L-508 and the regular Every Day Carry (EDC) (note books, pen, dley Billingham bag. The old Raleigh Europe carried a Carridice of water for the journey ahead.
carry holdall. Adelita would carry this over her shoulder for the ooden tripod would take it’s regular place in it’s DIY fixing on top er straps on the brash buckles. But the adventure has not even
Like all journeys we packed and set off. Ade (as known to her fri on our side, we were in t-shirts and our jumpers were packed aw ried me, as I worried about over exposure and lack of detail… b But really that was the least of my worries. I had no real idea of
Ade was of course not worrying, for every bridge was an adve tions to encounter when she was cruising on her trust 10 spee was a wonderfully attractive and highly intellectual woman in fro turn-of-the-century photographic equipment on bicycles.
When the idea came up, I had though that we would be drivin Bechers I had once viewed. The couple standing a mile from a in on, Hilla a few feet away… the notorious VW camper two meters ed on. The weather in the images seemed to be the same as in British way. As if Richard Long was on route to meet us… as if th the figure that stops in front of me in not British her self. Half-Ital that) in which she mostly spending her childhood and adolescen girl very adventurous and in turn sociable. Needless to say, cons just have to feel very special that a person like this wants to spen the past and I feel destiny is taking it’s role seriously. So her figu hair flick round to reveal these two dark green eyes to stare at m
We have hit a motorway; the rest of the journey is pretty boring. road to Epping. No real conversation, just mesmerized by new s watch we have seen; the power tool shop on a very large-scal three postwar terrace housing that it habited. Along with the buil in full British racing green), but stretched back until the eye cou middle 70’s affordable housing, it seemed also natural. These corner an air of new experiences, until we stopped.
iends) lead the way out of Hackney, East London. The Sun was way, as we rolled along the canal banks. The cloudless sky wor-
but we had just started and the sun had yet to fall in to position. what I was going to a photograph of!
enture, main road of fast flowing transportation was new civilizaeds Raleigh. I should have been the same, well why not! There ont of me, who welcomely entertained the idea of lugging around
ng off in her Volkswagen camper van. Imaging an image of the ndustrial site in the U.S.A. with Bernd standing with a trucker cap s to the left hand side. Door open while the shoot is being decidimaged the day of the field trip, as we carry out our exercise the he Raleigh bicycle was staple transport for exploration. Although lian / Half-Syrian, (as I’ve over head once, so don’t quote me on nts in Italy. This combination of nationals makes this international stantly busy with plots and plans of one kind of another that you nd the whole day with you. Only chance meeting have happen in urative legs stretch out to stabilize her self, while her dark brown me, only to say “where now?”
We travel in our own bubbles of time and space, following this B scenery of suburban east London. Later on we talk heavily about le crossroads, with a banner stretching the whole length of the lders merchants that had the exterior of a garden shed (painted uld see no more. An Aladdin’s cave of traditional industry in the ‘features’ made the bicycle ride on of excitement, giving every
We had be ‘on the road’ for a while. A short break was on order ahead. I guess and decided that we should make a picture. Th image in my mind and Adelita’s first time to get physical with a l good teacher and like to be left alone in these situations; I have the tripod; the easy part. Then the camera; slightly harder. I tal make everything to click into the right position. She worked it out of people have this. They look through the ground glass, not at Familiar, but alien. She looked at me… I looked back. I explaine
We took two shot’s. Spot metering from the camera’s p involved. We ate something and drank something, then
r as we came across a major looking roundabout. We saw trees he roundabout, traffic, and open space was a good introduction large format camera. We unpacked and I got nervous. I’m not a e systems in place for situations like this. Muscle memory. First lked her through and showed her all the right wrist moments to t her all self, to the point in which has to focus. It seems that a lot the it, then bring the lens in. The field of view comes into focus. ed.
position. Taking turns and talking about every step of the process n carried on with journey into the belly of Epping Forest.
Epping Forest is technically the largest public open space in the is because, the first time I hear of was this place is when a rege would ‘bunk’ the train from Peckham, in South London to the to from Manor Park in East London to just north of Epping in Essex lost in the darkness and get fucked off your face on narcotics… get the jest of it…
Anyway on a lighter side… this site is a popular area for recreat also being a national and international conservation site. With tw
tific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation, Epping Forest n habitat and recreational opportunities… these seem ironic as mo Yet they smoke, drink and partake in narcotics. Not knowing wh world… I can only speculate, but I’m think they are closet nihil (only joking):
“In the second half of the 19th century large areas of the Fore commoners’ rights or general recreational needs. Such was the commoners who had the right to graze their animals on the Fores culminating in two ground-breaking Acts of Parliament passed in Forest to the City, with the second making similar provision for o 1878 appointed the City of London as the Conservator of Epping today. The Epping Forest Act of 1878 appointed the City of Lon govern how the Forest is managed today. It hosts numerous eve Epping Forest, Epping Forest Visitor Centre in the north at High ing Lodge in Chingford, a Tudor timber hunt-standing dating fro set in Wanstead Park, once the formal gardens of the magnifice
If you wish know more, there are a various sources of informat subscribe to thought the City of London website. But that has not was no real reason, no reason at all, it was just a place to go…
London area, at almost 6,000 acres. The only reason I know this eneration of rave culture was emerging. My fellow house mates o the middle of nowhere… as this expanse stretches 12 miles x. They personally exportation was much simpler, you could get …simple as that. Well, they said it much more crass way, but you
tion and enjoyment of all ages for a variety of sports, along with wo thirds the space of being designated a Site of Special Scien-
now combines the roles of scenic open space, important wildlife ost of the people I know that go to raves are environmentalists? hat industrial, economic, social damage they are placing on this list. But talking about a waste of time… here is the history part
est were being inclosed for development, with scant regard for e City of London’s concern over this that it joined forces with the st and cut wood, and fought a legal battle against the inclosures, n 1878. One of these entrusted the ownership and care of Epping other open spaces under similar threat. The Epping Forest Act of g Forest and its strictures still govern how the Forest is managed ndon as the Conservator of Epping Forest and its strictures still ents and activities. There are three Forest Centres spread across Beach, a well-established beauty spot; Queen Elizabeth’s Huntom 1543; and in the south, The Temple, dating from the 1760s, ent Wanstead House.”
tion online and a Epping Forest news letter your very happy to thing to do the field trip In question or why we went there? There
So we entered and to be frank, that’s all I can remember of th me a sense of place and in turn tries to engage my imaginatio
The first obstacle we encountered was the featured that we jus trusty A-Z, the realization kicked in that we were not in a goo back until we hit the road we came in on. Decided what exit w of incoming traffic seemed like a right of passage to enter the
Gladly, myself and Adelita had now reached the destination i civilisation and my mind was still not distracted by my young frame. My feel was it I could pop it out of focus, you would ju another theory that never really worked out. Although, like al more the experience of it.
We continued to cycle on, packed up from the equipment onc adventure stories have to state at least once in every chapter). road with a very promiscuous cycle path that lay aside it. It se the A road only a cars swore away. I was only glad to head i This seemed the opposite of what we had encountered earlier wide angle lens was loving it. The opens spaces that if confro as pornography for this piece of German cut glass. The came perving over the landscape as if it was Betty Page ‘giving out
he details of the place. Only the images on these pages gives on. But I will try to continue to the best of my abilities…
st had photographed. Getting our bearing and referencing the od position to crossover to our final destination. We pedalled we going aim for and then just pedalled for your lives. The lanes sanctuary of the woodened area.
in question, a small woodened area a stone throws away from g female companion, but a tree branch that kept getting in to ust see through it. Like a piece of dust on a lens, it turned out to ll ideas: the practice is not necessarily what your looking for…
ce more and rode into the unknown territory (like all dramatic . As I can only remember, we can a cross another heavily used eemed to flirt with with danger, potholes and pedestrians, with into the wasteland, directed only by humble cycle path arrow. r. But, to be frank, I found this more fascinating and the superonted from this point onwards were only what I can described era movement had trouble keeping up with its eye’s aesthetics, the goods’.
Adelita was still with me at this point, beside me. We took tur Never looking at me, just the camera in question. The whole crossed my mind. Mentioning large format cameras around th with any interest in photography. Just mentioning the owning o ment used, always concluded in a phone number. One thing yo questions when trying calculating rough exposure times on tran in time of these photographs, there was none of these ideas b and there was a water tower in the background. It remained m obstructed the buildings from sight. Giving you the illusion that with the addition of a few scattered groups of people wonderi for, within the fire hazarded of long grass. No wonder the ‘ra lence within the space that we had situated our selves in. Nih graph nothing. But something had to be exposed into the film this god-forsaken film stock. The saturated colours were started more. Although, I take some it back. One of the reasons I feel of Transparency film. Any film stock. The way it seemed to just of exposing for it naturally. 35mm was nice, but 5x4 was like encompassing aura. It could do no wrong in my eyes. But, th Processing such film is not cheap and getting rarer. Printing yo not cheap and buying a home scanner is only for the serious positive is now redundant. There are only myths of lab that ca
I’m going to start cry.
Why Kodak!!! Why did you have to break my heart? But I gu
rns at every stop configuring the equipment and composition. idea of photograph would be attractive to ‘the ladies’ never he opposite sex was like an aphrodisiac with art-school girls, of one and revising the mantra of philosophy behind the equipou don’t need, more names to remember and someone asking nsparency with reciprocity failure in your head. But at the point being entertained today. Down to business, the light was dying me of john Smiths film ‘The Black Tower’, as the forest canopy t you wondering in a stereotypical post-apocalyptic landscape, ing aimless in the background. Trying to find something to live ave’ culture had a fond spot for this location. I sensed ambivahilism had flooded my imagination and I just wanted to photom emulsion. It was the point of the exercise at hand; to use up d to piss me off and I couldn’t handle fake version of reality no in love with large format photography, personal, was because capture the raw nature of light. Plus, I seemed to have the gift e looking at a print for me. The object it self just held the most here were problems. Two, to be exact: Processing & printing. ou have to two options: Scan or Cibachrome. Scanning is also s minded. Cibachrome, a process for printing from positive to arry out this black art now. I’m going to end there…
uess you only have your self to blame…
As well both looked out at the football pitches and high-rise fla pinnacle. The light was fading drastically now. Time was runn shot we both had our eyes locked on. Like clockwork we set
silence. This was a combination of tiredness and mutual comfor in time were getting a bit to long for my comfort, there was a fir was really playing on my imagination. As fast as we set up, w in which first gave us an introduction of our days study.
As we cycled back in silence, I just remember the darkness fa Hackney Wick. Stephen Gill territory, I didn’t feel comfortab forefront of my mind. None of them pleasant, with images of City of London becoming reality. I was personally happy to pa the most elegant way. This was home for her after all and wo glad that I was following her body to its final destination of thi
ats of the East London suburbs of Epping, we knew this was the ning out, but there was still space for our escape and one last up the camera one last time and took the last photograph in
rtability with each other’s company. The exposures at this point rm breeze in the air and the real physical idea of camera shake we packed away and re-gathered our steps to the roundabout
alling rapidly as we passed through the ghost town that was ble and all the stories that I’ve heard of this area come to the f hipster’s warehouses and the highest social poverty with the ass through. Ade just flowed through traffic and back roads in ould be worried if would get lost at this final stage. I was very is evening, although it was gently fading away…
PLATES 1/ WHIPPS CROSS HOUSE, 2009 2/ UNTITLED (LOG, EPPING FOREST), 2009 3/ UNTITLED (FENCE, EPPING FOREST), 2009 4/ BUXTON HOUSE, 2009 5/ WHIPPS CROSS UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, 2009 6/ HAYSTOCK COURTS, 2009
Note: Titles/dates maybe, misleading. All correct details are lost for the time being. Place/dates do exist, but may not correlate to the images directly. Details were written down in a note book (of sorts), but have been incorrectly archived. Sorry?