Indigo 860

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Does fashion need a purpose?

Indigo Editor, Cameron Beech debates the reason for fashion and fashion’s end purpose

With the Schiaparelli ss23 runway discourse, DUCFS selling out their final night in the record time of 0.8 seconds and an increased fascination in award show fashion, there has not been a better time to reflect on fashion’s purpose. Does fashion even require a purpose? Can it not ceaselessly exist, or must there be an agenda attached to the clothing we wear?

Depending on who you ask, fashion is either a wearable piece of art and an article of artistic composition, or simply a way we cover our nakedness. Coming from an artistic background, my take on fashion is that its versatility transcends to something beyond the realms of art.

been the Fall-Winter 2014/15 ready-to-wear collection, set against the backdrop of a luxury convenience store and Fall-Winter 2016/17 Haute Couture, where the models walk through what looks to be a fashion studio, paying homage to the process of creating fashion whilst pairing the aesthetic with the unaesthetic, the glamorous with the unglamorous, and showcasing the product against the backdrop of where it was initially born.

Fashion functions as an independent living, breathing organism, constantly evolving and adapting to social, political and economic climates

St Mary’s College charity fashion show, Revival, beautifully revived the ability for fashion to be fun and exciting. It was refreshing to see the models having fun, dancing, engaging with spectators and feeling the music, making fashion into an enjoyable, intoxicatingly exhilarant and fun experience. It was a testament to the idea that there is more to fashion than just clothes its about how it makes you feel, the emotions it achieves. Fashion is like that friend that hypes you up, inspires you, makes you realise your potential, and the fashion show functions as the mouthpiece.

Fashion functions as an independent living, breathing organism, constantly evolving and adapting to social, political and economic climates and ceasing to be, if neglected. It polarises people, pushes the bounds of comfortability and inspires wider political debates, such as if the body wears the art or the art wears the body, the danger of trend culture and culture of aesthetics and if fashion’s primary function is artistic or practical? Fashion shows act as temporary, living art galleries as we experience the art come to life in the model’s movements. Models do not simply wear the garments but give the piece a lifeline. After initially attending DUCFS to watch a friend walk the runway, I came away in absolute awe of its artistic spectacle and sensational visuals.

French fashion brand, Chanel, have always given particular attention to the art of set designs; some particular standout designs in previous years have

CONTENT

Events (page 3), Film & TV (pages 4), Style (page 5), Music (pages 6 & 7), Features (page 8), Interview (page 9), Creative Writing (page 10), Books (page 11), Food & Drink (page 12), Stage (page 13), Visual Arts (page 14), Travel (page 15).

Indigo logo: Adeline Zhao

Cover image: Victoria Cheng

Artwork of the week: Emma Jesperson

Much in the same way fashion shows engineer inspiration and push the bounds of potential, this edition of Indigo aims to achieve the same. Coming up in this edition of Indigo, Style (page 5) investigate necklace boycotting on the red carpet, Music (pages 6 & 7) delve into the history of protest music and Stage (page 13) look into the playwrights aspiring for an Olivier

Artwork of the week: By

Emma Jesperson

TEAM

Charlotte Grimwade, Cameron Beech, Melissa Rumbold, Roshni Suresh Babu, Siobhan Eddie, Elizabeth Buckley, Theo Mudhir, Amelie Lambie-Proctor, Lydia Doyle, Lily Lake, Ruhee Parelkar, Annie Pickup, James Macfarlane, Rae Rostron, Alice Purves, Jacob Dax Harris, Lotte Micklethwaite, Charlotte Rodney, Isabella Harris, Tom Harbottle, Millie Adams, Eve Kirman, Elif Karakaya, Caitlin Ball.

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Image credit: Adeline Zhao

Pairing the aesthetic with the unaesthetic, the glamorous with the unglamorous, and showcasing the product against the backdrop of where it was initially born

Indigo events calendar

From plays to charity weeks, there’s plenty to look forward to next month

Art Exhibitions

27 February deadline

Climate Art and Creative Writing

Competition

Submission accessible through the @durhamclimate Instagram LinkTree

Durham Climate Society want to see your best paintings, drawings, poems and short stories that are based around anything relating to sustainability, nature and the climate crisis. There are exciting prizes up for grabs and winners will be decided by an esteemed panel of climate leaders and artists that will be announced on the society’s Instagram. All shortlisted works will be featured in a special exhibition on Earth Day, with free entry included with every submission!

Till 21 May

Guardians of the Silk Road’s Heritage: women of the mountains of Central Asia

Oriental Museum

A vibrant exhibition showcasing the work of the artists and craftswomen who preserve and transfer traditional knowledge and skills, adapting them for new audiences and popularising Central Asian folk art. Tickets are free.

Till 24 May

Photographing Tutankhamun

Outdoor Art Gallery, Bill Bryson Library Square

An exhibition exploring how photography turned Tutankhamun into a global sensation. Created by Professor Christina Riggs, this pop up installation examines the striking images created by photographer Harry Burton during the decadelong excavation.

Music

26 February, 5pm

The Dream of Gerontius

Sage Gateshead

Durham University Choral Society are running their second concert of the academic year. In collaboration with Cleveland Philharmonic Chorus and Mowbray Orchestra, they will be performing Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. John Forsyth MBE will be returning to conduct both choirs and orchestra in this majestic choral work in an incredible venue.

3 March, 7.30pm

Children of Light: Rubbra’s ‘Nine Tenebrae Motets’ & Lang’s ‘The Little Matchgirl Passion’

Durham Cathedral Chapter House

Durham University Chamber Choir are putting on their Epiphany concert. It consists of music for passiontide thematically bound by the idea of the flame. The two featured works mirror each other through the literal fading of the flame, but also converge in the nexus of enduring love. Tickets can be found on Facebook

17 March, 7.30pm

‘Noteworthy’

Elvet Methodist Church

Full Score is Durham’s resident a cappella choir who specialise in barbershop. Wearing their signature boater hats and braces, they perform a huge variety of songs all in the jazzy, close harmony style that is synonymous with barbershop. Keep an eye out on Facebook and the DST website for tickets to their next concert.

Theatre

2-4 March

Das Weben Assembly Rooms Theatre

Three fairy tales – The Willful Child, The Three Snake-Leaves, and Rumpelstiltskin will be woven together in Wrong Tree’s devised physical theatre production. Five actors will retell these stories in this exciting performance. Standard tickets are £7.

13-15 March

Pool (No Water) Assembly Rooms Theatre

An exploration of the psyche of the artist, Mark Ravenhill’s Pool (No Water) debuted in 2006. In Green Door Theatre Company’s Assembly Room debut, Pool (No Water) promises to be an evening of provocative questions and striking visuals. Standard tickets are £7.

17 March

The Durham Finalist Showcase Assembly Rooms Theatre

Tickets are free for the annual

Highlights

25 February, 3pm

Outerrings

HMV Eldon Square, Newcastle

DH1 Records are working with HMV Newcastle to host a gig with the band Outerrings. The concert promises to be a great opportunity to see some live music outside Durham.

27 February-5 March

Pink Week Various locations throughout the week

A week of events that raise money and awareness for national and global breast cancer charities. From a pub quiz and spin classes, to a charity dinner and painting a plant pot, there’s definitley something for everyone.

4 March, 7pm Pink Week Charity Dinner Marriott Hotel, Durham

An evening to celebrate Pink Week and to raise awareness for breast cancer. Each ticket is £47 and will include a three course meal, as well as a complimentary drink on arrival. There will also be entertainment such as a poker table, ra e and live music. It promises to be a great evening in aid of an important cause.

9 March, 7pm Aftersun Screening

Fonteyn Ballroom, Durham Student Union

Bede Film Society are hosting a screening of the 2022 comingof-age drama Aftersun. Tickets are available on the door or through FIXR (Bede Film Society) and cost £3 for a standard ticket. Snacks are also available for purchase.

Illustration: Anna Kuptsova

film@palatinate.org.uk

The sounds and silence of queer cinema

Film &TV Editor, Jacob Dax Harris, explores queer history on screen

Since 2005, the UK has celebrated February as LGBTQ+ History Month, a time to learn about the rich and often di cult history of the queer community. And though queer and trans characters may appear to be a feature of modern film & TV, there is a whole world of LGBTQ+ cinema which has often gone unnoticed, unembraced, or misinterpreted.

Throughout history, queer relationships have been periodically outlawed or otherwise persecuted, and as Western society began to explore the emerging fields of cinematic storytelling, this persecution continued, on and o the screen. However, that doesn’t mean queerness was totally absent from the medium.

in the US from 1934 through to 1968. Following the onscreen scandals of the provocative 1920s and the even more outrageous scandals surrounding the lives of Hollywood starlets, the industry’s increasingly tarnished image was beginning to

The first same-gender kiss in an American film is typically believed to be from Manslaughter in 1922, however the actual title belongs to a film which was, until 2011, lost to time. The Kiss depicted two naked women standing together, before embracing one another in a kiss. It was produced in the mid-1880s by photographer Eadweard Muybridge, and now holds not only the title of first queer kiss captured, but it is actually the first ever kiss filmed, predating Thomas Edison’s 1896 project which captured the first heterosexual kiss. To say that the first kiss caught on film was between two women seems strange, considering how the industry treated queer relationships in the 20th Century. It also makes clear the significant role that queerness has played in the developing cinema, holding such a culturally significantif under-recognised - place in film history.

The now infamous ‘Hays Code’ was a set of censorship guidelines for motion picture studios

of film censorship bills were introduced, and major studios were faced with the choice of adhering to state-imposed laws or choosing self-regulation. The Motion Picture Code, developed in part by its nickname’s namesake Will H. Hays, came into being, and a once innovative and arguably honest Hollywood was totally changed.

Sexual relationships or even acts which could suggest sexuality, were under heavy fire, and alongside the restrictions on interracial relations onscreen, open homosexuality was e ectively wiped from film.

Not only did these restrictions push queer representation out the window, but also influenced the development of queer subtext which persists even today. A caveat of the Code was that behaviour considered morally or legally dubious could be depicted, but only in a negative light. Queer and transgender people were, however, real parts of life and communities, and in depicting the real world in film it would have been di cult to erase their cultural significance entirely. Instead, gay characters began to be showcased through ‘queercoding’: filmmakers developed language and stereotypes which indicated a character’s queer identity, such as the male “interior decorators” in The Seven Year Itch (1955) or the fantastically flamboyant characters of Roger de Bris (Christopher Hewett) and Carmen Ghia (Andreas Voutsinas) in The Producers (1967).

4-hour-long epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962), often hailed as one of the greatest films of all times, showcased a heavily implied romantic relationship between Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) and his companion Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif), going so far as to include an outright confession of love. At no point in the film is their relationship treated as promiscuous, or immoral, but rather the development of their friendship is the beautiful centrepiece of the film, fleshing out Lawrence’s character and his deeper connections to the cultures and people around him. Though this was a fictional storyline in the historical biopic, it is significant that the creative liberties taken to flesh out the characters were so overtly queer.

There was not an explosion of representation after the code, but there was an improvement, and what’s more is there was a new freedom to tell true queer stories which would remain in the culture for years. From films like Dog Day Afternoon (1975), depicting the true story of a bisexual man committing a bank heist to pay for his transgender partner’s gender reassignment surgery, all the way to Pride (2014), which told the story of queer allyship in Britain during the 1980’s miners’ strike.

We have come a long way – for a long time, queer relationships in film and TV have been relegated to tragic tales, comedic relief, or more recently to depict historical events. But from the humble beginnings of The Kiss in the 1880s, we are now, 140 years later, seeing a more casual representation of queer identities.

Queer characters were not, however, entirely erased or used as a punchline. The nearly

The incredible thing about LGBTQ+ history in film is how its significance exists in the medium – both being used to tell important stories of often silenced communities, and serving as historical in itself for breaking boundaries of storytelling.

Illustration (from left to right): Isobel Warwick, Victoria Cheng

To say that the first kiss caught on film was between two women seems strange, considering how the industry treated queer relationships

We are now, 140 years later, seeing a more casual representation of queer identities

Foregoing the bling in favour of bare skin?

Emily Parsons addresses the apparent red carpet necklace boycott

he necklace: a timeless staple most would consider an essential part of their everyday wardrobe. Whether a small pendant, layered chains or a spiked choker, one’s choice of necklace certainly has the power to make or break an outfit.

However, celebrities at recent redcarpet events like the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards seem to have been choosing to forego the bling in favour of bare skin. And this has not gone unnoticed, with the search phrase “no necklace trend” having amassed over 5 million views on TikTok by early February.

Many a speculation has been made, with the trend seeming to divide social media. “I’m team necklace”, one user has commented on a TikTok post discussing the shift, with another crying out that many of the outfits look incomplete without the finishing touch a necklace can provide. Meanwhile, others praise the choice, with one user explaining how “it lets the dress stand out and be the main accessory”. Some have also noted how the trend lines up with apparent return to dangerous ‘heroin chic’ beauty standards, in which collarbones are considered a stand-

Stylist Mary Fellowes, however, has speculated that for celebrities, the trend might be due to fear of backlash. In ent economic climate, she explains, that “mindless extravagance just feels so out of touch and obsolete”. Necklaces perhaps then are

Tseen as pushing the boundary into vulgarity –though it certainly seems ironic that the outfits that instead take centre-stage are usually worth a fortune in and of themselves.

Necklaces are perhaps pushing the boundary into vulgarity

Recent ridiculing of celebrity culture - as seen in the latest “nepo baby” outcry in the media - seems to have made celebrities increasingly aware of their image as well as their audience Runways have definitely recognised this shift away from lavish indulgence too, with designers such as JW Anderson prioritising muted tones and functionality above bright, eclectic shapes and colours.

out of style

Some on social media have even dubbed this move towards minimalistic tones and styles “recession core”, given its similarity to the fashion movement seen after the 2008 economic recession. The move towards buying second hand clothes, wearing muted colours, and now minimal jewellery certainly seems to reflect the shift noted by trend forecasters. Delaney (@ufodelaney on TikTok), for example, points out the Y2K ‘bling era’ pre-2008 is very similar to the vibrant maximalist trends that we saw during the pandemic. Both trends are followed by economic recessions, and both trends seem to precede a return to minimalism. Modern fashion trends are often criticised

for feeding into consumerism and fast fashion, and this trend doesn’t seem at first glance to be doing anything of the sort. Rather than promoting an item to be purchased, it is rather recommending people do away with the items they already own. But the fashion industry is always trying to sell you something.

Emily Carmeli on TikTok (@emilycarmeli) therefore alternatively attributes this trend to the rise of interesting textures in fashion, which allow the clothes to stand on their own rather than needing additional embellishment. Gradients and metallic fabrics – also belonging to the “recession core” trends – simply don’t pair well with additional jewellery. The clothing is able to speak for itself.

Perhaps now we’ll see the promotion of textured fabrics or unusual necklines to replace necklaces. But personally, I don’t think we’ll ever see the jewellery pieces go completely out of style – I certainly won’t be giving up my trusty silver necklace any time soon. Perhaps, though, more minimalist and dainty jewellery will continue to prevail in fashion trends going forwards.

At the end of the day, fashion is about choice and self-expression. Trends are simply just patterns of behaviour that constantly change, and don’t deserve being ascribed any kind of authority over and can’t wear. S you want – and don’t rush to throw away your neck laces just yet!

Personally, I don’t think we’ll ever see jewellery pieces go completely

Illustrations (from top): Rosie Bromiley, Isobel Warwick

music@palatinate.org.uk

Music on the picket line

Music Editor, Izzy Harris, discusses the history of protest music in the UK and speaks to UCU strikers about music on the picket

Music and protest go hand in hand. Throughout history music has rallied protesters. Lyrics and tunes have been used to bring people together to enact change, to emphasise political issues and the will of collectives. In Britain there is a long legacy of this, and protest music has been made on all sides of the political spectrum.

Protest music takes many forms, in some cases parodying or taking on the tune of a pre-existing song, in others original music is written along with the lyrics.

After a period of die back in the circulation of protest music in the New Labour years, described by some artists as resulting from a wider culture of apathy, protest songs have been on the rise again in the last decade. Grime has emerged as a key genre to convey political messages to wide audiences in a new form.

In 1988, British rock band Chumbawamba released an album called English Rebel Songs 1381-1984, it begins with the track ‘The Cutty Wren’ a folk song that some historians have cited as being written during the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. Our Subversive Voice, a project exploring the creation and circulation of English protest music, curates 750 songs onto an online database. The earliest song they interrogate is from 1603. Come all you Farmers out of the Countrey was a socially conservative

song complaining that a new law (to knight all men with an income of over £40 for James I coronation) was bringing about a degradation of honour and the existing social order. Also in the 17th century, but with very di erent intent, the Levllers movement utilised a ballad The Diggers’ Song to call people to rally with them on the issue of land right as they called for an extension of su rage and equality before the law.

The Thatcher years saw an expansion in the popularity of protest music

In more recent history, the Thatcher years saw an expansion in the popularity of protest music in a range of forms, from post punk rock to ska. As a Prime Minister many songs were directed at Thatcher as a political figure and many more protested the impact of her policies on di erent communities. Some who were particular forthright were The Red Wedge, a group of musicians and artists who toured the UK in outspoken defiance of Thatcherism, with the aim of electing a labour government. The North East of England, was an area that su ered great unemployment during this period and protest music both about and from the area emerged. The Angelic Upstarts a punk rock band formed in South Shields refers to the closing of Consett Steel Works’ closing in 1980 in thier lyrics ‘Those Consett men had their pride, and thier jobs of steel, Now they stand in the dole queue with their hands outstretched. Yes thats the way to kill a town.’ Protest music cannot be defined uniquely by songs calling out particular figures or policies. The 1970s Rock Against Racism movement protested wider

cultures of hate. It aimed to disempower fascist bigotry and institutional racism. A carnival event that they held in April 1978 saw a crowd of 100,000 anti-fascists march from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park, seven miles through an area seen as a stronghold for the National Front.

The 1970s Rock Against Racism movement protested wider cultures of hate

Many of the issues that protest songs have platformed have not been solved. Institutional racism, income inequality, and lack of opportunity are contemporary issues in the UK in 2023. When The Jam’s Paul Weller was asked why he was no longer writing political songs in 2015 he stated ‘I would just write exactly the same fucking things I wrote thirtyodd years ago’. The parallels that can be drawn to today’s Britain demonstrating the longevity of issues make protest music of the past all

Editor’s protest music picks:

1. Ghost Town – The Specials

2. Town Called Malice – The Jam

3. Fuck these Fuckin Fascists – The Muslims

4. To Have and to Have Not – Billy Bragg

5. Streets of London - Ralph McTell

Image credits: Izzy Harris

the more powerful. Present day issues aren’t purely represented by older music, British rap and Grime scenes have developed nuanced political and social commentary on the 21st century.

Striking, as a form of protest, is not immune to the culture of protest music. Picket lines are often be punctuated with chants and songs. I spoke to strikers and their supporters on Durham’s University and College Union (UCU) picket lines about their thoughts on protest music.

The UCU voted in favour of strike action this term, announcing eighteen days across February and March. The dispute is over pay, working conditions, and pensions; university sta across the UK have seen pay fall by 25% since 2010, pensions cut by 35% and face growing job insecurity. I asked strikers at the picket lines by Elvet Riverside and the Science site about how music comes into strike action at Durham University. A classic chant used by the UCU is:

‘Education is a right, is a right, is a right – not a privilege’ to the tune of London Bridges. Durham’s academics have not been limited to chanting and exisiting protest song, they have previously written their own lyrics. Three years ago, they wrote a version of Bobby Shafto with lyrics about Stuart Corbridge (the university’s

MUSIC

music@palatinate.org.uk

vice chancellor at the time) singing this as they stormed the Palatine Centre.

The strikers described a moving rendition of Bread and Roses by Sol Gamsu the Durham Branch Leader of the UCU as promoting a strong collective feeling last year. This year, however, the strikers at the Science Site picket described the music being played as ‘ice rink music’, listening to a lot of 70s disco to stay warm on the picket line in the cold winter months! An inflatable dinosaur keeping moral high performing the macarena. Dolly Parton’s 9-5 received a resounding reception and the more socialist minded strikers have been known to play a bit of Billy Bragg! Two members of sta stated that they have musical talent as violinists but, that the cold weather conditions prevented them from bringing their instruments to the picket line.

They wrote a version of Bobby Shafto with lyrics about Stuart Corbridge

At Elvet Riverside, the atmosphere on the picket line was equally passionate and steadfast. Despite this, there was no music to accompany or raise the collective feeling. The strikers stated that last year there had been a singular beautiful operatic solo rendition of a protest song before the security let the strikers know that the police would be called over from the station across the road to break up the singing. They have chosen not to play music or sing on their picket this year.

I asked the strikers for the titles of songs that they feel have depicted their feelings on the picket this year, I have collated these into a playlist that can be accessed through the QR code below. The sixth song, was described by one of the strikers as holding particualr resonance to her with the lyric: ‘Lets give our teaachers so much more to do, Then we’ll sit back and force them to strike for their pay, ‘Cos tomorrow will follow today.’

Music that the strikers described as defning the mood in this term’s UCU strikes:

She explained that she had seen it live last year, requesting it in concert as she was on the picket then too.

Police would be called over from the station across the road to break up the singing

From my conversations with the UCU strikers, it did not sem like protest music is a key tactic in their e orts this year. Most of their stories about the power of song came from previous years’ strike action. The UCU strikers seemed to be standing firm despite this, the songs they chose to describe their feelings on the picket showed their true spirit even if they were not playing them aloud.

With the cost-of-living crisis raging on and the wealth gap ever expanding (thinktank The New Economics Foundation estimates that by 2024 43% of households in the UK will lack the resources to put food on the table), 1980s protest music articulating an anger at establishment politics and economic structures still sing true while British rap develops new narratives.

It should be noted that protest music is not always a force for good and can be used to promote bigoted ideas, the far right and white power movements have their own track record with protest song. The government are placing increasing limits on rights surrounding protest with ‘noisiness’ receiving attention in new provisions. Last month, Ciaran Thapar wrote about his role as an expert witness in British courts and his concern with the trend of UK rap and drill lyrics being relied upon to convict people (mainly young black men). These developments are deeply concerning.

Protest songs have the power to impassion a collective, give voice to the oppressed, convey a political message coherently and (sometimes) beautifully. I have also included a track list of protest songs that move and invigorate me:

Ghost Town, a haunting ska track by The Specials from 1981, makes a strong statement about youth unemployment and lacking opportunities. The Jam’s Town Called Mallace from 1982 has been described as a ‘class-war tirade set to a post-punk northern soul groove.’ Fuck these Fuckin Facists by The Muslims from 2021 is a cathartic, punky indie track. Billy Bragg, widely described as the exception to the rule of the protest singers of the eighties having no more to say in the new millenium, gets your heart racing with To Have and To Have Not Listening to the Streets of London by Ralph McTell brought about my love of folk music, it is beautiful, political, and devastating.

1.The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gill Scott-Heron

2. Solidarity Forever – Pete Seeger

3. Livin’ On a Prayer – Bon Jovi

4. Never Cross a Picket Line – Billy Bragg

5. Another Brick In The Wall – Pink Floyd

6. Tomorrow Will Follow Today – Kathryn Roberts, Sean Lakeman

7. Bread and Roses – Judy Collins

8. We Shall Not Be Moved – Pete Seeger

9. 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton

Image credits: Izzy Harris

Pink is the new black

DUCK’s Pink Week approaches, Cerys Warwick discusses the importance of breast cancer awareness

1in 7 women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, an illness which takes the lives of 11,500 women and 85 men every year –nearly 1,000 deaths each month, or one every 45 minutes. As the leading cause of death in women under 50, breast cancer can be uncomfortable to think about. However, breast cancer survival has doubled in the past 40 years through improvements in treatment, detection and diagnosis, and today an estimated 600,000 people in the UK today have survived a breast cancer diagnosis, predicted to rise to 1.2 million in 2030. Early detection is crucial to this. As Cancer Research has outlined, “if we are to beat cancer, early detection and diagnosis is arguably the single most important and impactful objective we can have.” This is also the aim of DUCK’s Pink Week.

The earlier breast cancer is diagnosed, the better chance of successful treatment

Running from 27 February to 5 March, Pink Week is a week of events dedicated to raising money and awareness for breast cancer charities, including Breast Cancer Now, Children’s Cancer North and Hug in a Bag. Pink Week events range from a Charity Dinner to a Spin Class, combining fundraising with awareness: the class challenges each participant to cycle 23km during the session, representing the 23 new breast cancer carcinoma in situ cases in the UK each day. Each year there are over 8,000 in situ breast carcinoma cases, a non-invasive form of breast cancer which, if untreated, can develop into invasive breast cancer – avoidable through regular checks

Editors’ Picks

and awareness. As demonstrated by a YouGuv survey commissioned by Breast Cancer Now, only 39% of women in the UK check regularly for potential signs of breast cancer, an additional third of whom do not feel confident that they would notice a change. Given that when diagnosed at its earliest stage, 98% of individuals will survive breast cancer for five or more years, in contrast with 26% when

for “the earlier breast cancer is diagnosed, the better the chance of successful treatment”, emphasising the importance that people do not hesitate to visit their GP if they notice any new or unusual changes.

Organisations like Pink Week have a drastic impact

Important for this is an awareness for anything that’s new or di erent for you. Breast Cancer Now suggests that “checking your breasts is as easy as TLC”, as outlined on their website:

1. Touch your breasts: can you feel anything new or unusual?

2. Look for changes: does anything look di erent to you?

3. Check any new or unusual changes with a GP.

the disease is diagnosed at its latest stage, the importance of regular, and informed, checks is clear.

‘Breast Cancer Now’, the UK’s leading breast cancer research charity, works to both support those diagnosed with breast cancer and to research its prevention – for which spreading awareness forms a significant component. The charity provides accessible information on the causes and symptoms of breast cancer, emphasising how to check and the changes to be aware of. As outlined on Breast Cancer Now’s website, being “breast aware” is crucial,

It doesn’t need to be October to don a pink ribbon! For instance, rally a group of friends to walk 500 miles in 30 days, to raise funds for Breast Cancer UK. This is both a fun activity for friends and improves your health. Or attend Breast Cancer Now’s “Moving Forward” events in May, to hear about peoples’ experiences and feel more empowered and in control!

As Dr. Elisabeth Rosen, a women’s health specialist, advises, “knowing how your breasts should look and feel normally can help to alert you to any unusual changes that may be a symptom of breast cancer”. “Ideally, you should check your breasts once a month on the same day, a few days after your period”. Though women aged 50 to 71, or with a family history of breast cancer, are invited for breast screening every three years, regular checks allow the quick identification of any new symptoms.

Pink Week in 2022 raised over £5000 in support of Breast Cancer Now and Hug in a Bag, hoped to be repeated in the upcoming week. Although it is the most common type of cancer in the UK, through spreading awareness and thereby encouraging early detection, organisations like Pink Week have a drastic impact and help in the mission to end breast cancer altogether.

DUCK has a huge selection of events to choose from this year, so there’s no excuse not to get involved!

Head to the SU next Tuesday (28 February) to destress with some dogs, or to Revolution to do some plant-pot painting on Sunday (5 March). Check out @duck_charities for more information. Take a break from summative season for some wholesome fun, for a fantastic cause!

As

Roshni Suresh Babu

Siobhan Eddie

indigo.interview@palatinate.org.uk

Meet the people behind Pink Week

Interview Editor, Lotte Micklethwaite, talks to some of the DUCK Pink Week team

This week, I sat down with Yas Wayland-Edgson and Ava Drysdale to talk about Pink Week. Yas Wayland is the o cer for DUCK’s Pink Week, a week of events raising awareness and money for breast cancer. Ava works with Yas as part of the Pink Week team.

Tell us about the type of events you are putting on and how you chose them?

Yas: When we first all met as a team in first term to talk about what we wanted to do, we wanted to make it accessible to everybody, and in particular to make it clear that it is not just for girls, as everyone can be a ected by breast cancer, including men, both directly and indirectly. Pink Week does not have a gender or target audience. We want everyone to feel welcome to come.

Ava: Another thing is that we wanted to focus on making it clear that it is not just alcoholic events. We have got club nights and things like that, but we also have Cake and Crochet and wholesome, relaxing events. We also have yoga and spin classes. There really is something for everybody and you can come to a variety of things on di erent days.

Pink Week is raising money for three amazing cancer charities: Breast Cancer Now, Hug in

a Bag and Children’s Cancer North. Tell us a bit more about them?

Yas: Breast Cancer Now is a major national charity that do research and provide support for those a ected and families. And then the other two charities are more local. Hug in a Bag is a local charity that provides a support bag to every person diagnosed with breast cancer in University Hospital of Durham. And this year for the first time, we have incorporated Children’s Cancer North who aren’t to do with breast cancer, but provide support and research for children a ected by cancer in the north.

pictures and leaflets up in colleges and the Billy B about how to check yourself for breast cancer.

Ava: Of course, a lot of the events we are holding are fun and light-hearted things that everyone can be a part of, but it is important to us that the message of what we are raising money for doesn’t get lost. We want to make sure people know how they can check themselves for breast cancer, reduce the risk of it, and generally are well informed about Ava: We have also been really keen to connect with as many people as we possibly can. We have worked with a lot of di erent groups and societies in running and publicising Pink Week. This is to encourage a variety of people to turn up. We are running our Cake and Crochet event with the Crochet Society, DU Football have trained in pink to raise awareness, we have been going to di erent events such as the Poker Ball to raise money and awareness.

Some representatives from Children’s Cancer North and Hug in a Bag are actually coming to our charity dinner at the Marriott at the end of Pink Week. At DUCK, a strong connection to our charities is really important to us.

Ava: I would say DUCK as a whole are really good at communicating with specific people within the charities. It really is a two-way relationship with the charities, and it great to know that they are so onboard with what we are doing for Pink Week. This connection is important to us as we want people who come to our events to feel connected to the charities too. The local charities, in particular, really do tug at people’s heart strings and you can really feel that connection with them as we come to see the work they are doing in our community in Durham.

What are your other aims with Pink Week?

Yas: Awareness is a really big thing for us. I have been putting

Yas: We really want to make it clear that Pink Week has something for everyone and that anyone is welcome to come along. Even if you don’t have someone to come to an event with, come along anyway. It is a brilliant way to try something you have never done before, make some friends and bond over a fun activity and

You can find out more about Pink Week and all the incredible events that have been organised on the Instagram @

We really want to make it clear that Pink Week has something for everyone and that anyone is welcome to come along

Image credit (from left): Yas Wayland-Edgson, Ava Drysdale

Lives through letters

Various contributors take us on an epistolary journey through moments across lifetimes

To you, so many years in the future, I will tell you about my final year at university:

Concentration, eddies and flows

Drifting away, as so much rain. The future, I did once treasure; Now bleak and void to my hurt mind.

Cacophony ringing my Eardrums to pain, the task returns. Panic floods all, each neuron

And every muscle, screaming, wounded. This weight I bear, of futures

Uncertain and, so terrifying Drags, chains, buries, a young man’s mind. Escape is all I cling to, crave Hope shines, a light cresting over A distant, pure, horizon that I drag myself, ever toward.

I can do this and do it well.

This article arranges various letters as a snapshot of the relationships we foster with ourselves, our partners, and the very world we inhabit. My White Bauhinia: There was a time when I still believed you’d heal, bloom as you used to; that the dark formalin leaching away from your wounded corolla would crystallise into the petal you’d lost. – Unlike the paper mache Grandpa plastered onto you, deceiving nobody but himself into anticipating your many future springs. For three years, I’ve been tending you with silent elegies; three years, cleansing you with forlorn tears. But I stop now, because I realise, however desperately I wish my tears fertilising your impossible beauty, they are but noxious acids eroding you further. Time and undeserved happiness have taught me to forget your pain I vowed to share. Your nightly lamentations are far buried in the hardened earth echoing like mutterings of wistful forest elves, but I cannot dig them up without the courage I’d lost – lost from seeing, that night, Grandpa grinded his heels against your receptacle bleeding vanquished hopes. I know he trampled on your maliciously like how he tears wings o butterflies and sets fire to their pupa. But the next day, sitting across the dinner table, I didn’t dare utter a word. If I were only younger. If my heart were only closer to the wild truth. But my faithless eyes are blinded with transience, cowardly lips filthied with the plea of impermanence. Every night, I dream of myself knelt crying before your spectre: you are gone

Never forget what you were in this place. Strive to overcome.

Thomas Niven

To buy:

- Milk

- Tea bags

- Sugar

- Biscuits

Don’t forget the milk, I need it to subdue to taste of the ca eine. It soothes my swells, cuts and bruises from the stings of my past - soaking me until I become numb in the opaque liquid of purity. Yet, you need to remember not to leave milk out too long though, I don’t want it to go sour. I don’t want to go sour either. Don’t forget about me and leave me too long or I’ll become engulfed by the curdled tanginess – a congealed amalgamation of a forgotten past.

I once heard that tea bags were made o the dirt of the floor of the factories that they’re made in. There’s something in that though - I want to be moulded out of dirt. Coerce my worthlessness into a bitter taste, boiling to the touch. Mould my grime into something desirable, worth the interest of others.

Stir the sugar enough so it dissolves. Disintegrate the granules so I don’t leave an indescribable taste in someone’s mouth – make me unseen, unheard and unfelt. Buy the biscuits as a talking point, do you prefer Bourbons or Custard Creams? Neither, I just want to keep your company as long as possible. Take the tin of both biscuits – just stay. Forgetting about the sharp stab of pain in your teeth as you move on to your fourth biscuit, as you ask so really, how are you?

I just need a cup of tea.

Grace Wakefield

A letter never sent, leftover information in

And the sun aches just a little more

It’s like my list of baby names

It lengthened while you were here

But now I read through

And see each child has your eyes

I still remember your phone number by heart

Even though it’s deleted from my phone

I still crave your mum’s Mac and cheese

After months of not being home

Nicole Longsta

Image credit: Victoria Cheng

books@palatinate.org.uk

Are audiobooks ‘cheating’?

Ben Bayly considers what makes audiobooks so enjoyable

After a day spent wading through seemingly endless reading as part of my degree, the prospect of unwinding by opening up a book becomes less appealing. Audiobooks are a great alternative in such instances. Some may even argue audiobooks provide a more immersive and enjoyable experience while listening to the dulcet tones of the likes of Stephen Fry can be a great tool for falling asleep. Likewise, when on the move or travelling, audiobooks o er convenience and multitasking opportunities that physical books can’t match. Admittedly, it is perhaps this convenience, combined with a degree of laziness and an inability to concentrate on one thing, that has led to me personally championing the audiobook.

There are still those reading purists who roll their eyes at all the audiobook enthusiasts out there

Yet despite their various benefits, there are still those reading purists who roll their eyes at all the audiobook enthusiasts out there. In an age where reading has become almost competitive with the various challenges and platforms to share your reading experiences, many people consider listening to audiobooks as ‘cheating’. The die-hard readers bemoan the ease of audiobooks, full focus isn’t necessary, and a good narrator takes the work out of deciphering literary devices. For them, there is nothing quite like scrolling through a physical book,

whether peeling back each page in delight or struggling through a book that they wish they hadn’t started but once started ‘must’ be finished. Perhaps it is this punishment they feel a multitasking audiobook listener avoids. A kind of jealousy towards the method of reading their traditionalism prevents them from trying.

In a way, audiobooks appear too good, too convenient, and too easy to be true, surely they can’t count, or the benefits be equal to sitting down and scrolling through a physical copy? Reading sticklers point towards memory, as one tends to focus more when reading, books can be better for taking in information. However, studies have found people remember more or less the same regardless of whether they have read or listened to a book. In terms of activating the brain, books and audiobooks are both le tools; they just activate erent parts. Audiobooks have also been shown to positively a ect how we perceive the world and our levels of empathy.

However, not all audiobooks are great. Unlike a physical book, a good audiobook depends on more than just the author’s work. All good audiobooks have one thing in common, a good narrator. Not every narrator has Simon Prebble’s sonorous tone, Rupert Degas’ expertise at accents, and Julia Whelan’s delivery

of emotion. Anyone who has listened to a bad narrator can attest that it instantly ruins the audiobook. The idea of listening to a voice you simply find annoying or unengaging for what is usually at least 15 hours is a daunting one. Moreover, you know straight away. After the first few sentences, you get a sinking feeling as you realise that audiobook credit has been wasted, and you kick yourself for not taking the time to listen to the preview. A good narrator, though, can transport you, engage you, and immerse you in the tale, providing a sense of comfort you get when you know you’re in good hands.

A good audiobook depends on more than just the author’s work

All this is not to say reading books is worse. There is much to be said about reading physical books. There are many benefits, and turning a page is undoubtedly more fulfilling than clicking an arrow. Old-fashioned sticklers for the physical form, fear not; the audiobook is no replacement. They are di erent. Audiobooks are a respite after a day of reading academic texts, a convenient alternative, a way to unwind, and are certainly not ‘cheating.’

Image credit (from top): Annie Pickup, Libro, Audible

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Jason Isaac’s fantastic storytelling really brings to life this book about a boy struggling with his mother’s terminal illness, and will be enjoyed by adults and children alike.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Narrated by the author, Neil Gaiman’s excellent understanding of his story and characters, as well as the musical interludes, makes this audiobook very special.

food@palatinate.org.uk

The hall of shame

Food & Drink Editor Millie Adams presents students’ cooking catastrophes

University students have a rough reputation. We’re noisy after 11pm, can’t get out of bed before midday, and we’re dodgy chefs. The closest we come to “getting our greens in” is a bowl of pesto pasta and our reperotire doesn’t extend far beyond pizza and chips. Running the Food & Drink section can be challenging, for this reason so this week we’re giving in and showcasing the reality of university kitchens. This week isn’t about the meal-prepping, batch-cooking, got-mylife-together student. There’s no stu ed peppers, sauted chicken, quinoa salad. It’s pasta, sausage rolls, chips, and nuggets, sometimes all at once.

Please enjoy this carefully curated gallery of culinary masterpieces. We hope you come away feeling inspired to be bold in your aprons. Mix ketchup with rice, chargrill chips, defy cooking instructions, and embrace your inner university student.

Anonymous Collingwood (B. 2002) A Carnivore’s Peas, 2023

except fruit and veg,

In the above artworks one can observe a motif of ketchup. These masterpieces, produced in summative season, thus call to mind the phsycial pain of university work as the condiment has bloody connotations. The colour palette of the above artists is also worth noting. Beige, with smatterings of green, these artists highlight the mundanity of life, interspersed with flashes of brilliance, as symbolised by the bright green pea.

DISCLAIMER: This article is entitled ‘hall of shame’ but really, we’re just impressed. These meals are the pinnacle of creative freedom, and risk-taking. Eton mess was literally made from a desert being dropped on the floor and then eaten. In a similar vein, sausage rolls and pasta might look like a mistake, but who are we to judge. There is no shame when it comes to food, we just wanted to grab your attention, hehe.

Image credit: As credited under images

Ciara Metcalfe John Snow (B. 2003) Charcoal Chips, 2022

Sylvie Norman-Taylor Grey (B. 2002) Rice + ketchup= yum, 2023

Anonymous South (B. 2004)

Every food group

2022

Olivia Lindsey John Snow (B. 2003) Spags could never, 2023

This article is entitled ‘hall of shame’, but really, we’re just impressed; these meals are the pianncle of creative freedom, and risk-taking.

Our unwritten heroes

Stage Editor Amelie Lambie-Proctor celebrates the playwrights hoping for an Olivier

Who wrote your favourite film? Can you name more than ten playwrights? Since the dawn of time, actors have literally stolen the limelight and directors have been worshipped for their bold, arti endeavours. Now, I’m not here to trump their achievements. Their creative contributions to society are invaluable in their own right. However, they are the beneficiaries. Much like a house cannot stand without strong foundations, neither can a cast and crew without a stellar script.

Playwrights deserves to be applauded, just as much as their fellow content creators

It seems playwrights deserve to be applauded, just as much as their fellow content creators. After all, without their experiences, outlooks on life and bravery to choose to write their ideas down some of our most loved stories would cease to exist. A world without your favourite musical…no thank you. With the Olivier Awards closely approaching to celebrate the prior year’s recent theatrical triumphs, I thought I would shed some light and share the stories of playwrights who wrote the productions that are predicted to be nominated. Although no one will receive a Best Writing nomination, it doesn’t exist…

Susie

Miller

An Australian-British playwright, Millers West End debut was Facia. This play took the West End by storm, drowned in five-star reviews from multiple media platforms, and is now being transferred to Broadway. Her path into playwriting may not be the most obvious! Originally studying Immunology and Microbiology at Monash University and then studying law and working as a human rights lawyer, it was once Miller

had started a family and decided to move to London that her writing career really took o . Having won the Kit Denton Fellowship award for writing with courage in 2008, Miller has established herself as a daring writer who has set the cast and crew of Prima Facia in a very strong position

lightly more well-known, and extremely well-loved is British playwright Mike Bartlett. Having studied at English and Theatre Studies at Leeds University, his plays have been staged in the National Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and multiple others. His first plays earnt him the reputation as a ‘miniaturist’ as his plays focused on snapshots of contemporary life. That soon changed after his play hit the stage with a colossal cast of 80 – definitley not as small-scale as his previous work. His plays are always inventive and often combine theatrical qualities that are unusual. The majority of his plays are still contemporary and are always extremely relevant. In the running for an Olivier award, this year is The which premiered at the Old Vic Theatre. Written in blank verse, it imagines a world with the attention surrounding who will become president after Joe Biden.

Jeremy O. Harris is an American playwright who began life in a military family, which meant he moved about a lot. He studied towards a degree in acting at The Theatre School at DePaul University for a year until he was cut from the program. He then went to The Yale School of Drama where he received a Master of the Fine Arts in playwriting.

The first of his family to pursue being an artist

O. Harris was the first of his family to pursue being an artist, and as a result some of his earlier work was complicated for his family to understand. His play Daddy, which debuted in the UK last February was written for his family. Encapsulating parts of is sure to earn some nominations at this year’s Olivier awards.

An American actor, screenwriter and playwright Harvey Fierstein wrote the book Newsies, the run of which has been extended until July 2023 here in the UK. Growing up in New York a mum who was a school librarian and a andkerchief manufacturer, Fierstein received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in 1973. He was cast in Andy Warhol’s only play Pork, and has since appeared in other productions.

You might recognise him from Mrs Doubtfire as the comedic and lovable brother to Robin Williams character, Daniel Hillard. Newsies premiered on Broadway in 2012 and was nominated for multiple Tony awards including Best Book to recognise Fierstein’s contribution to its creation. The well-loved family musical has also been recorded and is available to watch to Disney Plus account-holders. Now in the UK, it is hoping to be nominated

So, now you know the brains behind the operation. Without these geniuses putting pen to paper (or now perhaps fingers to keyboard), we could be a storyless society. These artists deserved endless thanks for their conceptions and for sharing the contents of their imagination. Be sure to catch the Olivier awards on 2 April on ITV and raise a glass to these incredible writers!

visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk

Barbara Hepworth: a striking sculptress

Lily Brown writes on The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden

Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) was one of the most influential female British artists of the 20th century. Passionate about political and technological change, much of her art is sculpture-based abstraction, and she was instrumental in the development of international modern art.

She trailblazingly used a range of materials within her body of work including wood, marble, silver, limestone, and most famously, bronze. Celebrating 120 years since her birth, a night light has been shed on Hepworth’s exploration of interhuman relationships and connection with our surroundings.

A radiant sanctuary of nature and art

At the beginning of the second world war, Hepworth moved to St Ives, Cornwall, and it was here she remained for the rest of her life. In 1949 she purchased Trewyn Studio where she developed and sustained her illustrious artistic career. She described the Cornish stone-built property as her spiritual oasis, and it has now been converted into the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. It is largely unchanged since her death, both inside and out, with the outdoor bronze sculptures in the same positions she left them in.

Displaying a collection of work spanning almost 50 years, her interpretations and visions of art and life are conveyed, combining personal life experiences with a passion for nature, politics, religion, and science. However, it is her sculpture garden that piqued my interest most.

Artistic interaction on both a physical and spiritual level

As you walk out of the museum, you are struck with an iridescent display of emerald. The angular and harsh geometric forms of the sea-green, bronze sculptures beautifully clash with the luscious and overflowing greenery that surrounds them. Twisting and turning paths lead you languorously through a maze of abstract forms with the cool sea breeze providing a calming presence all the while.

Four-Square (Walk Through) (1966) stands proudly

in the centre of the garden with its striking bronze planes creating an almost electric aura. Visitors are encouraged to physically walk through the sculpture, spending time standing within it before passing through to the other side.

Hepworth cast many interactive sculptural structures in which viewers are invited to enter or pass through, allowing one to be enveloped, as if the artistic interaction is on both a physical and spiritual level. The circular cutouts further extend the level of interaction, serving as a porthole shaped portal, allowing light to spill warmth into its cool insides.

Hepworth’s lifelong love for St Ives is reflected in much of her work. Her Sea Form (Porthmeor) (1958) is tucked away in a quiet corner of the garden and is named after Porthmeor Beach, just a stone’s throw away from the museum. Its metallic swooping and twisting lines powerfully mirror a breaking wave whilst its lighter inner surface alludes to bubbling ocean froth. Hepworth was fascinated by the natural environment and spent much time studying the movement of sand and waves. She believed humans were intrinsically connected to the patterns of the natural world; like the rhythmic circularity of tides.

Exploration of interhuman relationships and connection with our surroundings

Sphere with Inner Form (1963) is another striking bronze sculpture hidden by the leaves of the garden’s sprawling branches. The sculpture’s beautifully rounded outer sphere contrasts with the rough and rugged inner form that exists within it. Hepworth was fascinated by forms enclosing each other and the relationship created between them, and Sphere with Inner Form epitomises this. She often pondered over the appearance of this phenomenon in nature, such as a child in the womb. The satisfying simplicity of this sculpture could be said to mirror the innate love between a mother and child; Hepworth herself had four children.

All in all, The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden is a radiant sanctuary of nature and art, and I would recommend anyone to go and visit. I left feeling refreshed both in body and mind, and with a greater appreciation for the simplistic beauty of the natural world, and I hope you will too.

Illustrations: Rosie Bromiley

Developing memories

Travel Editor, Lily Lake, explains how film became her perfect slow-travel accessory

If you’re anything like me, the need to document your travels can be a surefire way to destroy your phone’s storage space. The knowledge of each moment being a snippet of a precious time to treasure makes it almost impossible not to feel the need to drag out your camera and snap every instant, even when you know that exact shot of the Ei el Tower already exists somewhere on the internet.

do a better job of reminding me of how much I forgot to appreciate than reminding me of how much I enjoyed.

Over the last few years, I’m sure we’ve all become familiar with the fast traveller. I’m sure many of us have been guilty of being one; following a packed itinerary, taking as many photos as possible for social media, forgetting to connect with the place you’re in. It makes sense. I’m sure we’d all love to be the slow traveller – spending months in remote communities as the media often portrays. But who has the time or money for that? Perhaps slow travel – making an e ort to connect with an area – has less to do with how long you spend in a place than it has to do with how you approach forming your memories there.

I’ve accumulated thousands of travel photos over the years. Thousands of photos that I never look at again, spare the odd few that made it to the monthly free prints sitting pride of place on the wall. The sad thing is, when you take thousands of photos, you rarely take a shot that means a whole lot to you. Even sadder is that when I have made the e ort to look back at all those photos, I have hardly any memory of the moments that made them special. It’s almost as if photographing the moment substituted the need to appreciate it. Don’t get me wrong, I have lovely memories of the places I’ve travelled, but the photos I refuse to let go of

Last year, I made a switch to how I document my travels which has changed my entire travel experience. That switch was the addition of a film camera to my suitcase – bear with me on this one. There’s something about having a finite number of photos to take which completely alters the process of taking them. Gone are the days where I would photograph something in an instant because it looked somewhat pretty, only to look back in confusion at a later date desperately trying to remember the significance of the photo. Every beautiful thing I see on a trip I now take time to examine, appreciate and evaluate before deciding if it is worthy of being one of my 36 photos. I then take time to find the perfect angle to take the photo from, altering the aperture and shutter speed to figure out exactly what I want from the photo. Believe me, I’m no photographer. I have taken many a blurry, underexposed photo since taking up this method. But somehow those imperfections only add to my fondness of the photos and my connection with the place I took them in.

Then there’s the practical element of film needing to be developed. Getting back from a trip knowing you can’t see your photos for a couple of weeks is slightly annoying, I agree. But the thrill when they do finally come back is

so worth it. Your travel memories, which have just begun to haze, are brought back to life in a charming grain. Sure, it was only two weeks ago but something about it floods you with nostalgia. You’re reminded of all the feelings you felt in the place, understand why you took those photos and somehow, you’re back where you were when you took them.

Memories, which have just begun to haze, are brought back to life in a charming grain

Don’t get me wrong, using film photography for travel isn’t always practical. I’ve never taken it abroad for fear of my photos being destroyed by airport scanners, and it is definitely more expensive than digital photography. I am very aware of how pretentious it sounds to tell people a film camera is a ‘must have’ for travel, but I think the lessons of travelling with film are pretty applicable even when using a digital camera or phone. Making the e ort to actually consider a place in the moment, forming the attachment to it there, is so much more fulfilling than taking twenty pictures to admire at a later date. In my eyes, the way you choose to document a place completely alters how much you enjoy it, both in the moment and in your memory.

The photos I refuse to let go of do a better job of reminding me of how much I forgot to appreciate than reminding me of how much I enjoyed

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