Laundry

Laundry A study of Pennine Lancashire laundrettes in one roll of film

Lee Johnson Page 1

Laundry A study of Pennine Lancashire laundrettes in one roll of film

Lee Johnson

First published in the United Kingdom by Lee Johnson Photography 2013.

Copyright Š 2013 by Lee Johnson.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means, without prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than which is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser/viewer. www.leejohnsonphotography.blogspot.com

Acknowledgements As with any of my projects there are always a lot of people behind the scenes that offer me help and support.

Firstly, my family. Lisa and my kids, Eve and Caleb.

They have to put up with me saying 'What do you think of this?' every five minutes or 'Hang on while I just sort this out.' I know I'm a bit of pain at times but thanks for your support. I love the three of you very much.

My friends, Liam and Barry who often give feedback to my images and scratch their heads at what I am doing.

A special thanks goes to Bob who encourages to shoot more on film and mess about with all things photography.

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About the author I began taking photographs when I was about seven years old. My grandparents bought me a little 110 compact camera to document the summer day trips we took. By the time I was 12 years old I had moved on to my first 35mm single lens reflex camera.

About four years ago I made the leap to a digital SLR and continued to develop my skills in producing high quality photography.

Although I do love the freedom that digital photography gives and the speed that you can produce a finished image I still enjoy shooting on film. In fact, although my SLR finally broke when I was about 20 I still have and use the original lens from it.

As a photographer I do tend to shoot a variety of subjects with my favourites being wildlife, landscape and documentary. However, I do like to work on quite large essay type projects; I do like my photographs to tell a story.

I consider myself to have a variety of influences from famous photographers such as Simon Roberts and Fay Godwin to those that I often sit down with and talk photography.

To see more of my work visit: www.flickr.com/photos/spideylj1074 or www.leejohnsonphotography.blogspot.co.uk

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About Laundry Laundry began with a trip up in to the attic.

I decided that I was going to put a roll of film through my old Pracktica MTL3 and so I went out and bought a roll of black and white film.

When I brought the case down from the attic I found that there was a roll of Boots own brand 400 asa colour film in there. It had expired in 2003. I thought it would be worth shooting the roll anyway. What was the worse that could happen? I'd get some shots back with wacky colours but that in itself could be interesting.

I had decided that I was going to shot a mini project with the mono roll and thought I would do the same with the colour roll.

The subject had to be something that would work over around 20 images. The roll of film was actually 36 but being film rusty, the condition of the film and the chances that I would mess up some technicality I assumed I would have around 20 usable images if I was lucky.

The answer came to be by accident. I drove past a laundrette one day and it struck me that it had the same appearance as it probably did when it first opened. OK, it may be a little worse for wear around the edges, but the signs and ‘art’ (losing the term loosely) looked pretty much like I think they would have done in the 1970’s and early 80’s. I thought about this carefully and I realised that every laundrette that I had been in had a same or similar appearance. I also thought that as washing machines have become more affordable that laundrettes would be a thing of the past, a dinosaur waiting to become extinct. I had an inkling that this subject would suit film and in particular would suit this roll of film that when process could result in weird colours and artefacts due to the age. So off I went.

I began with laundrettes that I knew still existed and then I began to find more and more of them. In fact, it has actually shattered my illusion. The laundrette busy is still thriving and while the one’s I visited are a relic of the past there are new, clean, modern laundrettes opening up.

The film was processed by a lab in C41 chemistry and I have scanned the negatives. I have to admit that my neg scanner isn’t very good and there is deterioration in the sharpness of the image, noise and colour isn’t quite right but you know what? That doesn’t matter too much. I think it suits the subject perfectly.

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Laundry A study of Pennine Lancashire laundrettes in one roll of film

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Laundry is an exploration of the laundrettes of Pennine Lancashire.

Photographer Lee Johnson takes us on a photographic journey by setting himself a challenge.

Armed with his forty year old SLR camera, a 50mm lens and one roll of expired colour film, Lee sets out to document the laundrettes throughout East Lancashire with a perception that these are something of his childhood that are no longer viable and likely to disappear.

In this, Lee finds that not only are there more laundrettes than he thought but that they are thriving businesses that are continuing to grow.