{"id":21123,"date":"2025-01-10T12:06:52","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T12:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/adventure\/a-z-every-street-alastair-humphreys\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T12:06:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T12:06:52","slug":"a-z-every-street-alastair-humphreys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=21123","title":{"rendered":"A-Z Every Street – Alastair Humphreys"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A-Z Every Street<\/h2>\n

Hello again!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of trying to see more of where you live, of being more curious and observant in order to appreciate the places on your doorstep better.<\/p>\n

Photographer\u00a0Thomas James<\/a>\u00a0kindly agreed to write a short piece for this newsletter about his mission to do exactly this, in his hometown of Bath.\u00a0Thank you, Thomas!<\/p>\n

A-Z Every Street<\/h2>\n

Dear friends,<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been drawn to the idea that making images can be a form of active meditation\u2014a way to allow yourself to be more present and self-aware. Looking through a lens, we slow down, observe more closely, and see the world around us. Patterns, textures, light, and shadow that might go unnoticed\u00a0quite literally<\/em>\u00a0come into focus.<\/p>\n

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That was the idea behind my\u00a0\u201cA-Z Every Street\u201d<\/a>\u00a0project which saw me set out to walk every street in my hometown of Bath over 2021. The concept was straightforward: one camera, one Collins A-to-Z street atlas and one red Sharpie to mark my progress.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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For those unfamiliar, Bath is a city that lives off tourism. Georgian architecture, Roman-era baths, and a medieval abbey mean the town attracts over 5 million visitors annually. Growing up here, I thought I had a sense of Bath. But it wasn\u2019t until I moved away and returned later in life that I began to see the gap between the postcard and the everyday living city.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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I wanted the project to be an exercise in what the Situationists called psychogeography\u2014a way to explore urban environments in a playful, non-utilitarian way, using chance operations to guide a journey. The goal is to break out of habitual ways of experiencing the city.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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My photographic heroes come from the 1970s New Topographics movement\u2014photographers like Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, and Stephen Shore, who turned their cameras on the mundane, man-altered landscapes of post-war America and found a strange, austere beauty there. But, on this side of the Atlantic, we have our own stable of new topographers, such as Jem Southam, Paul Graham, and Luigi Ghirri, whose patient, contemplative approach to the landscape has always resonated with me.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the A-Z Every Street project became a personal treasure hunt, a search for small, extraordinary scenes in the mundane\u2014in the back alleys and cul-de-sacs, in the unassuming corners and forgotten spaces.<\/p>\n

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What I ended up with \u2013 I hope \u2013 counters the flattening effect of the tourist gaze, something a bit more gritty behind the glossy veneer that captures a few of my home\u2019s idiosyncratic charm.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than that, I wanted to demonstrate how to see your surroundings with fresh eyes and find beauty and meaning in the everyday.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, photography\u2019s real power is this form of active meditation, not about making pretty pictures. It\u2019s about developing a way of seeing, being present, and engaging with the world.<\/p>\n

Until next time,<\/p>\n

Thomas<\/p>\n

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