Peonies and WAGS

click photo to enlarge

The styling of cars goes in waves - one decade, say the 1970s, it's all angular edges like the origami folds of the first VW Golf. Move on ten years and curves are back. Then, just as we've got used to those, retro pops its head up in the guise of cars like the PT Cruiser, the "new" Beetle and the re-vamped Mini. So too with clothing fashions. Year after year corduroy jackets are available, then suddenly the rails sport not a one. You resign yourself to life without this essential, then one day are amazed to see them back again!

I thought about this the other day when I was looking at a photograph of a group of "WAGS" in my newspaper. For the uninitiated these are the "wives and girlfriends" of our over-paid Premier League footballers. As with cars and clothing their appearance has converged to a "type" that is tanned, lip-glossed, ear-ringed, with long streaked blond hair, short skirts, and a glass of champagne in the right hand. How, I wondered, do their partners tell one from the other? And does it matter? However, my wife was on hand to enlighten me: "That's what the tattoos are for!" she perceptively said. I hadn't thought about it before, but there had to be a reason for tattoos beyond vanity and group identity: and, after it was pointed out to me, their role in helping their men to tell one from the other now seems so obvious. Maybe, in time, today's tribal patterns, fey flowers and dinky Chinese script will gradually evolve to a more functional tattooed barcode that more properly reflects their status as the property of the rich? Now that I know the real purpose of these tattoos life makes a little more sense than it did!

What has this to do with a close-up of a peony bloom? Well, colour combinations come and go in waves too. Turquoise paired with brown has recently forced itself on my consciousness, appearing on household goods ranging from duvet covers to place mats. The designs have a retro/Op Art/1960s feel. Presumably one designer felt it was time to look back, and the rest agreed. I hope that pairing pink with yellow isn't the next combination. This mixture reminds me of ice-creams and fun fairs - a garish combination that no right minded person would put together. However, it is said that the colours in nature never clash, and though I have seen the occasional garden planting that disproves that rule, it is broadly true. So I do like the pink and yellow as it occurs in this plant in the photograph. I captured the bloom on my window sill, a warm shaft of sunlight to the left, the colder light of the room to the right. I increased the intensity of the blue just a touch to introduce a third colour to the ensemble.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm macro (70mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f16
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

No, no to retro!

click photo to enlarge

The success of the "new" Mini has been trumpeted in the press in recent days. It seems to be selling very well and production is to be increased. Commentators like it and, apparently, so do the car-buying public. I don't! My view of this car is the same as my thinking on the "new" VW Beetle - they are shams: pale imitations of the vehicles that they are designed to echo, and based on a corrupt design principle.

Alec Issigonis, the designer of the original Mini had a clear brief to make a small, mass-produced, inexpensive vehicle. He succeeded by being innovatory. The new car had to fit in a space 10 feet X 4 feet X 4 feet, the passenger cell had to be at least 6 feet long, and it had to use an existing engine. The designers came up with a monocoque shell, mounted the engine transversely, and gave it front-wheel drive. The wheels at each corner conferred great stability and handling, and the firm ride came from the use of rubber cones instead of conventional springs. Other innovations like welded seams, sliding windows and external hinges kept the cost down and contributed to a quirky and appealing aesthetic. Despite its cost being initially more than was intended people wanted to buy it, and it became a great success. By contrast the "new" Mini simply apes the appearance and details of the old car, and uses the same bog standard designs found on every new car. Retro and copyist styling of this sort shows lazy, bankrupt thinking. It's like building a mock-Georgian house in the twenty-first century. Why would you do it? People should build for now. They should create designs of their own time and push forward, not look back!

What, you're probably thinking, has this got to do with a shelter on the Blackpool's North Shore - all pediments, cartouches and ornate iron brackets. Well, new shelters have been built on the South Shore that completely disregard old designs of this sort. And, further up the coast new, modern shelters are appearing as part of Cleveleys' new sea-defences. No one thought for a moment to create shelters that looked like, or drew their inspiration from examples such as the one in the photograph. This shelter is of its time, is not without distinction, but certainly isn't of today. Car designers need to take note!

I took this shot on cold sunny day when the biting wind made a cliff-top walk a challenge rather than a pleasure. But that didn't stop the determined, two of whom I included in my image. I placed the shelter very slightly off centre to balance the people, and post-processed in contrasty black and white to emphasise the strong forms. The photograph was taken with a medium zoom lens at 36mm (35mm equivalent) with the camera set to Aperture Priority (f7.1 at 1/320 second), ISO 100, with -1.3EV.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen