October 2010
1 post
BOOM & BUST magazine #1 →
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
1 post
July 2010
1 post
June 2010
3 posts
If you are interested in mass communication, then you have to stop thinking of yourself as a photographer. We live in a post-photographic world. If you are interested in photography, then you are interested in something — in terms of mass communication — that is past. I am interested in reaching as many people as possible.
If we see ourselves merely as photographers, we are failing our duty. It...
Memorials
Back in 1994 I was volunteering at a grassroots police monitoring group. We worked with people who needed help with advice on legal issues, benefits, all sorts of everyday problems and we also campaigned on local issues. On a regular basis we were dealing with people who’d been assaulted or fitted up by the police and in some cases the relatives of people who’d been killed by the police.
On 16...
May 2010
6 posts
Criminality is just a crowbar
It’s a commonly held swizz that hoods are a signal of criminal intent. This is a schoolboy error of logic – criminals wear hoods, therefore hood-wearers are criminal – but it isn’t intended to stand up. Criminality is just a crowbar, a way to make this a common cause rather than an individual decision.
Zoe Williams - Guardian 5/5/2010
Asbo to ban showing pants dropped
A teenager has avoided being given an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) banning him from wearing low-slung trousers.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had considered the order for Ellis Drummond, 18, from Rushden, Northants. But the CPS decided against calling for the ban after meeting with defence lawyers before the hearing in Bedford.
Instead, Drummond was handed an Asbo which barred him...
April 2010
18 posts
Teenagers
If “TEENAGER” brings to mind images of barely socialised, threatening loafers, boasting hoodies and ASBOs fuelling their “slacker” lifestyles with sex drugs, then you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Barry Forshaw - Daily Express August 21 2009
Sunday Express article - BAN THE HOOD FOR GOOD
This extraordinary article includes virtually every single stupid ignorant stereotype about young people crammed into one short article. The last paragraph is particularly valuable…
HOODIES ARE THE DISGUISE OF FERAL BRITAIN
Britain was mourning the latest innocent victims of violent crime last week after a spate of senseless murders. In every case, the killer’s sullen face was hidden...
Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
I started to use stencils in the 1980’s as a way to get more of a message up in the very short time available when you are painting in a public place. It was mostly political graffiti back then, shouting messages from the walls and that kind of thing. That was what the 80’s was all about!
Over the last few years I got more interested in making a more subtle point. Some of the...
Media stories make teenagers scared of each other
The most striking finding, according to the research, was that many [teenagers] were now more wary of boys of their own age. “It seems the endless diet of media reports about ‘yobs’ and ‘feral’ youths is making them fearful of other teens,” it said. “Nearly a third said they are ‘always’ or ‘often’ wary of teenage boys they...
Who’s afraid of the big bad hoodie?
Who’s afraid of the big bad hoodie? Enough of us, certainly, that the smart money in British cinema is going on those films that prey on our fear of urban youths and show that fear back to us. These days, the scariest Britflick villain isn’t a flesh-eating zombie, or an East End Mr Big with a sawn-off shooter and a tattooed sidekick. It is a teenage boy with a penchant for flammable...
Young men face 4 times the average risk of...
The risk of being a victim of violent crime in the 2007/08 British Crime Survey was 3.2%. Men (4.1%) were almost twice as likely as women (2.3%) to have experienced some sort of violence in the year prior to interview. The risk for men aged 16 to 24 was highest at 13.4%.
More than half of British adults believe children...
More than half the population believe UK children behave like animals, a Barnardo’s survey has found. The survey asked people whether they agreed or disagreed with statements about children.
54% of people think that British children are beginning to behave like animals
49% believe that children are increasingly a danger to each other and adults
43% think something must be done to...
Media portrayal of young people
98% of 12-25 year olds feel that the media always, often or sometimes represents them as antisocial.
British Youth Council survey 2006
March 2010
1 post
Media portrayal of teenage boys
Figures show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in 2009 (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime.
The word most commonly used to describe them was “yobs” (591 times), followed by “thugs” (254 times), “sick” (119 times) and “feral” (96 times).
Other terms often used included “hoodie”,...