Aspiration Road

In the period following the disbanding of the Beatles, a consequence of which was the apparent decline of Liverpool's mystique, the unassuming road designated the A41 (which for me starts at Woodside in Birkenhead and meanders through nine English counties, finally petering out in London's Oxford Street), came to represent, a lifeline to a better future; a potential 'Road to Riches'.

It was the road taken by the X1, the overnight coach and cheaper alternative to the train from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston. The near mythical single decker would depart from Birkenhead's Chester Street at around midnight, to begin its slow route south.

Steering clear of motorways, and taking in stops at many ill lit unknown towns enroute, this was the transforming journey, dreamed of and taken by many thrifty and ambitious individuals, keen to break free from a now lackluster Merseyside, in search of the bright lights, excitement and wealth that they believed only London could offer.

The Journey Begins

Method/Means/Objective

During my photographic journey, I will be using a specially made large format pinhole camera to document selected locations along the two hundred mile length of the A41. Traveling in an adapted van, which will also serve as a darkroom, I envisage carrying out my A41 documentation in several pre-planned stages, over a period of one year. My overall objective will be to compile a unique dossier of this enigmatic road, not only through the large format pinhole exposures and simultaneous audio I produce, but also through the more conventional means of 35mm analogue and digital imaging.

Pinhole Capture

The primary images will be produced from positions in close proximity to the road, using a large format pinhole camera and photographic paper. Depending upon the available light, they will require between one minute and thirty minutes exposure. These protracted exposures are not only necessary owing to the relative insensitivity of the orthochromatic material and the tiny aperture through which the image forming light must pass, but they will also serve to highlight, (through the unfamiliar emptiness they present) the unambiguous properties and poetic permanence of the static elements relating to the road, rather than the mundane profusion of transient vehicles that frequent it. Ideally, the photographic paper negatives would be processed in situ, on the day of their exposure, in order to verify their content and quality, before moving on to the next location.

Not the A41

Not the A41 / St Nicholas Place and New Quay, Liverpool

Not the A41 / Queen Square, Liverpool

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Digital Capture

Following the initial pinhole exposures, secondary images will be made of the identical view using a digital SLR camera with its versatile imaging capabilities. This second camera, the focal length of which will be set to correspond with the pinhole camera's angle of view, will occupy the exact position on the tripod and be oriented just as the pinhole camera was. Software allowing 'Timelapse' capture could be applied at this stage, or a similar effect might be created during post production.

Post Production/Collaboration

Before the project is undertaken, collaboration will be sought, with a specialist practitioner working within the field of creative technology. Following the image making period, this individual would be invited to apply their technological skills to the challenge of helping to realise the artist's exhibition concept. Edited fragments of the digital images will, during post production, be superimposed (in their respective positions) onto the now digitised pinhole images, as isolated, animated chromatic spectres; thereby representing singularly token participants in the road's acknowledged function and its seemingly unrelenting history.

Presentation/Exhibition

As if witnessed from inside a huge pinhole camera, a sequential projection of each pinhole image, accompanied by its synchronous soundtrack, will emerge from darkness, gradually becoming more apparent on the gallery wall, until eventually it reaches the completeness of its actual timed exposure. It will then begin to laterally reverse and invert. The digitally created details will then begin to appear in their respective positions, as if 'moving' through the otherwise empty roadscape. Within this period, additional overlaid sound could include audio material obtained through other artistic collaborations that transpire enroute.

Oxford Street, London

The junction of Orchard Street and Oxford Street

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Some Possible Locations Enroute

The photographs will be made at specific locations which will have been selected in advance of each stage of the journey, according to a number of criteria. These will include: a place's known or recorded history, any urban mythology, an individual of note linked to to a place, its pictorial resonance and any particular visual incongruity or distinctive feature that it might possess.

An A41 Footnote

In the late Summer of 1975, just before returning to Liverpool after a a period of study and work in London, I received an unusually symbolic twenty pound note in my pay packet. Immediately recognising the talismanic significance of this note, I decided that it was far too unique to spend and that instead I would keep it for good luck. In spite of this decision, the note spent several years carelessly abandoned by me in LIverpool, by which time it had been mounted and framed behind glass and left in the custody of trusted friends. Some years later, on returning to England from Ireland, in the austere 1980s, I became once more reacquainted with the fabled note. It then managed somehow to survive intact for a while as a fading curiosity on my wall in Derbyshire, until one day, against my better judgement, but with my stomach rumbling, I removed it from its frame and heading for Kwik Save, found myself reluctantly resigned to return it to circulation. The above blue tinted facsimile is all that remains of a 1975 Xerox photocopy of the inspiring but now sadly forsaken A41 20 (million) pound banknote.

N.B. The significance (if any) of the bank teller's handwritten number '380' has yet to be realised.