Brighton & Hove Comes Out of Lockdown

In May, I wrote the blog post Atget's Paris and Ollie's Brighton, in which I likened photographs of empty streets during Lockdown to photographer Eugène Atget's work in Paris in the late 19th Century.

It feels like an age ago. Since then, we have put up with unimaginable bullshit and somehow managed to keep our sanity.

But I have strived to carry on and record Brighton & Hove, and other parts of Sussex, gradually creeping out of Lockdown, despite the best efforts of the Government and its all-too-willing comrades in local government. Here are a number of those images.

One has to admire the ability of Sussex people to ignore all the brainwashing propaganda, all the crazy, contradictory statements by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, all the nonsense spouted by so-called experts and all the self-serving actions of local politicians and their apparatchiks - to just get on with their lives.

Gradually, the people have come out of hiding, and started to live again.

A few are wearing masks, despite the confusing Government guidance, others just pretending to.

Many are making full use of the summer sun and the gorgeous beaches of Brighton and Hove, despite the City Council's best efforts to control everybody and everything, with a vanishingly small amount of knowledge and intelligence.
Laura and I have been engaged in a battle to Reopen Madeira Drive - an iconic Brighton destination for Mods, rockers and visitors that the Council is assaying to close permanently under the cloak of Covid-19, to pursue its own bigoted, discriminatory agenda.

To date, more than 10,500 people have signed our Petition - and three successful protests have been staged, attracting local, regional, national and international publicity.

In this situation, you either fight the forces of chaos and evil - or you lie down and die.
Fortunately, most of the people of Brighton and Hove have more spunk and character than their feckless Council, extreme leftists punch-drunk on dosh from a right-wing Government. Oh, the irony! 

Enjoy my pictures of Brighton & Hove and surrounding Sussex proudly saying "No!" to The Bullshit - and coming out of Lockdown:

Atget's Paris and Ollie's Brighton

One of my photographer heroes is Eugène Atget who in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century methodically captured old Paris, photographing it street by street. I have a treasured book, Atget's Paris, containing some 800 images, most of which were taken in the early morning light suggesting a 'mysteriously deserted city', yet with a 'haunting, poetic quality', as the foreword described it.

During this current extraordinary time, I felt the need to occupy myself by trying to capture some of the same solitude that Eugène Atget found on the streets of his beloved city - on the deserted streets of mine.

I am not an early morning person, but I went out when I could during the day and evening to photograph the remarkable emptiness of Brighton & Hove's streets and open spaces, which would usually be thronging with visitors and revellers, particularly in fine, summer weather.

Amid the trauma of the news, my daily outings have proved a solace, knowing that I am recording Brighton & Hove in a situation that may never occur again in my lifetime.

Eugène Atget's photographs were not entirely devoid of life; sometimes some shadowy citizens, a cat or a horse-drawn carriage would appear. 

I also found the occasional visitor entering my pictures, escaping, like me, from the misery of lockdown for some exercise.

As a commuter, Brighton Station, devoid of passengers with just a couple of staff on the spotless concourse, struck me as particularly strange.

On my daily traipses, I encountered little acts of kindness and signs of love, as well as misery and despair.

It helped me. This has not been an easy time for anyone. 

Many of us are shocked by the inept handling of the crisis by a government that seemed to get off to a fair start. 

The daily news updates have scared half the population witless, while the police seem to have lost the plot, virtually giving up on crime busting.

One hell of an independent inquiry is needed into how Britain got it so wrong.

Meanwhile, runners and cyclists have gone feral, taking over the roads and streets; the air has been cleaner, and the birds have been audible.

Everyone has a viewpoint. Almost no one agrees. 

Like Eugène Atget, I have simply tried to observe and record.

I haven't enjoyed lockdown. But I have tried to accept the situation, stay positive and make the most of it.

One day, perhaps, schoolchildren will study this most strange period in our history - and I hope these 35 pictures of mine will give them an inkling of just how surreal life truly was in the Summer of 2020 in Brighton & Hove.