All Saints' Millbrook (2020) Fotografia da Tina Lane

An abstract page from the 'Diary of Flea Laney' May 16th 2020.
My photo I took of All Saints' Church, Millbrook. I walk past it most evenings on my way to the local shops. Proud of my proletariat background and the community I live in, I posted the image to Southampton Heritage Photos. For the greater part Millbrook is a community of council owned flats with no gardens and a huge central green for us all to share: 'Mansel Park'. Many of the houses that are here were council but are now owned, however not all of them and our community remains.
My image was taken down!
The admin said it was unrecognisable and I need to lighten it. Meaning he personally did not recognise the church or like the image.
There was nothing listed under the page rules that all images must be light. Well we all have our opinions on what makes a good image, for me the darkness was required to show the light in the window, a welcoming and inviting light in the cold dark night. The window is highly recognisable for so very many who live or have lived in Millbrook, it is a pivotal part of our community. The outline of the church has a very distinct outline, I heard someone call it 'The Sphinx', it is not a typical church shape that could be anywhere, it is our church in Millbrook, it is our local Southampton heritage.
I think my opinion as an artisan designer outweighs the admins creative lacking, but he runs the group and the masses of 'here are the flowers in the park' and 'ducks on the water' will remain the constant in heritage group he runs, if that is what the people there want, so be it. (Shouganai)
Perhaps rename the group the duck 'n' flowers?
Anyway I did as one lady suggested and joined the group for those who grew up in Millbrook, Southampton. (I was a bit nervous, I did not grow up in Millbrook however I have lived here 20+ years. Where I grew up was a very similar council estate that had the same community values and well known local families spread over the estate).
When I posted the same image to the local Millbrook group it must have hit memory central as so many liked and commented, it put what they remembered from their youth, quite often the 60's,70's and 80's into a very romanticised yet solitary light. Memory does that too.
I rock depicting 'Aloneness' without myself being lonely, but I am alone. It's who I am and part of me. The longing I have is not to be part of a pair, but to understand what drives the need to be paired up to complete ones own happiness. (I am neurodiverse to slap an unwanted tag on myself).
Moving on; many of the members of the Millbrook group are the same as me in respect of no longer living in the place they grew up, but the longing of memory remains, seeing images of where they grew up.
People from all over the country and further afield are commenting how they specifically remember the church, the clubs they joined, they married there, their children christened or boy scouts, girl guides, it dug into a huge well of memories for so many.
It counteracted the feeling I had of being a 'fake' in the group, not having grown up in Millbrook. I am actually a very useful part of the 'now' community. It's giving people what they want to see of their childhood memories on the estate that I am part of today, not a shipped in artist who is sponsored to tell them about where they live/lived. (A reference to 'Artwashing' lower socio economic areas ready for gentrification).
My photo was taken before the ugly great 5G mast All 3 of our local Labour Cllr's permitted to be slapped in front of the church, with next to zero consultation to the wider community on it's placement. Most of us waking up to WTF is that!? The masts central placement in amongst the houses is visible to us all and stands towering over our local landmark: 'The Church'. I am not specifically religious, but the church and it's hall has been a central part of the community since it was built. Various clubs, art, slimming, dance not connected to any religion use it's hall and we use the hall to vote.
Questions such as why was it not placed just behind the church on the edge of the Mansel Park arose? Answers like 'because Labour still have the plans stashed away on a back burner to sell that land to developers' was the obvious reply. They had tried previously in 2016 to take part of the park before being chased out of the church hall in which they held their land grab consultation. (The park belongs to the people). So now they have demeaned the church. The prep is already laid for the next step of gentrification. Southampton Labour put this in motion, make no mistakes.
Dear Southampton Labour, are you still wondering why you got the boot out of here? Are you still confused as to why an area you thought was yours by right because we are in the lower socio economic bracket would want you gone? You of the 'we pretend to let you have your say' but in reality it's we do what the developers pay us to do and that is snatch your land whilst telling you its for your own good, not caring many in Millbrook have no gardens? Are you really that stupid that you who allowed major developments to be built on every part of the green fields surrounding Millbrook would not understand why you were kicked to the curb? You turned your back on those you are supposed to represent, the working class.
(Labour collected monies as 'donations' from developers who built in Southampton, 'Section 106' they called it. That's what paid for the nice bespoke fencing now in the city centre by the very expensive apartments, developers who took full advantage of poorer areas like Millbrook who got no such fancy fencing... The only time I will personally step foot in the city centre Marker Bills Gallery is to throw animal blood and cut trees all around it, our loss was 'High Arts' gain, how sad and what a severe lack of insight into genuinely engaging with the local communities artistically).
Anyway back on topic and less of my personal political view of trust and betrayal, here is the dreadfully controversial image by way of it being chucked out by one heritage group and loved by another!
I use the natural degradation and compression of the lossy jpg file on a phone camera to create an image that is more painterly than photographic, the opposite of photorealistic paintings.

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