Parked: Fraser Havenhand

Andrew D. McClees (ADM): For those who aren't familiar with you, or your work, can you introduce yourself?

Fraser Havenhand (FH): I'm a photographer based in Sheffield, I have been taking photos since I was at school, I chose photography as an A level and subsequently went on to study a degree in photography at Sheffield Hallam University. Since leaving education I became a photography assistant as a way to get a foot in the commercial world, and now work as a freelance photographer up and down the UK. Alongside studying and working I've always been obsessed with documenting my surroundings, from the last day of school (which i still have on a hard drive somewhere) to when I was assisting and lucky enough to travel, it felt like a great way to keep a diary of all the things I'd seen and places I'd visited. Alongside a passion for photography I've always been drawn to classic cars having owned 5 and helped build and restore countless others with my twin brother and our friends. So naturally as time went by I found myself wanting to try and find a way to combine my two biggest passions, cars and photography.

ADM: We're talking about your new book Parked - what's your premise for the book, and where does the title come from?

FH: So Parked actually started about 3 years ago although I didn't know it at the time, whenever I was out and about with my camera taking pictures I'd always be on the lookout for cool cars or interesting scenes with Parked or abandoned cars. As we all know Lockdown came to the uk and changed all of our lives, so without access to photographing cars through work and with extra time to take walks I started to notice cars that I once had overlooked. I saw abandoned cars, once left to the mercy of a front garden to rot amongst the trees and grass. I saw long term projects being uncovered and worked on for the first time in years. I saw the prized cars, washed off and taken for a drive in order to keep them well maintained during the long layoff that lockdown brought. As for the title, my girlfriend came up with it, i'm rubbish at thinking of titles for my work and we were sitting talking about the project in the living room, she just looked up and said call it Parked. So naturally the name stuck and here we are.

ADM: I'm not much of a gear/petrolhead myself, but I've known a few car enthusiasts over the years - to you what's the big draw? and is there a crossover with photography that might exist, but might not be immediately apparent to someone who isn't huge into about cars?

FH: I think for most enthusiasts it starts with the social side, it definitely was for me. When I was 17/18 years old a lot of my friends got into cars and modifying them and because the budgets are always quite low it makes sense to spend the money on an older one. They're also cheaper to maintain (in most cases!) I guess after that I always liked the idea that you can express yourself through driving a classic or modified car, the fact that you can change it and make it individual to you is exciting and makes it something that not everyone has. The last thing is that these cars all have a story, I remember buying a 1992 Volkswagen Jetta and finding a colouring sheet scrunched up under the rear seats with some loose crayons, at some point that car had been used to take the kids to school or for days trip and i think that's really cool that its been used and loved and passed on to the next person for them to enjoy.

ADM: In terms of general working process - what's a typical shoot like - what're you doing/what're you thinking about?

FH: Because there's always tons to think about on a commercial shoot, from early call times, to lots of kit and working alongside a big team of other creatives, I like to keep my personal work very separate. So my personal and documentary work just involves me, a small fuji camera and one lens. The whole project (and 99%) of my other personal work is shot this way. I think because you can get so caught up in the pragmatic choices that surround photography it's good to strip things back and just be mindful with a camera, and that's what I try to do when I go out on my photowalks. In terms of what I'm doing I usually just go out and pick a cool area of Sheffield that I have not explored yet, find a place to park and start walking. That way whatever you find seems much more exciting.

ADM: Is this your first Photobook or Zine? If so what got you to make parked? And if not what's been your book/zine making experience this far, and how have you applied it to the new book?

FH: This is my first proper photobook but my second go at self publishing. During Lockdown I made a small A5 zine called Light of the north with a selection of images I had taken since I started assisting about 7 years ago. This experience really pushed me to want to make a photobook. It felt great to sit down and look back at past photos, to try to find little threads that link the images or juxtapositions between two shots. This time though I wanted to make something that had a more cohesive theme and felt like a proper project. So when I noticed back in early lockdown I had a couple of images of Parked cars I really liked, I started getting my head down and looking harder for them when I was out and about. My first zine was designed by me and this time round I really wanted to make the most of the images I had and get a designer involved in the project who had the expertise that I definitely lacked! Luckily I share space with an amazing designer in the studio I rent in Sheffield - Paul Ward of Evergreen Agency - so naturally we worked together on the book to make it what you see today.

ADM: I find a lot of photography of cars a little boring, it's become kind of a dead meme in analog photography - but what you're doing here is really fascinating and compelling - what is it that you look for in your photographs of cars, and what is it that you're looking at when photographing the cars? - is it largely the same mindset or shot selection that you'd go for in broader photowalks/your personal work?

FH: I think it's more about how the whole scene works together, the car is the focus but it's also equally important how it interacts with its environment. There have been quite a few occasions whilst photographing for Parked that i've seen an amazing cars parked on a drive or on a road, but just because of access or surroundings i've had to leave the shot out, or sometimes just couldn't make it work in the viewfinder so not snapped it all together. I think my mindset stayed the same with Parked as it would have when shooting my broader personal work, and I think that helped to keep a consistent style and overall look to the images even though some are shot 3 years apart. I was always trying to say as much as I could about the car in frame without it becoming cluttered or a mess, is there a broken window that's been taped up, a posh house number behind an abandoned car, a little trinket on dash that helps you imagine what the owner might be like, I always wanted there to be something else in the frame with the car that helped us imagine the life it might've lived up to me discovering it parked up.

ADM: - That's really awesome, to get to work with a designer - I think a lot of photogs and zinemakers would really benefit from that. Do you have any big takeaways from working with your designer (Paul), and do you think this experience will shape how you approach your next book?

FH: The main thing for me is that you're bringing somebody else's expertise and creativity into the mix and that counts for so much. Especially if they mirror your enthusiasm for the project and can help elevate it beyond what you hoped it might be, like I feel Paul did with my book. I think the biggest takeaway is that you've got someone else taking care of a really critical part of the book making process and that helps you as the photographer focus on things like shot selection and ordering instead of being overwhelmed with the whole project (design, ordering, type, copy, layout etc). I think it will shape how I approach my next book definitely, I always want my work to keep a sense of authenticity but knowing it can be moulded into something more cohesive and be elevated with design, type and copy will make me consider shooting projects that, in the past, I might have found too mundane or quirky.

ADM: Were there any photobooks you had in mind while assembling this one, or are there any books that you think about a lot while approaching your personal work in general?

FH: Not specifically in terms of the subject matter, although I'm definitely not the first person to make a book on Parked cars so I'm sure there are a lot out there. I was really inspired by the books that Centre Centre makes in London, I was lucky enough to do the photography in one called Magic Papers a while back. The reason being the whole ethos of the publishers is that the books have really unique subject matter but are beautifully made and a joy to flick through, so that inspired me to make a book about something maybe more niche than usual.

ADM: What have you learned in the process of shooting Parked, is there a big core takeaway you've found?

FH: I think one of the biggest takeaways is being more patient with the process of taking photos. I'm fairly impatient and if I've made an image or a group of images I'm excited about I like to share them and get feedback from my peers or upload them to my commercial portfolio on my website. But with Parked, because initially it wasn't necessarily a project at all, and then when it did turn into an ongoing project I knew I wanted to make a book, I had to keep the images away on my computer and only look at them from time to time. It helped me realise that I could take a step back from my photography and take my time with developing the work and that I didn't have to put pressure on myself to keep churning out shots for Instagram or my portfolio (which sometimes it felt like I was doing).

ADM: From Al Palmer (of Brown Owl Press): What was the biggest single turning point for you as an artist?

FH: I think to be honest it was when I just started consistently going outside with my little camera and my 40mm lens and just deciding "I'm going to photograph whatever catches my eye today whether it's a rubbish bag on the floor or a shop window that looks interesting" and genuinely sticking to it. I used to over analyse a lot of what I was doing and try to figure out how other people whose work I loved were making magic in their images. I'd get caught up wondering why somebody else's work was amazing and mine wasn't. The best bit of advice I've ever been given is from a photographer I assisted for years in Sheffield and he said to me "You just have to start, take some pictures and see what happens" and even though it sounds so simple I think a lot of people really struggle with just making a start. When I started thinking like that things just seemed to click into place a lot more, I seemed to find a groove and start to carve out a style in my work and because I was enjoying what I was doing, my motivation to shoot as much as I could went through the roof.

ADM: What question do you have for the next photographer?

What keeps you motivated on the days when everything feels more difficult than it should?

ADM: Where can we pick up a copy of the book? Any final thoughts/words/shoutouts?

FH: Firstly i'd like to say thank you for the interview. It's been great to think about the project and be asked some really great questions. I would like to shout out my girlfriend Charlie for helping me keep it real when looking at my work. Also I'd like to shout out David for mentoring me and giving me the confidence to be a photographer, Justin for letting me chew his ear off on the phone about making photo books and how it all works, Phil for all his advice and weekly chats, and to Stefan and Ant for keeping me going in the group chat. The book is available through my website for pre-order, The first 50 copies bought come with a free 10x8 print.

https://www.fraserhavenhand.co.uk/parked-photobook

The Edge Of Industry: Al Palmer

Andrew D. McClees (ADM): For those who may not be familiar with you or your work, would you mind introducing yourself and your work?

Al Palmer (AP): I'm a photographer and book designer/publisher based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the United Kingdom. I've been taking photographs for 14 years now and have exhibited my work worldwide. The past few years have seen a shift from focusing on exhibitions to releasing my work in zine and book form. The majority of my work deals with world building, creating fictitious imaginary places from photographs of very real places. On the surface it may look like documentary work, it's very much not. Recently I've been creating work that deals with the fidelity of information: how much detail can an image lose before it can't communicate the intended message across.

ADM: We're talking about "The Edge Of Industry" - would you mind explaining the concept behind the series for the audience?

AP: The Edge of Industry is a cycle of photographs taken at the site of a derelict magnesium works near Hartlepool in the North of England where heavy industry has died off over the past thirty years. These images indirectly reference the death of shipbuilding and metal works, the lack of government action to prevent the North and South of England dividing both economically and socially, creating a generation of workers with no future; directly they show the land has yet to be redeveloped; it remains in a perpetual state of ruin. With an increasing amount of closures among factories in England these photographs are both a record of the end of a specific industrial area and also a quiet farewell to the past of the North of England.

ADM: What was the inspiration for the series? How did you settle on the concept and what is your personal relationship to it?

AP: I'm not a documentary photographer but this is the closest I've ever been to producing 'straight' documentary work. As with all of my work, it's more about me than the place I'm photographing. The magnesium works is visually attractive because it's so weird looking, people from differing backgrounds see sci-fi movies, dystopian novels... I saw the recently history of my area and my people. I'm from here and it was the future of my people that was impacted by the government of the Thatcher years.

ADM: Digging in a little more to your nod to worldbuilding vs. documentarianism - would you say that you've built an imagined or extrapolated narrative on top of the magnesium works for Edge of Industry?

AP: There's less world building in The Edge of Industry then, say, my work in “I Believe (In None of This)” but I am of the generation whose parents lost their jobs in heavy industry so there's a degree of distance. The ruins in the photographs are clearly a metaphor for the problems in society caused by these places of work shutting.

ADM: Taking it a step further, will you work on a project on what you believe the future (bleak or not) to be? Thinking future-forward in photography is always an odd topic.

AP: By nature each photography can only be a document of the past. I tend not to think about the future too heavily, certainly not to the point of making work regarding it. You could say my work is about the present, using snapshots of the past. Giving this some thought I cannot figure HOW I would make work about the future. That'd probably involve actual world building, making my own utopian model city and photographing it. Which does actually sound quite appealing...

ADM: You also run Brown Owl Press - what was the impetus behind starting your own zine printing company, and how would you say the self publishing process has affected your photographic and artistic process?

AP: I'm certainly more ruthless with regards to the photographic edit! I'm very conscious of how a series flows now, rather than just picturing the photographs on a gallery wall. I think this has probably meant that I focus less on taking interesting individual photographs and more on serving the narrative.I started Brown Owl Press mostly just because it felt like I should. Why wait for someone else to do it when I can? I like being able to publish photographic stories by photographers that deserve a bigger audience but possibly haven't received one yet.

ADM: Zooming the scope out a little bit - would you say that your work, Edge of Industry included, tends to center on implied or "broken" narratives? why or why not, and could you give an example of how you think about or process that narrative?

AP: Without a doubt. I think that's the crux of what I find interesting about photography: it's not very good at showing a linear narrative, especially in comparison to film making and prose. I suspect that's why a lot of photographers like to imagine they are working in a similar way to a poet. It's a nice idea, it's romantic, but I feel comics are a close visual medium to photography - sequential media leaving out much of the detail. The Edge of Industry is the outlier in my work in that I'm not really trying to suggest much, more show it. Primarily I think of photography as something closer to collage than to painting. Roughly tearing off this bit, a tiny sliver of this.

ADM: In terms of understanding “Edge of Industry: as outsiders - both an audience and, in my case (along with a fair chunk of our readers) as an American, what would you say the most essential photos are to understanding the project are, and what context they provide for the rest of the series?

AP: I'm not sure any one photograph carries more weight than another in this series, there are only 16 photographs and they all combine to give a good sense of the location. There are two photos that show the horizon, one shows this flat, unspectacular landscape and then other shows the North Sea. I suppose they give the magnesium works some physical reference point. There are definitely parallels with, say, Detroit in this story. It'll be interesting to know how an American sees this work. It'd previously been shown in New York but I can't imagine anyone from NYC looking at this work in the same way someone from the mid-West would, for instance.

ADM: The photobook/zine has (seemingly, to me) really come into vogue over the last ten to twenty years, and there's starting to be quite a bit of discussion of the photobook as an art object - as a publisher and book designer - what do you think the key elements of the art book or photobook/zine are, and what makes them so compelling, rather than say a folio, or a hanging exhibition?

AP: There are definitely economic aspects to this - digital printing increasingly being both cheap and high quality, so a decent photo zine costs a lot less than it would've in the past. The flipside of that is gallery/exhibition space has never been as expensive. Everyone has a camera in their pocket and the rise of Instagram has definitely helped photographers never switch off, so this off-hand photography definitely seems at odds with a formal gallery space. Also, an exhibition is temporary and photographs are permanent. Prints are hard to sell multiples of (finite wall space for most customers) while zines and books are an easier item to sell - especially with so many sales avenues online. It's not just economics though, photography works best on a small scale in my mind. I can do it at my own pace, and I'm in control of every single thing. And I like having full creative control of my work.

ADM: How has your approach to narrative driven photography changed over the years - did you learn anything new while making Edge of Industry that you'll take forward with you to the next project?

AP: The biggest lesson learned from The Edge of Industry is to work more efficiently. It was shot in a single day, the entire series consists of of just 16 photos. Some projects require a huge sprawling inventory of images, some require very few. How you say it matters almost as much as what you say. The Edge of Industry is quite literal work, both the photographs and the title. I'm unlikely to work in such a straight forward manner again, at least in the foreseeable future.

ADM: What are your major influences, photographic or not, and can you tie them back to Edge of Industry, or have you diverged from outside influence or touchstones, as you've matured as a practitioner?

AP: My biggest influence visually is Gerhard Richter. Carving into the space between reproduction and expression is at the heart of everything I do. I also admire the fact that he doesn't work in the same manner consistently, my big fear artistically is to just repeat myself. Alec Soth and Joel Sternfeld were huge influences on me photographing, and I can definitely see the influence of Sternfeld's Walking the High Line on this, just photographing a relatively small area in an expansive way with a fairly uniform view. I tend not to take direct inspiration from single photographers now, my inspiration tends to be more abstract and on a larger scale: ideas, music, technology.

ADM: Dipping into that - can you speak on some of the Music, Tech, and Ideas that you've been thinking about and inspired by lately?

AP: I'm hugely influenced by the German music scene surrounding the Termina/Beat Bude/Ava/Tax Free labels. It's most producers and DJs from the house and techno scene (Glenn Astro, Max Graef, Am Kinem etc) moving beyond rigid genre and begin deconstructing various types of music. A lot of it's quite experimental but it's also very musical, which keeps me interested. Photographically, the work of Clara de Tezanos is influencing me a lot currently. Her work is so rich and alien to me, I'm really enjoying trying to 'solve' it. It hints at a lot of things and I'm really trying to suggest more than I'm trying to explain in my own work of late. The idea I'm focusing on of late is how much detail can be taken from a photograph before it no longer communicates efficiently. I'm wrapping up a two year project on this topic currently as well as the layout of a book on the subject.

ADM: What advice would you give to someone looking to create photographs, or sets of photographs that lean into both a narrative form (both implied or explicit), and one that seeks to do "worldbuilding?"

AP: Take photographs impulsively, edit with intent. Or, the opposite. I tend to think in terms of batches of photographs being a 'chapter' or a 'verse'. Pacing is really important to a photo essay and I think that's especially important when putting your voice to something. Lots of experimenting in the editing phase is where the narrative will flourish, figuring out which photographs are essential to the story, and also which are not.

ADM: From Andy Pham: Do you think there is any value in the “hierarchy” of the photo world, or art world in general, in terms of the division between “gallery artists”, big publishers, etc. and the rest of us trying to just make work that means something personally? In other words, do you think there are pros and cons to both, or do you think there is anything lacking on either side of this divide?

For better and for worse I'm quite a self-driven person so, I've never had any fear of the hierarchy of photoworld. I'm not daunted by people or institutions. I can see why some would be useful, and openly want to be involved with some of them but that's because of what they can do for me/what I can bring to them rather than any need to be accepted.

If a recognised gallery wanted to show my work I'd be very conscious of using that (probably finite) time to harvest connections, grow my audience and put that back towards my usual DIY practice as it would probably not be a long-term arrangement. That possibly sounds a little mercenary but the larger the institution, the less concern it'll have for you so get what you can out of the situation. And hopefully make some money.

There are no heroes.

ADM: What question do you have for the next photographer? (you can answer the question yourself, if you'd like.)

AP: What was the biggest single turning point for you as an artist? My answer possibly links to the previous question: when I realised that I could do things myself rather than wait of galleries and publishers doing it for me. That was when I really put faith in myself as an artist rather than just someone who takes good photos. Keeping that moment in mind is important.

ADM: Thanks so much for the interview - do you have any parting words, or advice? I know we can purchase your zines and books at Brown Owl Press - but is there anywhere else that we can see or purchase more of your work? -- Thanks again for the interview!

AP: My advice can be applied to almost anything: consistency is the most important thing for progress.

The Brown Owl Press website has a list of our stockists but we do 90% of our trade via the webstore. Anything I publish that isn't under the Brown Owl Press umbrella is available via my website, the first of a series of zines I plan on publishing came out a couple of months ago called Crawling the Walls and is still available.

Thank you for interviewing me! If anyone has any further questions or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email.