The past 4 months have been a pretty interesting time, I mentioned earlier that I’d recently bought a canal boat and had been in the process of working on it…. plumbing, installing solar panels, and moving it from Abergavenny via Birmingham all the way to Kings Cross in London where we are currently moored.
Horrifying and illuminating stories.
The past winter has been slightly busier than I expected and I haven’t really been able to make anywhere near enough time to work on my own projects or update my blog.
apologies.
Its been a few months since I went out to photograph Colnbrook IRC, unfortunately I’ve been having issues with my laptop so I haven’t actually been able to publish anything new, but today a lovely new laptop arrived in the post coincidentally as my old one completely died and I have a little free time to go back over some of these photos.
Unlike Yarl’s Wood IRC The Verne is a relative newcomer to the detention of people claiming asylum in the UK, having said that up until the end of 2013 it operated as a class C Male Prison, so this isn’t exactly new territory.
Situated onto of the Isle of Portland in dorset overlooking the cliffs and beaches lining the english channel, it used to be military citadel defending the port below. Theres a tremendous sense of history here, and the IRC itself is lined with abandoned houses, gardens overgrown with elder and blackberries and a small and sterile jailhouse cafe.
I finally gathered some time together to go out on a couple of shoots this month. First on the list was to visit my local Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire. Yarl’s Wood IRC is located on the same business park as Redbull indoor skydiving, The idea that a detention centre would be located on a business park probably would have surprised me a few years ago.
Stayed with some friends in Gothenburg in Novemeber, I liked this polar bear.
First week or so in Berlin, and I’m surrounded by very pretty abandoned buildings and graffiti. On the third floor you have grown to the same level as the tops of the trees surrounding the building and the light and the trees dance across the floors and walls. It used to be an East German radio station, now it isn’t.
RICHARD SOUTH 