Blast! Festival of Photography, talks and walks, West Bromwich, Saturday 22nd June 2019
Informal OCA Midlands group meeting organised by Allan O’Neill We met at the Vine Pub in West Bromwich at 12 to look at Stephen Burke’s Exhibition “The Lord is my Shepherd”. Stephen joined us for the afternoon. Stephen works for GRAIN photography hub. Stephen explained that he applied to Multistory, the commissioners in 2017 for the 2019 Blast festival, giving him a year and a half to make and present the work alongside other his other works. I thought there was a resemblance to Casey Orr’s Saturday Girl on which I saw at Hull and Derby. Colourful backgrounds relate to clothing that would be worn to West Bromwich Albion Football Matches. The clothing represents a uniform and the single images collectively form football fans at a match. Themes emerging are culture, identity and a sense of belonging. People not smiling show respect. I liked the way the vinyl images hung, looking like fans in a football stand. The work was made in three parts: Interviews Fan gro...