Flat 8 project

In my first year studying Visual Communications (photography and film) at Trent Polytechnic we were given a project to document where we lived. I turned the camera on my fellow flatmates (they were mainly studying Art) in our shared student accommodation at Flat 8, Hampden Street, Nottingham NG1 4FF. The images come from mainly 1980 though I may have continued the project into 1981.

1980

From the flat 8 project. In my mind I had it that the 4 art students I shared with ate together and shared a cooking rota, perhaps true some of the time but not generally. Being back in touch means memories can be compared and they dont always align with the stories we tell.
Pentax K1000, 50mm f2 lens Ilford HP5 film.

A student of art 1980

Bernard in the kitchen at the first year student accomodation in Bayham street. I took the religious iconography as ironic but now I wonder.

Fun and games

Adam Sulik (left) comes to visit after a trip to the Reject Shop in town. He has bought a rolling ball maze game and lets everyone have a go. After days of frustration Adam got quite good at it…

Flat 8 visitor

I cannot say for certain now but I think the Sheena Easton poster was meant to be ironic rather than a true fan statement.

The poster with Lech Wałęsa of the Polish Solidarity movement was not ironic, there is no doubt we all had a left wing bent, Margret Thatcher had come to power the previous year and was systematically removing the kinder aspects of a civil society, even at our young age we could sense her ideas were based in fear rather than love.

Cooking upset

A pan catastrophe, easy to get distracted in a busy shared flat. Aside from myself and one other the art students in the flat tended to cook communal meals for each other, I was fascinated by their meals based on rice and pasta, being working class I had not come across such things before.

I had come straight from school but the others had spent some time at an art college before Polytechnic, the age/confidence gap felt huge at the time. They were good company though and the collection of records they played expanded my musical horizons.

Chips again Ste?

Image from a documentary project. Student accommodation, Flat 8 Hampden Street, Nottingham, NG1 4FF. Pentax K1000 camera, 50mm f2 lens, Ilford HP5 film.

Going straight from school to Polytechnic was not an easy journey, the art students I shared first year accommodation with were older and more world wise. They were good guys and I hope that life has treated them well since I last saw them in 1980.

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