I'll put them out there somewhere. at some point.
I quite like the idea of a book*, but I'd also like the idea of putting all of the photo's out there, not just the frontages, which, logistically, is a tall order.
(* I've got many a Liverpool pub book myself, including the full set of, A pub on every corner etc.)
I've recently gone through the pub files, and I reckon I photographed about 850+ pubs. A bit down on the original estimate of 1000. Although I probably missed out on about 50+ for various reasons. (mainly not getting filled in, when you rock up to a pub full of 'characters' and start asking to take photo's.
)
I've lost count of the amount of times I've been asked if I was DSS or plod. especially at some of the more 'interesting' establishments.
Of those 850, I recon I got permission to photograph the insides of maybe 650-700. So the archive is quite extensive, rolling out at somewhere in the region of 13,000 actual photo's
850 of just the frontages, is more than one book in itself. even adding 1 or 2 interior shots, doubles that, yet as the original project was to document the pubs, both the architectural features, the general layout, and the character of the establishments involved, to actually show the character of any individual pub, and do it justice, you'd probably have to show anywhere from 4 - 10 photo's per establishment. Minimum.
So you can see. Putting them out there at some point, is a must. It's far too good a social archive not to. How I go about that over the next few years ( or the next decade), I don't know.
I mean. in some pubs, I've got group pictures of some of the regulars. Group pics of groups of fella's in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, who've drank in that pub for decades.
Moving on 5, 10, 15 years, there'll be quite a few of those fella's who are now no longer with us, which, for their families, would be an almost irreplaceable snapshot of their loved ones. Again though, there's also the problem of privacy. A lot of people in the photo's are hiding their faces, as many people don't like to be photographed. Especially by a stranger, who's just rocked up. So it's a bit of a balancing act, so to speak, how and when you put those photo's out there.
Yes. The project was to create, and leave behind an archive of the social history of Liverpool's pubs. A snapshot in time as it were. Yes, I'd like as many people to see them as possible. How I go about that is open for debate.
