Some marriages don’t appear to be the epitome of harmony and bliss. And this was what I wanted to portray.
I managed to drag two random strangers off the street and promised them cold oatcakes and tea as payment for sitting eating cold oatcakes and drinking cold tea. Butch on the right is a constantly recovering alcoholic who lives in a vat of alcohol just outside Looe. Blodwyn on the left is a classically trained alcoholic impersonator who goes around impersonating alcoholics. No-one is quite sure why but it helps to pass the time.
Bonded by their love of booze, Blodwyn and Butch bewitched me with their bond as bewilderingly they befriended each other. It’s almost as if they have known each other for many a year and there even appears to be a kind of marital chemistry between them as they act out a scenario I created for them.
The shot is of my married couple having yet another disagreement over Butch asking Blodwyn if he can have an extra spoonful of sugar in his tea. You can tell this is a big issue for Butch as he waves his fork in the air in the direction of the trouble and strife. You can tell Blodwyn has tired of Butch’s many years of asking. Or she doesn’t care. Actually, it’s my picture….so she doesn’t care. At all.
I placed things in the picture to support the dead marriage theory too. Butch’s mug is too close to home and was bought for him by their daughter Be-Bop-A-Lula who is still mentally scarred by the time (sorry….times….) her Dad did have that extra passing of wind.
The flowers symbolise hope….no, not hope, what’s the word…..despair, yes that’s it. I’m always getting those two confused. So yes, despair, dead flowers and the last rotting vegetation of a marriage that reeks of apathy and festers in its own fetid, festering anti-fecundity.
The salt and pepper pot usually sit in a reproductive position so I purposefully split them up and they sit staring in opposite directions like two cars after a car crash. And if you understand that analogy you’re a better man than me.
So ultimately, it’s all about the opposite of a happy marriage and I was quite fortunate to get two completely strange people……sorry, two complete strangers…..who had never met before and exuded such wonderful chemistry. It was almost like they were made for each other.
- Glyn’s Portfolio
- Willfield Camera Club at the Potteries Museum
- The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize Exhibition at the Potteries Museum
28 by Glyn Wade
