Bingley Banalography

We are surrounded by the mundane, the ordinary and the banal everyday, but do we ever look at it?

This series of photographs aim to capture moments of ordinariness, frozen as moments in time. A car going past on the road. A hedge. A wall. A house.

These pictures could have been taken anywhere. Though could they?

A side on view of a white car driving up a hill. Behind is a low stone wall and a very bushy hedge that is lit up at the top by the sun. The car driver is just about visible but blurred, it is a woman looking suspiciously at the photographer.

Park Road: Going Up

Two wheelie Bins labelled Flat 1 and Flat 2 in front of a low wall made of Yorkshire Stone. The garden shrubbery fills the top of the picture. In the front of the picture is the front of a grey car which is slightly blurred due to its speed.

Park Road: Bin Day

A red car driving on a road downhill. Behind is a wall with a hedge on top that is very uneven. Behind the hedge, the top of a house can be seen.

Park Road: Wild Hedges

A night time photograph showing a blurred white car driving downhill. The road is wet and there are reflections from streetlights. Just about visible are hedges in front of the houses each side of Park Road as we look uphill.

Park Road: Late Night All Quiet

A night time photograph showing a side view of a blue car with headlights on that is blurred because of the movement. Behind is a modern low rise residential block with steps and lights visible.

Ferncliffe Road: Cardigan House Community Centre

A parked black van outside a house. The house can be seen from the side with several windows and a brick wall. The house is typical of a Victorian Yorkshire stone terrace.

Charles Street: Lunchtime
Stillness

Two modern town houses, each with a twin garage give a certain symmetry to the picdture. In front of the houses are wheelie bins. There is a line of red white and blue bunting that stretches across the picture in front of the houses.

Ready for the Coronation

Westleigh

A view of an ordinary house which has a low railing in front of it, a new metal lamp post and a telegraph pole.

New Lamp Post Installation

Staveley Road

A stone wall at the side of a road with a hedge visible on top. It is daylight and there is light and shadow.

Wall and Hedge

Priestthorpe Lane

A skip filled with red, white, and blue balloons following celebrations for the coronation of King Charles III

After the Coronation

Nuffield Health & Wellbeing Centre, Cottingley

(this picture is in the Historic England Archive)

A poster advertising a Photographic exhibition. The poster has a picture of a car being driven up a hill with a wall and hedge behind. The poster text reads: Bingley Banalography. Photographs of extra-ordinary ordinariness. A mini exhibition from Bingley Camera Club member Marcus Rattray. Bingley Arts Centre Main Street Bingley BD16 2LZ. February 6 to March 15th 2024. Open 10 am to 1 pm Monday to Friday. The poster also displays the Logos of Bingley Arts Centre and Bingley Camera Club

Six pictures from this series were exhibited at Bingley Arts Centre between February 6th and March 15th 2024