ARTIFICIAL FLORAL WREATHS

Here's a fantastic example of micro politics in action. This resident of Bensham lives in a listed heritage area and broke planning regulations by adding to his property without prior planning consent. Passerbys informed me that the home owner politicised his house nine months ago and that the contestation between the home owner and Gateshead Council rages on. According to the passerbys the planning department felt the banners broke regulations and made the home owner take a poster above the doorway down. The rest remain...the home owner obvioulsy favours his war political voice above natural daylight!
This case study could be used to discuss many geographical issues such as agency, resistence, local politics, democracy, territorialism, ownership, forms of private public protest, and the public/private domain.
Other statements on the property include the message:
'SURPRISE SURPRISE THIS LOT WANT OUR VOTES THIS HOUSE IS DETREMENTAL TO THE AREA' and 'THANK YOU NOT SURPRIZING TO HAVE MORE LOCAL SUPPORT THAN ELECTED COUNCILLORS, THE 3 BUFFOONS can't see, won't see, don't speak YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL'.

This photo shows how flowers have been used to gain extra visual impact, and a touch of the paranioa / eccentricity creeps in with the 'close circuit television' window sticker.

I notice that quite a few flickr members have been visiting the town of Glastonbury recently, such as Spencer_D & StarPixie (yesterday) and Dichohecho (earlier this month), so I thought that it's about time I gave it a quick visit as I have not been here for some time, apart from passing through via the bypass.

Glastonbury is famous for its hippy flower power culture and has a large number of very eccentric residents which makes this a very good place to photograph interesting looking people. As I tend to shoot things rather than people I tried to find something that epitomised the character of Glastonbury and parked up just behind the Rainbows End Cafe was this classic icon of 60's flower power.

As well as the colourful flowers, it was plastered with window stickers - Save the Whale, CND, Greenpeace, Friends of The Earth....you name it they had it!

This shot was taken near the end of my visit, as the sky had got very black and it was threatening to rain at any minute, and I was down to f/4 at this stage in order to get enough light into the camera. A few minutes later it had started pouring with rain.

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