MED 004 | The Train to The Haçienda, 1989.

I've been thinking about the increasing bans on phones in clubs, restaurants and bars, reminding us once again that we're missing out on being “in the moment" because we feel compelled to capture it through the lens of a phone.

But, Oi, shouldn’t the bans be more about allowing people to just grow up in private.

Being able to experience something away from a mainstream gaze, and let’s get into how very nonconsensual it is to have a phone shoved in your face with the footage forever floating around the internet without your permission. If you even know it’s out there.

I'm in the business of booze, with the hot topic being the fact that Gen Z doesn't really drink, mainly cited as being down to “health and wellness”, which I think is mostly nonsense and has more to do with the fact that they don't want their drunken footage following them around the rest of their lives.

One summer, way before the phone, I carried a camera around with me (with actual film) to a few parties, photographing what turned out to be rarely captured moments.

I wish I'd done it more.

At the time, I thought people would tell me to f*** off—but thankfully, they didn’t. If they had, I wouldn’t have these time capsules today.

My hope is a future that is self-regulating, with people making a conscious decision about when to and when not to film rather than metering out draconian blanket bans, which are ultimately No Fun.

This photo: on the train to Manchester for Nude at The Haçienda with Paul K Klass holding up what I think is a copy of MixMag.

In the spirit of this post, I’ll keep the rest of the photos private ☺️