So whilst we’ve all been desperately trying to enjoy this hot weather but perhaps quietly just wishing for a nice cool breeze and a normal English summer day, how we cope with the heat all over the world has been captured in a couple of Hixposure collections.
These photographs were taken around the world highlighting the need for air conditioning and how in some countries it would be simply unbearable without it. Although the concept originated in the 17th Century it was the early 1900s when the first commercial air conditioner was made available. Although they’re bad for the environment, and usually barely needed in the UK, they are totally wonderful in hotter climates.
As a big fan (sorry!) of them, Hicks captures their simplicity in this collection but naturally wishes someone would invent a more environmentally friendly version. However, it does seem that globally temperatures are increasing and the need to cope with warmer weather in the UK is also apparently on the rise. Not wanting to be the country that has a mini panic if it’s too hot or too cold it would seem the time is here to just embrace, cope, enjoy, suffer, whatever the emotion and feelings, with the increase in our temperatures, the best we can, without excuses!
The practical ugliness of the air-con machines is captured in this collection in all its glory. Air-con machines may be something you may not have considered as a subject matter for a photographic collection and yet its obvious necessity and presence in our lives is ever present, so why not document?
It’s believed that the very first hand fan appeared in India around 500BC and it was apparently the introduction of the electric fan in America in the 1880s that changed everything. By the 1920s fans were being churned out by new industrial methods making fans cheap enough for the general public to own. So, these days if you can’t afford air conditioning and many, many millions can’t, get yourself a cheap reliable fan!
Photojournalism is there to document the good, the bad and the ugly, to highlight what many of us visually take for granted. The choice of whether to share these moments in black and white or colour is another interesting decision a photographer takes. It is always interesting to consider the values of black and white photography and how it can often seem to take on a much more sombre atmosphere, which is very much hinted at in this collection.
There are no distractions in the images, no use of colour to enhance the architecture or indeed improve the emotions of the images. Your brain is not distracted by colour and perhaps there is a stronger and more emotional connection to the scenes conveyed. The shapes, patterns and shadows arguably create a more impactful image in the composition, focusing on the subject matter, rather than the aesthetics of colour. Black and white photography in this collection, feels vital to the actual message the images are conveying and the impact they have on the viewer – Pretty cool collections really!