One of my favourite and most enduring iPhone photography apps is ‘Hipstamatic’. It’s been around for many years now and has been updated into two versions, a subscription based version aimed at social media and photo sharing and a classic version, which originally had monthly updates with optional features that users could choose to purchase. The basic idea is to recreate an analogue experience on the phone, by using a film emulation, lens and optional flash, to turn the phone into an analogue style camera. In this, it works extremely well and the various packs can be interchanged endlessly to create combinations of the three elements, to suit personal tastes. Mostly, the purchased packs provide a distinct and interesting set of effects in the app.Since the second version was released a few years ago, Classic is still supported but on a less frequent basis, with new packs appearing around every two months. Generally, the packs are themed on a style, movement or a geographical area. The most recent pack is called ‘Jimbocho’ and features a pink cast to the film and a deep red border, suggestive of a region of Japan in the summer. It’s an acquired taste, but can be useful in certain situations.
Such a situation arrived shortly after it was released, when we decided to have a road trip to a retail outlet on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire. On the way back, we drove through the old seaside town of Blackpool. Blackpool has been famous as a holiday spot since the Victorian era, sporting a huge ironwork tower and two piers. Over the years it acquired a reputation as the’Vegas of the North West’, popular with factory workers and the working class as an escape from the mills and heavy industry of the area. It’s still massively popular with Scottish tourists during the summer too.
Blackpool is based around the ‘Golden Mile’, a coastal road running past shops, hotels, bars, arcades, restaurants and all manner of entertainments, including Ridley’s Believe it or Not and Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks. Each Autumn, crowds flock to the town to enjoy the famous illuminations, a series of themed lighted displays, strung across the roadway and supported by illuminated trams. Unfortunately, over the last twenty years, social deprivation and a general downturn in the economy has taken a heavy toll on the once popular destination. Although Blackpool looks bright and exciting after dark, when the lights are on and it’s in full swing, daylight reveals a tired and almost desperate vision, with many of the Victorian era hotels closed and crumbling and a pastiche of cheap glass and plastic attempting to paper over the cracks and entice the punters into the bars and arcades.
I used to love Blackpool, after my first visit in the early seventies, when it was at its kitschy best.Since then, it has faded and become just another seaside town struggling to survive and retain its visitors. With this in mind, I decided to use Hipstamatic to try and capture something of the facade that is presented to visitors, driving the Golden Mile. The series of gaudy, discoloured snaps sit well with the cheap, disposable nature of a day in the town, perhaps capturing the sickly scent of sour burger grease and out of date Blackpool rock.
