''Hippy Tower '' ( was Bleach )
Judy and All, ''Hippy'' ( from Kerouac, Norman Mailer and the fifties ) is used, here in Britain, to describe a person who has gone, ''on the road',' for a short while. Maybe, another word would be, ''back packer.'' Quite often they became ''graffiti '' artists and are generally regarded as a nuisance to the communities in which they practice their art on public buildings. You have them in N Y, of course. ''Hippy Tower'' was part of a military site in Spain which became derelict, discarded and unused several years ago. From 1985 we used to visit this fascinating place. Then with our kids, every year, as it was still open for folk to wander around. Remnants of a gone time when the government thought it a good idea to have gun emplacements there. The whole area was full of ghosts of young soldiers who spent time in conscripted military service. Message scratched on a wall, ''Two years of my life here were lost.'' ( in Spanish ). The site is quite remote and so hippies and graffitists were left to squat there . The local police seemed uninterested and so left them alone away from the towns long enough to produce quite a startling body of work. I have shots of this, as well. The ''Hippy Tower ''digital shot was taken in 2005, but on approaching this year, 2007 we were welcomed by a military police officer posted there eight hours a day to warn us, ''Prohibido ''. He was dressed in casual shoes and, but for his badge and dark green shirt, he could have been mistaken for a hippy, himself. His hair length reached his shoulders and he had a full beard. When I asked, '' Why now prohibited ?,'' he emphasized, ''Dangerous !! '', and to establish his duty to prevent anyone from entering, stood with folded arms while I took a snap of him. He was a very pleasant guy. I think the site has now been completely demolished to make room for tourist hotels or high class villas. However, I have several shots which could be regarded as historical documents. Your questions re the Picasa w/s and arrows are a mystery to me, too. Thanks for awakening my memories. John - Photographist - London - UK ----- Original Message ----- From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com> To: "The List" <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca> Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 5:06 AM Subject: Re: Bleach On Sat, 8 Dec 2007, John Grocott wrote:Good Morning All,John, I did care to view it... and found it very intriguing -- tho of course viewing on the monitor is frustrating, that is, I never feel I get the real feel of a print. However the image itself is intriguing. Could you be persuaded to expand a bit on that? Why is it a "hippy tower"?, for instance. And which part, foreground or background? Where is it? And when did you make this print? Etc.
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