Youth Hostel Photos

Well the guy who runs the youth hostel is a total sweetheart, just went down there and he told me he's told a bunch of people about it and if i go back at 5pmish there'll be more people milling around and I'm welcome to just grab randoms to take their photo.

I also took his picture since he seemed quite excited about the whole thing, and really quite wanted to be part of my project.

I can't decide if i should just ask people where they are from, or if I should ask something like "What's one reason you're travelling?" I'd rather do the latter but i'm worried people will give me crazed rambling boring responses about getting away from stuff and seeing the world when I want them to say things like "meeting people!" or "getting lost!" or "the food!" only more interesting.

I'm nervous.

Whoo

Hi,

I have kind of a strange request. : )

I'm a Photography student at Sunderland University. I was wondering if you have many people staying with you at the moment that are passing through Newcastle on travels around the world/europe/wherever, and whether it would be possible for me to come and ask a few people if they wouldn't mind having their photograph taken outside the hostel for a project.

Would this be possible/okay?

Thanks,
Amy

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Hi Amy,

Thanks for your e-mail, sounds like a bit of a fun project!!

I wouldn't have any problem with you taking photos, we do get people staying here from all over the world. I am not to sure what day or time you would want to pop around we are open all day so you can just turn up.

I am sure either myself or some of my staff would be able to help you if there are no hostellers available.

Please feel free to contact me if you wish to arrange a time to suit or just turn up.

Good luck with your studies,

Regards Jeff Austen (Senior Assistant YHA Newcastle)

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Finally decided what to do for the project. Also i'm gonna ask people something along the lines of what they think the point of travelling is, or one of their reasons for travelling, inspired by this http://www.photohype.com/HOE2.htm online exhibition. Saw a poster for that exhibition while in Barcelona but for some reason that i can't remember, couldn't go. It was something stupid like the poster didn't say the date or something. Also, i've stood on this balcony: http://www.photohype.com/HOEkabulsiestas.htm \o/

Oooh that reminds me, we're going to Edinburgh for fireworks night weekend, about 7 of us are gonna stay in a hostel for the weekend. We wanted to get a 7 seater hire car to drive up there, but turns out you have to be 23(!) to hire a car in england so train it is.

Okay i was gonna write more but have been conned into playing drinking monopoly

Urgh

I think i'm ill. My throat hurts and my neck is sore. I actaully really don't want to get sick at the moment because i don't want to miss any uni. And I'm supposed to do this project today centred around a street, and I really don't feel like going out in the freezing cold wind and occasional rain.

I haven't even decided exactly what i'm gonna do for it. We're supposed to photograph a street within a certain genre, so fine art, landscape, documentary, portrait, architecture. I could do landscape or architecture pretty easily but i want to do documentary. So i was gonna pick a place and stop people walking by and ask them to have their photo taken, and ask them a specific question and write their answer on the bottom of the prints. It's just a case of deciding where to do it, and what question.

Thought about going to the local Youth Hostel, and asking people where they're travelling to next.
Or unz suggested going to a record store and asking people what their favourite band is
Or I could wait till the evening and stop people on the Quayside between clubs and ask them something. Maybe, how much have you drunk, or are you having a good night, or something like that.

Wish i could get one of my flatmates to come with me but they're all working and anna is feeling ill too so the chances are slim, and maybe it'd be easier on my own anyway.

Politics and other things i know little about

Every now and then my flatmates and I end up having a conversation about politics. Lately this usually starts with Marc claiming he doesn't understand why we can't just blast the fuck out of Iraq and then "the whole thing will be over". All attempts to demonstrate why this is not a reasonable idea are pretty futile, he seems to agree and then says the exact same things 2 minutes later.

Last night we were watching the news about the American election and Anna suddenly said "yeah, come on Kerry!" and I asked her why she was a fan of Kerry. "Because I hate Bush." Further investigation revealed that Anna actually agress with Bush's policy on the war, but doesn't agree with him on other policies, "like the death penalty". This fell apart when we pointed out that Anna had been in favour of killing Sadam Hussain. Turns out anna doesn't really know what any of George Bush's (or Kerry's) policies are, yet she feels confident in her opinion that Bush is "an idiot", and Kerry has to be better.

I'm not saying that I know any more about American politics (or british politics for that matter) but it was pretty amusing nonetheless.