Sideshow – street photography book by Chris Harrison

Sideshow is an ongoing street photography project that I started in October 2016. It’s essentially me, going out into my home city of Brighton, without any expectation of what I might find. Although it didn't start this way, over time it’s become clear to me that it’s an ongoing and unfolding exercise in testing the limits of my curiosity and receptivity. It’s also a kind of deep dive into repetition, too. I mostly walk the same circuit over and over again. 

The project was born out of a growing need to do something creative for myself and on my own terms. I’d been working as a graphic design and brand consultant for around 25 years (I still do), and while that’s been great for the most part, the ups and downs of commercial creativity and running my own agency were starting to grind me down a bit. To a certain extent I felt that my creative tank was running on fumes and I needed to step back, recharge and take a leap into something fun and open-ended. Something capricious, a kind of folly.

I like the idea of the street as a set of ingredients in flux, where the challenge is to make something interesting out of it. That’s really appealing. The fact that you work with whatever you find, and attempt to make something out of nothing is really thrilling. I didn’t originally see Brighton as ‘the subject’ as it were, there was more of a motivation to find interesting shots that happen to be taken in Brighton. But as the project’s unfolded, I’m beginning to see that it speaks of Brighton, just maybe not in the way you’d expect. 

A good friend who’s seen this project grow and take shape has commented that once you’ve seen some of these images “you’ll never see Brighton the same way again”. I really like that, because that’s essentially what I’m hoping to achieve for myself. I want to see Brighton in a new way, a way that’ll help me to never see it the same way again. That's the thing that I (mostly imperfectly) try and aim for every time I go out with my camera.

There’s another aspect to Sideshow that comes through quite strongly, and that’s ‘low season’. The part of the year that Brighton takes on a slightly melancholy feel, the way that many bustling seaside towns can feel during the colder winter months. I really like the low season, it can throw up some really interesting encounters with the light, the spaciousness and the more muted colours. The shots that are taken in the winter months definitely have a different tone to them – they’ve got a bit more pathos and I find that a really interesting tone to play with.

 I like the thought that we might see the world as if emerging from an enchanted dream. That is very beautiful. And I think it’s a good way of describing what I’m looking for. Something magical and a bit mysterious. I like the idea of ‘not knowing’, and leaving space for the imagination and seeing what happens. I like obfuscation, confusion and illusion. 

People sometimes stop and ask me why I’m photographing something very mundane, and it’s hard to answer. Sometimes I don’t know myself! I’m curious about how ordinary things can sometimes appear magical and alive. Everything has a life of its own if you look closely enough.